Italian terraced vineyards: a geographical overview

Viticulture, together with olive cultivation, represents the main productive use of Italian terracing. By means of photo-cartographic analyses, this article reconstructs a localized and size-related picture of the country's principal terraced viticulture systems. It analyses their historical processes from the beginning and the correlated causes of abandonment which have affected them, with significant consequences for the hydro-geological assets of the slopes concerned. Finally, it highlights the limits and necessities of the political-territorial actions developed around these realities.