Slow Food Extremadura: Tripinyourshoes Visits Spain

From Slow Food International Site : “In the west of Spain lies the region of Extremadura, marking a large part of the country’s border with Portugal. Extremadura has been an important center for centuries, and has been washed over by the many cultures to have spread across the Iberian peninsula. Our friends at Tripinyourshoes ventured across to the western ends of Spain to visit the Slow Food Convivium there, and soak in some of the special sights, smells, and flavors of the region.

Tripinyourshoes, is a non-profit organization aimed at promoting and developing tourism that is sustainable and authentic. Aimed prinicipally at young people, the organization is working to develop itineraries for travel and eating, bearing in mind the value of tourism in sustaining and supporting communities, while maintaining the utmost respect for their authenticity, the environment in which they are, and the people involved. It all grew from a blog, started in in 2014 by friends Pietro Ienca and Luigi Chiurchi, after the formative and eye-opening completion of both the Camino de Santiago and the Grand Italian Trail. 

From here was born the concept of promoting on-foot travel as a unique form of tourism, which not only provides a special and fulfilling experience in and of itself, limits and reduces the environmental impact of tourism, all the while supporting the local industry and safeguarding the region’s traditions and heritage. The group are determined to expand within their limits, keeping the balance that allows a fruitful and dynamic local tourism industry, without diluting its cultural or natural beauty, or overloading it.

The Extremadura expedition was a collaboration between Slow Food and Tripinyourshoes. It began as something of an experiment to introduce the local convivium to a range of tools for promoting and protecting their territory, and encouraging them to adopt new ways of communicating. Tripinyourshoes created a multimedia project, producing videos and photos, and introducing the local convivium to innovative methods of sharing the stories of their region, putting on show the biodiversity and the importance of the gastronomic heritage of its Dehesa ecosystem. On their journey, they covered 60kms of the Sierra de Gata, meeting and spending time with small-scale producers along the way. Aside their beautiful images and video, the guys put together a gastronomic itinerary from their trip, which will be release soon!”