Travelling in the Douro valley by the pen of writers itineraries Alves Redol

Abstract

This paper focuses the landscape literary representation, an important asset in tourism development. Two literary itineraries are supported by excerpts from two outstanding 20^thCentury novels (Porto Manso, 1946 and Horizonte Cerrado, 1949) written by Alves Redol, a remarkable neorealist Portuguese writer. They describe landscapes of the Douro Valley, the harshness of the natural conditions and the difficult circumstances of life, in the beginning of the last century. The reader/tourist can understand the social, economical and spatial organization of the Douro Valley in that time and compare it with the present. In particularly, are stressed the difficulties of the owners of the boats (rabelos) used in the transport of the wine from the Douro Valley to the exporting cities Oporto/Vila Nova de Gaia; the difficulties of the small farmers to keep their proprieties and the heroic effort implicated in the terraces construction, whose result is a unique wine and a unique landscape, with high environmental and aesthetical quality, recognized as Cultural Word Heritage (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1046).

Wine, Gastronomy and Cultural tourism are strategic products of Portugal and recent studies by the author show the need of implementing more focused tourism proposals and creating innovative convergences of interests and actions for Douro Valley development (Lavrador, 2011). The literary itineraries proposed intend to enhance cultural tourismpromotion of that remarkable wine region. The construction of a touristic itinerary always implies a landscape diagnosis across many dimensions to create a tailor-made product as follows: a) time – the structure of the itinerary should be flexible; b) target – a differentiated and organized trip; c) specific requirements – motivations of individuals or specific routes.In these particular itineraries excerpts were collected and sorted in a GIS database, as part of the project LITSCAPE.PT, Atlas of the Literary Landscapes of Continental Portugal (http://paisagensliterarias.ielt.org/). As a result of this project, a Literary Guide to Portuguese Winegrowing Regions will soon be available on-line.