Riva’s Tourism Roots: Cultural Evolution and Infrastructure Development
The volume titled “The Industry of the Foreigner” was created on a request from the Unione, written by Mauro Grazioli, and printed by Grafica 5 on “Il percorso del turismo a Riva”. During its preview presentation (scheduled for Saturday, September 16th, at 5 p.m. in the Civic Museum room), the author explained primarily the reason behind the title: what the industrial revolution was for other urban areas, tourism has been for Riva.
And a particular form of tourism, different from the one in Arco, to which Grazioli has also devoted research and studies since the discovery and development of the Kurort and the Arco Felix. Arco attracted aristocratic clientele and had a mainly winter season; tourist infrastructures developed mainly outside the city, which remained largely unaffected by the phenomenon.
The development of tourism in Riva
In Riva, tourism evolved as a bourgeois development stemming from the longstanding commercial activity around the port, a hub for the transit of goods and people, connecting very different and often opposing civilizations. Tourism within the city, or an economic (or revolutionary) action, in which local entrepreneurs—sometimes as protagonists, sometimes as supporters—played significant roles.
It is strange, and in some ways significant, that the problems remain the same, primarily road connectivity. The need to break free from isolation began to be felt, Grazioli recounts, at the beginning of the 19th century, shortly after Napoleon’s campaigns concluded.
Back then, Riva’s inhabitants, more economically advanced than other lakeside centers, looked primarily towards Rendena and the Giudicarie, sharing various interests with them. The Marocche road, leading to Trento, was built under compulsion and accepted without much enthusiasm. The Gardesane route, a natural outlet of the area, was severely opposed by Austria for political-strategic reasons.
Thus, the Ponale Road was justified as an alternative opening towards the Chiese Valley, deemed more controllable. One of Riva’s earliest demands following Italy’s annexation was the construction of a railway along the Orientale line to Peschiera.
The Mori-Riva-Arco railway was conceived as the first segment of a system destined to extend to Pinzolo. Why this book? Because, as Bassetti explains, it helps us understand that tourism has deep roots in the Busa and is among the essential elements of the area’s culture and identity.
It’s not only about palaces, shops, and hotels: the past resurfaces everywhere, even in speech patterns or character traits.