Development of the urban-rural network in the metropolitan area of the Strait of Messina through the recovery of the historical and cultural obsolete heritage.

Reggio Calabria and Messina have always shared history, culture and traditions. Nevertheless, they currently are two cities "in a conflict", that do not communicate with each other. Therefore, the aim of this research is to implement an integration plan between the two municipalities; to promote their social and touristic development through the expansion of communication network between town and country, and by the restoration of the many unused buildings. The basic idea starts from the assumptions of the economic growth that these towns could achieve if they put together their own infrastructure, institutions and the entire landscape and cultural heritage. Community will be involved in this process by encouraging the private sector to renovate historical and valuable properties in order to put them back in the new cultural and touristic system. In this way, both public and private sectors would develop mutual benefits from this collaboration. The main objectives of the project are: the recognition and mapping of historical buildings, the establishment of a digital archive for their classification, the preparation of management, redevelopment, protection and reuse plans, the study of access strategies to EU and national funds to engage the community and encourage citizens to restore historical properties, the promotion of an integrated tourisminformation- communication networks approach, sustainability and social utility and the increase of the attractiveness of the area.