When it comes to culture, a recurring question often sparks debate: how do we truly engage people? Libraries, museums, and cultural institutions work tirelessly every day to promote a massive heritage. However, capturing the attention of audiences increasingly used to fast-paced, interactive digital content represents a concrete challenge.
This very reflection inspired the experience held on Saturday, June 6th, in the historic center of Siena. Streets, squares, and monuments were transformed into the stages of a massive literary treasure hunt, an initiative capable of blending gaming, discovery, and local heritage promotion into a single journey.
On the trail of writers, poets, and stories
The event was organized as part of the CLIC project (Crescere Liberamente, Imparare Consapevolmente – Growing Freely, Learning Mindfully), promoted by the Rete Documentaria Senese and coordinated by the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati.
The goal was to guide participants through Siena from an unusual perspective: through the eyes of the authors who lived in the city, were born here, or drew inspiration from it for their masterpieces.
Rather than a traditional guided tour, it was a first-person interactive cultural experience where each stop required curiosity, keen observation, and a pinch of intuition. Making the route even more engaging were the riddles crafted by journalist and writer Luigi Oliveto.
Each clue was written in poetic form, using hendecasyllables with alternating rhymes, turning the search for the next location into a mini narrative journey through the city.
The result was surprising: participants didn’t just visit places; they began to look at them with deeper attention, letting themselves be guided by the stories and hidden meanings behind every corner.
Discovering heritage through gamification with Map‘N Town
Powering this experience was Map ‘N Town, our proprietary cultural gamification platform. It is designed to transform locations, events, and cultural routes into interactive journeys, simplifying user access while letting the content take center stage.
In this approach, technology works seamlessly in the background. It guides the itinerary, facilitates interaction, and collects useful data for organizers, but without ever overshadowing what truly matters: human engagement.
Are you seeking Information or an experience?
The literary treasure hunt in Siena reminded us of something often overlooked in cultural communication: people are constantly searching for experiences that allow them to gather information in a deeply personal way.
When this happens, culture stops being something to observe from a distance and becomes something to interpret and share.
Through play, participants discovered authors, locations, and stories in the streets of Siena that they might have already known, but now had the chance to see from a completely fresh perspective.
And that is perhaps where the greatest value of gamification in tourism and culture lies: in its ability to transform discovery into participation, and participation into a memory destined to last over time.
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