GLAM/Newsletter/December 2025/Contents/Italy report
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Exploring Italy and Unlocking Its Heritage: Touring Club Italiano and GLAM Call 2026–2028
The Guide Rosse d’Italia on Wikimedia Commons
In 2025, the collaboration between Wikimedia Italia and the Touring Club Italiano reached a new and significant milestone, focusing on one of the most authoritative and recognisable editorial landmarks of the TCI: the Guide Rosse d’Italia (Red Guides of Italy).
Building on the work carried out in previous years on historical cartography, photographic archives, and visual materials related to Italian art, culture, and industry, this year’s project concentrated on the digitisation and open publication of the maps included in the Red Guides dedicated to Lombardy and Veneto, as well as in the standalone guides to Milan and Venice. The corpus includes area maps, city and neighbourhood maps, and detailed plans of monuments and architectural complexes, all made available on Wikimedia Commons under a free licence. see the Commons category
Maps and architectural plans from an authoritative source such as the Touring Club Italiano are particularly valuable within the Wikimedia ecosystem. Cartographic material available on Wikimedia projects is often, for copyright reasons, either very old and not always aligned with contemporary standards, or created directly by users, which, while extremely useful, is not always traceable to a historically and scientifically recognised source. The availability of carefully curated maps produced by the TCI therefore represents a qualitative step forward, strengthening the visual reliability of Wikipedia articles and supporting high standards of accuracy and verifiability.
The upload process was completed in October 2025, and early usage metrics clearly demonstrate the impact of the project. These materials are currently embedded in 759 pages across 38 different language editions, reaching over one million file views in November 2025.
Among the most viewed media are the map of Cortina d’Ampezzo and the plan of Milan Cathedral. The former has gained particular relevance in light of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games; the latter exemplifies how authoritative plans of iconic monuments can become stable reference points for the free encyclopaedia.
The 2025 project further confirms that collaboration between GLAM institutions and Wikimedia is not only about opening up collections, but also about making thoughtful editorial choices and ensuring that the materials shared can be effectively reused by global communities of contributors and readers. Work on the Red Guides will continue in the coming years, progressively expanding the availability of this extraordinary cartographic heritage and reinforcing its role as a shared resource for research, education, and public knowledge.
GLAM Call 2026–2028: A Triennial Opportunity to Share Italy’s Cultural Heritage
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Since 2021, Wikimedia Italia’s GLAM call has supported Italian cultural institutions in digitizing and sharing their collections online. Created in collaboration with ICOM Italy and Creative Commons Italy, the program encourages free reuse of public domain and open access content, promoting research, creativity, and public engagement.
Starting in 2026, the GLAM call enters a triennial phase, with applications open annually from January 14th to February 28th until 2028. Grants are open to all cultural institutions, such as, but not limited to, museums, archives, libraries, both public and private. (Here the call (in Italian))
Past projects illustrate the diversity and impact of GLAM initiatives: from digitizing cetacean skeletons at the Natural History Museum of Pisa, to making Sapienza University’s anatomical teaching plates publicly available, to publishing stage designs and costume sketches from the Teatro Regio in Turin. Smaller institutions, like the Museo Civico Alpino in Usseglio or the Centro Studi Baresi, have shared rare manuscripts, historical documents, and natural history collections previously difficult to access. These efforts allow scholars, enthusiasts, and the public to explore Italy’s cultural heritage freely and contribute to the global dissemination of knowledge.
Selected institutions also benefit from online training and expert mentoring, supporting them in publishing their content on Wikimedia platforms and OpenStreetMap. All materials are shared under free licenses, ensuring the creation of a reusable, openly accessible digital heritage.
Applying to the GLAM call is an opportunity not only to enhance institutional collections but also to actively contribute to Wikimedia Italia’s mission: making knowledge free, open, and accessible for all.
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