Italy protects its cultural heritage with modern technology.

For decades, tourists have defaced the walls of cultural heritage sites with messages expressing eternal love, fleeting emotions, and silly remarks. It's easy to find phrases like, "I hate stairs," or "Cate, I want to marry you." To combat this destruction of cultural heritage, Florence authorities have begun using a new and quite effective tool – the digital solution.

“Do not write on the walls” – this message is inscribed on a Renaissance-era stone wall inside the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, located in Piazza San Giovanni, the religious center of Florence in central Italy. Piazza San Giovanni is famous for three ancient monuments: the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, the Giottos Campanile bell tower, and the Baptistery.

However, this request was clearly not respected by tourists. Most recently, on February 28, 2016, the tourist couple "Jackie and Denise" from the eastern US state of New Jersey 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. The couple decided to write their names in bold red pencil on the 18th-century bronze bell.

Tourists leave their messages on the tablets.

For years, Florence city officials tried to prevent tourists from around the world from using the ancient stone walls as "paperboard" to express their personal feelings, but ultimately without success. Florence city officials decided to choose a digital solution to address this long-standing problem.

Starting at the Giottos Campanile bell tower, after thoroughly cleaning all the walls along the steps leading up to the tower in early 2016, city officials placed three tablets in the area hoping visitors could use them to record their feelings without damaging the ancient heritage. The messages recorded by visitors will be stored permanently on a website. Meanwhile, any new markings on the walls will be immediately erased.

In addition, a sign advising tourists to leave their mark in both English and Italian is placed at the entrance to the bell tower. Alice Filipponi, social media strategist at Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore – the Institute for Monitoring the Duomo heritage complex in Florence – stated: “We need some kind of tool to deter graffiti. After all the walls are cleaned, we hope the digital application on tablets will help improve the situation. Our goal is to allow tourists to freely leave their mark without further soiling the walls.”

Beatrice Agostini (an architect at the Institute responsible for managing and maintaining the monument) and her team of nine spent three months cleaning the walls using solvent gels and lasers. Beatrice Agostini said: “We wanted to tell people that a mark is not only unsightly but also damages cultural heritage. The work of erasing the inscriptions on the walls is not simple. Because there are some marks that cannot be completely removed from the granite surface.”

During the first three days of testing the tablet application, Alice Filipponi and Beatrice Agostini recorded over 3,000 visitors leaving 304 digital messages on the devices, with no new marks appearing on the walls. With the “virtual footprint,” visitors can choose the background for their text – wood, marble, iron, or plaster – mimicking the structure of the monument.

Additionally, visitors can choose their writing instrument – ​​a lipstick or a spray paint can – as well as symbols. Visitors are also asked to leave their email address so that, once their message is accepted, they can see their written feelings appear on the website. In the coming years, visitors' messages will be printed and preserved on paper in the archives of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, established in 1296.

Franco Lucchesti, President of the Institute, explained: “We are still unsure whether such educational measures will be effective. However, the current situation shows that our website is overflowing with messages from tourists while the walls remain clean. Therefore, we can be confident that digital solutions have power.”

Giorgio Moretti, president of the Angels of Beauty group, which has been voluntarily cleaning Florence's city walls for many years, commented: "I hope the solution will work. Any initiative is important, and this is a very creative project."

The Giottos Campanile bell tower as seen from above.

In Italy today, vandalizing the walls of ancient cultural monuments is punishable by fines or even imprisonment, depending on the extent of the damage. In Florence, the battle to protect these monuments has been ongoing for decades, but has become extremely tense in recent years. Some foreign tourist groups are becoming aware of the damage they cause to the monuments. For example, Franco Lucchesi recalls that three years ago, the Japanese apologized after a group of Japanese students damaged a monument through vandalism.

Laura Bachmann, a German tourist visiting Florence with a friend, remarked: "Actually, the fact that the monument is so clean is beneficial. Because no one dares to be the first to dirty it." For experts, the cleanliness of the monument also serves as a deterrent to tourists.

However, Andrea Amato, president of Italy's National Anti-Graffiti Society, commented on the efforts of Florence city officials: "I worry that tablets won't be able to prevent repeat offenses by tourists. Surveillance cameras won't stop graffiti either. But psychologically, if we clean up the monuments, people will be less likely to deface them again."

According to World Security