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Rural buildings play a central role on the environmental characteristics of the extra-urban land. They accompanied in the centuries the development of agricultural activities by humans, who was so able to breed cattle, to grow and yield crops, and to store, transform and process agricultural products in a functional and efficient way, working into intensive conditions, so being unaffected by the external climate. On the other hand, constructions built by the farmer-man marked the territory, influencing and steering the spontaneous development of nature, while leading to production that enabled humanity to get food. Vernacular farm buildings, often used as seasonal settlements, are in some cases organised in areas of mountain pasture for summer cattle grazing. Even if in most case they were abandoned during recent years - since people living there moved to more comfortable residences within urban settlements - their contemporary potential for preserving traditional cattle-raising procedures and dairy products, rich cultural-historical heritage and perspectives of organised tourism activities, appears a very intriguing task to be approached. Rural tourism - including agro-, eco- and cultural tourism - offers indeed new opportunities for enjoying the extra-urban land in close contact with naturally untouched landscapes. It enables to appreciate some traditional aspects that the new industrialised modern society may have forgotten. The opportunities offered by rural tourism could help in the development of environmentally friendly tourism, which is growing three times faster than those choosing mainstream trips. With the aim to valorise the vernacular rural buildings in some mountain areas of the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region, in the present paper a first approach was proposed, through the implementation of a geographical information system aimed to survey the current situation into two different mountain areas within this macro-region, located in Southern Italy and Montenegro. This first step could pave the way for future possible planning the restoration of these buildings, within the general framework of a concerted approach aimed to their safeguard and the general sustainability of their landscape inclusion, fighting the progressive abandonment of rural land. The exploitation of their unexpressed potential in the sector of tourism usage, together with cultural and historical heritage, rich tradition and old infrastructure, would therefore reveal an interesting profitable way for their valorisation.

The recent growing research of new ways for widening sustainable tourism opportunities leaded, in many European countries, to the valorisation of some farmyards, together with the working activities usually conducted there. Rural tourism offers new ways for enjoying the agricultural land in close contact with naturally untouched landscapes, often coupled with the unique opportunity to personally look at the preparation of traditional genuine food products, with the possibility to taste and buy them. In this way, rural tourism enables to appreciate some traditional aspects that the new industrialized modern society may have forgotten. For a sound valorization of rural tourism, a suitable restoration and functional requalification of the farm building plays a central role. With the aim to plan a common approach about new innovative ways for valorising rural tourism, mainly in mountain areas, in the present paper a first analysis focused on the possibilities of exploiting agricultural activities and restoring vernacular farm buildings for rural tourism was conducted, with reference to some areas located into different countries of the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-region. Some vernacular farm buildings, synthesizing in their architectural expression the culture, traditions and ways of life of different generations of rural population, were identified and analyzed in their typology, with the aim to detect and compare their architectural aspects. The results of this survey enable the drafting of an innovative common protocol for planning suitable technical and economical interventions aimed to the revitalization of mountain rural areas, through the organization of a network focused on the valorization of common agricultural activities and production of local traditional foods, together with the exploitation of rural tourism activities, geared by the restoration of vernacular farm buildings according with specific common specs, able to recover them in such a way to balance at the same time their traditional vocation and the environmental sustainability of the landscape they are incorporated into.