What we are witnessing in Italy is an anomalous process of desertification, with 2022 as the driest year ever recorded. Sicily is already at risk of desertification for 70 percent of its territory, Puglia for 57 percent, Molise for 58 percent, and Basilicata for 55 percent. Among the main causes are water leakage and one of the highest domestic water consumption in the world: 6,300 liters daily per capita in Italy.
We have created the first Travel Guide to the Italian Deserts to bring out areas undergoing desertification: real places, closer than we think, now impossible to miss. Places that everyone can visit, but also help bring back to a more thriving condition, avoiding daily water wastage.
Over the course of 2022, we crossed Italy from north to south with Gabriele Galimberti, official National Geographic photographer. Photographs, testimonies and collected itineraries make up the Tourist Guide to the Deserts of Italy to invite you to discover the iconic Italian landscapes that are irreversibly changing. Among the pages, also tips and useful information for reducing daily water wastage. Because if not, Italy's desertified areas will become more and more extensive and this guide thicker and thicker.