Direct sales became in recent years a diversification strategy increasingly used by farms to answer the CAP reform, as well as to react to the continuous price squeeze. Direct sales is in fact a form of marketing that allow farmers to retain a higher share of the final value of products. Far from being a way back to tradition, short chains and direct sales can be seen as strategies to capture new segments of demand interested in local and fresh food, and in more direct contact between consumers and suppliers. The aim of this work is to study the recent evolution of direct selling in Italy and the determinants of the adoption of this marketing strategy. The first part of the paper analyses the evolution of Italian short supply chains and the development of the related institutional framework (national laws and financial incentives). In the second part of the paper the analysis is focused on the determinants of the adoption of direct selling. Specific attention will be devoted to empirically test if the probability of using of this marketing channel is influenced by the farm location in proximity to urban areas.