Cycling is an integral part of the Italian cultural heritage and has marked fundamental stages of the history and sense of community that today makes us one nationThe mission of the Widespread Digital Museum of Cycling part right from here. With the will to safeguard the narrative and intangible heritage of two-wheelers. At the same time promote the territory and the “micro zones” of Italy (for the tourism of tomorrow) using the narration of the history of cycling (yesterday's heritage).
Paths and stories that represent rooms in which to walk, first scrolling on the screen of your smartphone, then going there and savoring its sensations and traditions. The Widespread Digital Museum of Cycling is an app where you can immerse yourself in history, through archives Videos, photos, altimetry, and floor plans that capture the essence of the territory that hosts them.
Launched in late 2020 by ExtraGiro in joint venture with Len Soc. Coop. Onlus, today it is brought back to the centre of development strategies with the aim of putting it at availability of territories with a cycling tourism vocation, to have a common narrative tool. In fact, for 2022 the inclusion in the database is planned. 15 new segments and direct connection with the Bike Tour Operators distributed throughout Italy.
The narrative of cycling
To delve deeper into this very original project we relied on Marco Pavarini, general director of ExtraGiro who accompanied us to discover the Museum from its creation to the present.
"The Museo was born a couple of years ago with the aim of having two levels of narration around cycling. One for the cycling, telling the story of its territories, starting from what important things happened in that particular place.
«On the other side, going to to recover what narrative heritage made by people who have lived the epic of cycling in previous years up to recovering historical archives of photos, videos and interviews. It therefore consists of going into the territory to interview those people who are still among us. and they can tell us how epic cycling was in those years and how it spoke to Italy.
«That was the idea, recover a narrative heritage that was scattered in personal archives, without a real homeWe started two years ago during the Covid era. This year we relaunched and renewed it."
For the territory
Through storytelling The aim of the Museum is to create assistance for the territory which in turn must translate into hospitality and promotion of itself..
"Tourist cycling," Pavarini explains, "is an asset that Italy is banking on for the future. We want to take it and relaunch it to include other segments, therefore rooms, and recover other materials to increasingly link the Museum to the individual territoriesA trade union between the individual rooms (a room in the museum is a path, ed.).
«From the research we have done, to date each territory promotes itself. This creates an unequal battle with the large operators. This project aims to be a kind of common home to bring together multiple territories and not be so chauvinistic about itself. The more micro, the more isolated the battle. We believe, however, that the more territories meet, the more the history of great cycling unites. This is the soul of the Diffused Digital Cycling Museum.
The relaunch of the project
Born at the end of 2020, this project has gained increasing success among professionals and cycling enthusiasts. ExtraGiro has decided to relaunch it to give even more value and space to the healthy values that this sport can offer to those who practice it. «In the next six months – says Pavarini – the objective is to go to the territories interview and get to know the protagonists of the past but also of the present.
«The idea is liked. Some cities hosting stage arrivals of the Tour of Italy, they called us because they wanted to do exhibitions with our historical content. So we we are their source of supply for territorial issues. We're becoming a narrative extension of cycling, including other events. The public is slowly coming.
«Another of our goals is Connecting users with the local area. Local tourism agencies and their facilities' offerings then seize the opportunity to host and promote themselves.. What we are building is this relationship."
Not for profit
Il The Widespread Digital Cycling Museum is a non-profit project.: the resources collected and invested are in fact intended to help disadvantaged workers from the cycling world.
«It's a sort of legacy – explains Pavarini – of the narrative power of cycling, which is why we are non-profit. If we manage to build and collect resources, we will invest them to bring people with disabilities into this project that help us with editorial development.
«Len Service is our partner, and owns some digital assets and technologies that we will implement in the future. One of these is augmented reality, which allows you to have an immersive experience from the comfort of your own sofa. We immediately found a common mission, which is the essence of the project."
