To acknowledge, trace, and place cultural assets is a powerful instrument to communities. Through cultural mapping, it is possible to create a narrative about a place’s identity, collecting significant intangible cultural information that is important to communities – social practices, traditions, stories, know-how, values, etc. - and that locate people in their places, in the world. Making the intangible visible, cultural mapping is a powerful governance mechanism, involving communities in a bottom-up process of actively determining the identity of a place and what makes a place, with its idiosyncrasies, so special. This article provides information on this methodology, which is both a process, focusing in particular on the importance of emotional and intangible mapping and the possible benefits of using cultural mapping towards the sustainable development of places: intangible cultural heritage, held and continued by the community (UNESCO, 2013), is a cultural resource that must be mobilized for the well-being of regions and their people.