The Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco – Life Beyond Tourism and ICCROM – International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property are continuing their collaboration under the three-year Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2025, strengthening a relationship that began in 2010 and has developed over the years through initiatives dedicated to the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage, capacity building, and international cooperation.

The agreement, signed by the Foundation’s President Carlotta Del Bianco and ICCROM Director-General Aruna Francesca Maria Gujral, renews a collaboration originally established with former ICCROM Director-General Mounir Bouchenaki, now Honorary President of the Foundation.

The partnership brings together the expertise and networks of the two organizations around a shared objective: recognizing cultural heritage as a living resource for communities, capable of contributing to mutual understanding, intercultural dialogue, sustainable development, and peacebuilding.

A Partnership Addressing Contemporary Challenges

ICCROM is an intergovernmental organization based in Rome that currently brings together 139 Member States and works internationally for the conservation of cultural heritage in all its forms.

Its collaboration with the Foundation reflects a vision in which heritage conservation extends beyond the physical protection of cultural assets: heritage, communities, capacity building, and cooperation are closely interconnected in addressing contemporary social, cultural, and environmental challenges.

This vision is also reflected in the ICCROM Strategic Plan 2026–2031, which recognizes heritage as a dynamic and transformative force capable of strengthening communities, contributing to sustainability, and fostering well-being.

Areas of Collaboration

The Memorandum of Understanding identifies several areas for the development of joint activities and projects.

• Training and capacity building
  The collaboration includes the development of training initiatives and the exchange of expertise and experts, with particular attention to strengthening the capacities of communities and heritage professionals.
• Africa and the Middle East
  Particular attention is given to the possibility of developing initiatives in Africa and the Middle East, integrating heritage conservation and enhancement with the involvement of local communities, capacity building, and sustainable development.
• Dialogue and Social Cohesion through Heritage
  The collaboration promotes initiatives that enhance cultural heritage as a means of fostering encounter, mutual understanding, dialogue, and social cohesion, in line with the Foundation’s commitment to the Culture of Dialogue.
• Exchange of expertise and international cooperation
  The two organizations can involve experts and professionals from each other’s networks in their respective activities, encouraging the exchange of knowledge and creating new opportunities for international collaboration.
• Palazzo Coppini as a meeting place
  The Foundation also makes Palazzo Coppini, its headquarters in Florence, available as a venue for meetings, workshops, training activities, and events related to the areas covered by the collaboration.

A Partnership Built Over Time

The collaboration between ICCROM and the Foundation has also developed over the years through the organization’s participation in initiatives promoted by the Foundation in Florence. Among these, The World in Florence provided an important opportunity for international exchange, involving ICCROM in activities focused on heritage, young people, resilience, climate action, and peacebuilding.

The Memorandum signed in 2025 has ensured continuity for this journey, creating the conditions for developing new joint activities and new forms of cooperation.

From Heritage to Peacebuilding

The collaboration with ICCROM is part of the broader commitment of the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco – Life Beyond Tourism to promoting cultural heritage as a means of building relationships between people, cultures, and territories.

Capacity building, international cooperation, and community engagement thus become ways of transforming knowledge and the enhancement of heritage into concrete opportunities for dialogue, sustainable development, and peacebuilding.