Project

For an Accessible Via Francigena of the South for Everyone

The last stretch of the Via Francigena of the South, from Lecce to Santa Maria di Leuca, crosses one of the most picturesque landscapes of Puglia: rural villages, farmhouses, rock churches, hypogea, and menhirs that tell centuries of history and faith. It is a route that welcomes more and more pilgrims and walkers each year, but still presents concrete obstacles for those with motor, sensory, or cognitive disabilities, for autistic individuals, for the elderly, or for those with special dietary needs.

The project “For an Accessible Via Francigena of the South for Everyone,” promoted by the Municipality of Poggiardo together with the Municipalities of Cannole, Giuggianello, Giurdignano, Martano, Palmariggi, and Tricase, was created to overcome these obstacles and restore to the path its most authentic meaning: an experience truly open to anyone who wants to live it, safely and with dignity. The project is funded by the Ministry of Tourism as part of the Fund for Religious Paths.

An Idea of Accessibility that Concerns Everyone

Accessible tourism is not an offer reserved for some: it is a better offer for everyone. A bench in the shade serves both those walking in a wheelchair and the pilgrim who has walked twenty kilometers under the sun; clear signage helps those with cognitive disabilities as well as the foreign visitor on their first day in Salento.

For this reason, the project looks at a broader world of needs than just those represented by evident disabilities, and involves all the actors of the path: walkers and their families, guides, accommodation facilities, tourism operators, and the welcoming communities. Accessibility here is both a right and an opportunity for development for inland areas that are often less known than the coast, but rich in history, nature, and hospitality.

The reference is the global ethical code of tourism from the World Tourism Organization, which identifies accessibility as an essential characteristic of responsible, inclusive, and sustainable tourism.

Making the Path Walkable

The first line of intervention concerns the path itself. A digital mapping of the stretch from Lecce to Santa Maria di Leuca has been created, describing the terrain morphology, identifying the most critical points, and tracing deviations that make the path walkable even for those with difficulties.

Along the route, rest areas, benches, and plantings in public spaces are planned, as well as the placement of first aid kits in the most exposed points. These are complemented by solar-powered rest benches with charging ports, designed for those who use their smartphones as navigators along the way.

Making the Path Known

The second line of intervention concerns information, and this is where digital makes a difference.

The route and the main points of interest are equipped with signage featuring QR codes, placed at a height accessible to those in wheelchairs or handbikes, with essential information in Braille for blind and visually impaired individuals: where to find fountains, pharmacies, first aid stations, grocery stores, and accessible accommodation facilities.

Each location is narrated by an audio guide, designed so that those who cannot see can listen to the description of what is in front of them, and by a video in Italian Sign Language, created by an interpreter, so that deaf individuals receive the same story in their own language and not in an approximate translation.

This website is the point where everything converges: the sheets of the locations with texts, images, audio guides, and LIS videos; the stages with length, elevation gain, travel time, and degree of wheelchair accessibility; the facilities and services along the path, from pharmacies to fountains; and the interactive map that ties them together. Each sheet indicates the degree of accessibility assessed on-site, distinguished by type of disability, because a place fully accessible to someone in a wheelchair may not be accessible to someone who cannot see.

Where the assessment has not been made, the site declares it instead of estimating: unverified information on this topic does more harm than silence.

Seeing What Cannot Be Reached

Some places in Salento — hypogea, crypts, environments carved into the rock — cannot be made accessible without altering them. For these, the project uses virtual reality, with 360-degree photographic tours accessible from a smartphone and a low-cost headset, so that the physical impossibility of entering does not translate into the impossibility of knowing.

Augmented reality accompanies the paper map: by framing a point with the camera, the walker accesses content related to that location.

Reporting What Is Not Right

The site is not just a place to consult. Those walking the path can report an architectural barrier encountered along the way, indicating its location and attaching a photograph. Reports are verified, and once accepted, they appear on the map: those who will set out later will know before they start their journey.

This is the point where the project stops being a narrative and becomes a shared working tool between those who walk and those who manage the territory.

Educating and Communicating

Alongside material and digital interventions, the project promotes a forum on accessible religious paths and participates in tourism fairs, conferences, and local, national, and international workshops, to raise awareness among administrators, operators, and communities about the value of accessibility — not as a requirement, but as a choice that broadens the audience of a territory and improves the quality of hospitality for everyone.