Ancient Walks and Historical Itineraries of Sicily

The "Ancient Paths and Historical Itineraries of Sicily" project is a non-profit, it is proposed solely as a cultural and scientific project open to the community and has a twofold objective:

• Identify and catalog the ancient paths and historical itineraries of Sicily so that they can be of support for those who want to identify hiking, experiential and eco-museum itineraries and routes as faithful as possible to the ancient paths
• Creation of the Charter of Hiking, Experiential and Ecomuseum Itineraries, associated with the Historical Routes (Multimedia Map of the "CMIE" Experiential Itineraries)

The project is based on the following four pillars:

• REFERENCES: In-depth studies using various bibliographic sources (including the works of Tommaso Fazello, Biagio Pace, Michele Amari, Adolfo Holm, Giovanni Uggeri and many others)
• Maps: analysis of ancient cartography (about 20 ancient maps have been made available online to the community)
• Archeology: analysis of the archaeological sites of Sicily (the first Multimedia Archaeological Map of Sicily (CAMS) containing over 3.500 archaeological sites was created).
• Sharing and Transparency: The results of the study are published online and made available in real time to the scientific community and the general public, including information on the sources (bibliography and cartography), on the scientific methodology used and on the ways in which the single sections of the various paths identified are identified.

At the moment (July 2023), routes (basic routes) have been published for over 3.500 km of paths including the main Greek and Roman roads and the transversal ones mentioned by Biagio Pace. These streets, as Biagio Pace himself recalls, citing Paolo Orsi, must be traced back, in many points, to more ancient times, dating back to the Siculi, Sicani, Elimi and other prehistoric populations. The project is carried out by Ignazio Caloggero and sees as promoters the Helios Study Center and AIPTOC - Italian Association of Tourism Professionals and Cultural Operators. From this page it will be possible to access the progress of the project and the in-depth articles related to it which will be gradually published. (refer to the page "Details and methodological notes" for further information)

It is clarified, as indicated on the page "Details and methodological notes"  that phases A and B can be considered as "Propaedeutic studies for a reconstruction on an interactive map of the ancient paths of Sicily" and that phase C must also be considered dynamic and subject to continuous improvements, thanks to the contributions of the scientific community. 

It is also clarified, where necessary, that the Paths identified and published online (in the various phases of incremental refinement: A, B and C) are NOT the Paths as indicated in Law 7 of 13/04/2022 of the Sicily Region but only a support tool for those who, in any case, wish to create Paths that meet the requirements of Law 7/2022 of the Sicily region, reducing the possible risks of creating fake historical ones. 

The Project live

Special Training
By the Helios Study Center