A journey with the ludic communities: walking, listening, discovering, playing, experiencing, touching and tasting.

A slow co-creation process, as a response to "hit-and-run" tourism. 

During 2024 and 2025, several co-creation workshops took place between Verona and Venice, with the participation of the working group—composed of ludic communities/practitioners, AGA cultural heritage and mediation experts, the tour operator WAYS, and the ISOIPSE association—with the contribution of AGA's communications and documentation team. 

Using the Heritage Canvas methodology/business model and taking into account its 5 elements (see Operational Framework), we developed a tourist itinerary project with each of three communities. Before organizing the Venice workshop in December 2025, we distributed a questionnaire to the communities to identify the strengths of each itinerary, as desired and "dreamed" by the community of players themselves. The idea is that tourists will be guided by the communities, or by mediators/guides identified and trained by the community and invited to gain direct experience in the community's concrete cultural spaces, contexts and activities. Each itinerary – developing a community-based storytelling - will tell a different landscape, language, ludic culture connected with other elements of the local contexts and ICH, as rituals, food heritage, crafts, social life, intercultural and intergenerational transmission… 

Some highlights of the pilot:  

• The direct involvement of the communities in designing the tourist itinerary, based on community-storytelling, desires, dreams;
• partnership with tour operators and other local associations to develop a tourism promotion package, with an emphasis on tourists as partners in a process of cultural safeguarding and transmission;
• participation/involvement in the co-creation process of local, regional, and national cultural institutions.
• co-designing and heritage-sensitive visual itinerary, to convey the social meaning of this heritage in its contexts, with the aim of interpreting and conveying its value to a wider audience.
• Benefit sharing: the business plan and community expense estimate. Agreements with tourism professionals for the launch of the tourist package on the canals 

Of the three itineraries planned for our pilot, the first to be realized will be the Venetian rowing tour. In the natural setting of the lagoon, the "boat ride" will feature the following highlights: 

• The welcome of the group of visitors/tourists in a historic space of the city of Venice, managed by Gloria Rogliani's association, Cavana Tintoretto.
• An explanation of the rowing tradition, with practical rowing practice and the oral transmission of memories, dreams, passions and values.
• A tour of Venice from the water, with stops at characteristic squeri, small shipyards, meetings with artisans, and anecdotes.
• The return to Cavana, where a typical Venetian aperitivo will be served, a cicchetto (a snack) of local food specialties. 

Dimensions of the storytelling: 

ENVIRONMENT. Landscape, natural environment, and spaces. Rowing and knowledge of the lagoons’ natural environment (such as flora, fauna, wave movement) 

TIME. Memories, stories, anecdotes, and legends of rowing—historical documents. Identification of historical figures and rowers who are our main sources. 

ROWING. Preparatory activities: description of the boat, oars, etc. Description of rowing practice: fundamental knowledge and gestures: rowing, rhythm, rower synergy 

CRAFTS: Involvement of local artisans and producers (e.g., boat-making facilities, workshops, and stores)  

SOCIALITY. The third half: moments of socializing and sharing (e.g., food, celebrations, rituals related to the rowing community) 

EVERYDAY LIFE AND CELEBRATION. Relationship between training (i.e., rowers only) and other public/festive events  

RISKS. Threats, conflicts with motorboats, mass tourism, climate change, etc 

NEEDS. The experience will help fund new boats. Let's talk about it! 

OUTLOOK. Ideas to develop to foster tourism sensitive to this heritage, including making rowing a tool for raising awareness of the natural environment, respecting ecosystems, and promoting sustainable tourism, as well as better understanding of the lagoon among the residents themselves (local tourism). 

Definition of the narrative structure, times, and stages of the visit, to be linked to the various themes.