In memoriam Armando Montanari (1946–2023)


203Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 72 (2023) (2) 193–199.

Armando Montanari, true to the substance of his 
profession, geography, was an integrative person. 
He had great merits in the internationalization of 
Italian geography, pulling down the wall that once 
separated Eastern and Western European science, in 
supporting Hungarian human geographers. His bow 
tie, a constant element of his attire, was in itself an 
expression of elegance, of the generosity and broadly 
interpreted Europeanism that was a defining part of 
his personality. Since he lived and worked in Vienna 
and Brussels for certain periods, he could commu-
nicate fluently in English, French and German, but 
he had an excellent understanding not only of the 
languages but also of the spirits. 

His life was as colourful as his personality. In ad-
dition to his academic career, he also worked as a 
consultant. He often appeared in the position of a 
researcher, professor, manager, science ambassador 
and project leader all at the same time. He performed 
all his jobs as if he was born to do them. He started 
his career in 1973 in the administration of the Latium 
Region, later he worked at the Ministry of Planning 
and Public Works, the Ministry of Education as a 
consultant in the field of urban and regional plan-
ning, tourism, and science dissemination. Professor 
Montanari committed himself to higher education 
in 1975, when he became lecturer on Economics 
of Urban Conservation at ICCROM (International 
Centre for Conservation, Rome). Between 1998 and 
2007 he worked as professor of Economic Geography 
of Tourism, Urban Economics, Tourism and Local 
Development, Tourism and Global Changes at 
University G. d’Annunzio, Pescara. In 2007 he became 
professor at Sapienza Rome University, Department 
of European American and Intercultural Studies. In 
2015 he became the president of the university pro-
gramme on Tourism Sciences.

Professor Montanari actively contributed to the 
work of several international organizations: 1978–1983 
he was scientific secretary at the International Council 
for Social Sciences, European Coordination Centre 
for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences, 
Vienna; 1993–1998 he was member of the Board of 
Directors and President at European Environmental 
Council, Brussels. Armando Montanari supported 
intensively the cross-border collaboration of European 
geographers, he was Secretary General (1998–2002) 
and Vice President (2002–2012) of the Association of 
European Geographical Societies (EUGEO).

Tourism and migration studies were in the focus of 
his academic interest, in both fields he achieved rec-
ognition. He had a particular interest in gastronomy 
and research into local products serving for regional 
development. Although he spent most of his time in 

In memoriam Armando Montanari (1946–2023)

Rome, his heart rooted not only in the Italian capital, 
but also in the Abruzzo region, especially Pescara. He 
coordinated a large number of international projects, 
and his list of publications is also impressive, never-
theless, his main merit can be linked to international 
academic relations. He founded the Commission 
of the International Geographical Union (IGU) on 
Global Change and Human Mobility (Globility) in 
2000, which he chaired from 2000 to 2012. He in-
volved and integrated 150 researchers from nearly 
50 countries in the Globility’s “family”, organising 
and implementing a series of international scientific 
conferences and related field trips all over the world. 

He made lifelong friendship with Hungarian hu-
man geographers before the change of regime, among 
them academician György Enyedi (1930–2012) and 
his research team while he was staying in Vienna 
(Austria). He maintained intensive work connection 
with the department of the late professor István Süli-
Zakar (1945–2017) from the University of Debrecen. 
Thanks to this cooperation, Hungarian PhD students 
and young researchers were provided an opportunity 
to integrate into the international community of ge-
ographers. This issue of the Hungarian Geographical 
Bulletin is dedicated to Armando Montanari. His 
memory will be preserved forever.

Gábor Michalkó 

Chronicle – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 72 (2023) (2) 201–203.


	Hungarian Geographical Bulletin Vol 72 Issue 2 203 (2023)
	Gábor Michalkó: In memoriam Armando Montanari (1946–2023)