Italy protects cultural heritage with modern technology

For decades, tourists have been defacing walls and other cultural heritage with expressions of eternal love, sudden emotions, and silly comments. It’s easy to read sentences like: “I hate stairs,” or “Cate, I want to marry you.” To combat the destruction of cultural heritage, Florence officials have started using a new and quite effective tool – a digital solution.

“No writing on the wall” – this message is read on the Renaissance stone wall inside the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral located in Piazza San Giovanni – the religious center of the central Italian city of Florence. Piazza San Giovanni is famous for three ancient monuments: Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, Giottos Campanile bell tower and Baptistery.

However, this request has clearly not been respected by tourists. Most recently, on February 28, 2016, a tourist couple named “Jackie + Denise” from the eastern state of New Jersey in the United States wanted to make sure the whole world knew they had visited the Giotte Campanile bell tower designed by Giotto di Bondone - one of the pioneering artists of the Renaissance period. The couple decided to write their names in dark red pencil on the 18th-century bronze bell.

Visitors leave their messages on tablets.

For years, Florence city officials have tried to stop tourists from all over the world from using the ancient stone walls as “paper” to express their personal feelings, but to no avail. Florence city officials decided to go digital to solve the problem that has been nagging for so many years.

Starting with the Giottos Campanile. After cleaning the walls along the steps leading up to the bell tower in early 2016, city officials placed three tablets in the area, hoping that visitors would use them to jot down their thoughts without damaging the ancient heritage. The messages visitors write will be stored forever on a website. Meanwhile, any new markings on the walls will be immediately erased.

In addition, a warning sign is placed at the entrance of the bell tower in both English and Italian. “We need some kind of deterrent against graffiti,” said Alice Filipponi, social media strategist for the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the institute that oversees Florence’s Duomo heritage complex. “Once all the walls are cleaned, we hope that the digital application on the tablet will help. Our goal is to give visitors the freedom to leave their mark without dirtying the walls.”

Beatrice Agostini (the architect of the Institute responsible for the management and maintenance of the monument) and her team of nine people spent three months cleaning the walls using a gel solvent and laser. Beatrice Agostini said: “We want to tell people that a trace is not only an eyesore but also a cultural relic. The task of removing the inscriptions on the wall is not easy. Because there are traces that cannot be removed on the marble surface.”

In the first three days of testing with the tablet app, Alice Filipponi and Beatrice Agostini recorded more than 3,000 visitors leaving 304 digital messages on the device, and no new traces appeared on the wall. With the “virtual traces,” visitors can choose the background for the text – be it wood or marble, iron or plaster – similar to the structure of the monument.

Visitors can also choose the medium they want to write with – lipstick or spray paint – as well as the symbols they want to use. They are also asked to leave their email address so that, once their message is accepted, they can see their written sentiments appear on the website. In the coming years, visitors’ messages will be printed and stored on paper in the archives of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, which were established in 1296.

“We still don’t know if such an educational approach will work,” explains Franco Lucchesti, President of the Institute. “But the current situation shows that our website is full of messages from visitors while the walls are still clean.” “So we can trust that the digital solution is powerful.”

“I hope it works,” said Giorgio Moretti, president of Angels of Beauty, a group that has been cleaning Florence’s city walls for years. “Every initiative is important and this is a very creative project.”

Giottos Campanile bell tower seen from above.

In Italy today, defacing ancient cultural monuments is punishable by fines or even prison sentences, depending on the severity of the damage. In Florence, the battle to protect monuments has been going on for decades, but has become increasingly intense in recent years. Some foreign tourist groups have become aware of their defacement. Franco Lucchesi, for example, recalls the Japanese apology three years ago after a group of Japanese schoolchildren damaged a monument through defacement.

“Actually, it helps that the monuments are so clean,” said Laura Bachmann, a German tourist who visited Florence with a friend. “Because no one dares to be the first to dirty it.” For experts, the cleanliness of the monuments also acts as a deterrent to tourists.

But Andrea Amato, president of Italy's National Anti-Graffiti Society, commented on the efforts of Florence city officials: "I'm worried that the tablets won't prevent repeat offenses. The surveillance cameras won't prevent graffiti either. But psychologically, if we clean the monument, people will be less likely to dirty it again."

According to World Security