The itinerant exhibition traced a journey through art, history and faith, as reflected in the robes of the brotherhoods, and was shown in Lucca, Pisa and Lugano between May and September 2025. A digital version of the exhibition is now available on Google Arts & Culture, showing some pictures of the in-site event, telling the thousand-year history of the brotherhoods, and giving a voice to today’s key figures.
In addition, an AI-powered virtual guide with human-like features has been developed, trained to answer questions about the phenomenon of the brotherhoods. The AI brother was available in the exhibition displayed in Lugano and is now freely accessible on: https://habitusfidei.art/parla-con-il-confratello-ai/. Try it an enjoy! | |
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| Happy Easter and the Holy Week Processions After a two-year hiatus due to bad weather, the historical re-enactment of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2019, took place in Mendrisio on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Happy Easter time from the USI UNESCO chair team! |
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| Master in International Tourism Applications are now open for the Master in International Tourism 2026–2027. Offered by USI, this full-time, two-year program provides advanced training for global tourism careers. An optional double degree in Food Industry Management is available with UNISG, Italy. |
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| Winter School 2026 The School explored tangible and intangible heritage across the historic cities of Thessaloniki and Kastoria in Greece. An incredibly enriching experience for 22 participants from 10 countries! Look at the photo album and video on Flickr. |
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| University Network for Cultural Routes Conference Co-organized and hosted by the European Institute of Cultural Routes and the USI UNESCO Chair, the conference will take place in Lugano on November 12-13, 2026. The deadline for sending abstracts is April 19th. Look at the Call for Papers and participate! |
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| SECreTour Project's Workshop The Report of the Macro-regional and cross-border Workshop has been published; the workshop was hosted by USI in Lugano, in October 2025. |
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| A lecture on the origins of cacao On March 18th, USI UNESCO Chair hosted a lecture by dr. Quirino Olivera, one of the main Peruvian archaeologists researching on the origins of the Andean civilization. He spoke about the millennia-old history of cocoa from Montegrande, which is a bridge between continents, eras and perspectives. |
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| Fashion and Cultural Tourism On 24th October 2025, USI UNESCO Chair organized a hybrid workshop in collaboration with UN Tourism on “Fashion and Cultural Tourism. Connecting Creators, Businesses, and Destinations”. All the materials of the event and the report are now available online. |
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| | Paleo Amazonia Gavazzi, A. (Ed.). (2025). Paleo Amazonia. Archaeology and History of Biocultural Heritage. Vol. 1. Apus Graph Ediciones. Languages: English and Spanish. |
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| | Communicating Sacred Meanings Through Perfumes Lattao, P., and Cantoni, L. (2025). Communicating Sacred Meanings Through Perfumes: From the Bible to Current Times. In: von Wachenfeldt, P., Cantoni, L., Sabatini, N., Sádaba, T. (eds) Fashion Communication in the Digital Age. FACTUM 2025. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. |
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| | The Perception of ‘The Other’ In Tourism Hasenzahl, L., Cantoni, L., and Lee, Y. (2026). The Perception of ‘The Other’ In Tourism – A Case Study on Residents of Switzerland and Their Views of Chinese Tourists. Journal of China Tourism Research, 1–22. |
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| | Mapping the “Smart Destination” Concept Garbani-Nerini, E., Reinhold, H. J., and Cantoni, L. (2025). Mapping the “Smart Destination” Concept: Uncovering Practitioners’ Perspectives in a Cross-National Setting. Journal of Smart Tourism. |
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| | Preserving and Communicating a Sudanese Heritage Site Ahmed, A., Soghayaroun, I., Phan, S., Tardini, S., and Cantoni, L. (2025). Preserving and Communicating a Sudanese Heritage Site Through a Digital Exhibition. In: Ioannides, M., Issini, G., Oliveira, D. (eds) 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage IV. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13577. Springer, Cham. |
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| | From Heritage to Gameplay Bilotti, U., De Ascaniis, S., Tardini, S., Todino, M. D., Campitiello, L., Di Tore, S., and Sibilio, M. (2025). From Heritage to Gameplay: Developing an Educational 3D Experience for Museum Learning at the Monastery of St. John in Müstair. Journal of Inclusive Methodology and Technology in Learning and Teaching, 5(3). |
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| | Destinos inteligentes en diferentes países Garbani Nerini, E., Oliveira, R., Marchiori, E., and Cantoni, L. (2025). Destinos inteligentes en diferentes países. Comparación entre los agentes turísticos de Suiza, Liechtenstein, Italia y Brasil. In Localización: Forjando los destinos turísticos del mañana: conexiones críticas de los elementos sociales y técnicos en el desarrollo inteligente. Avances y reflexiones desde el Congreso Mundial sobre Destinos Inteligentes 2022 / coord. por Carlos Romero Dexeus, Aurkene Alzua Sorzabal, David Giner Sánchez, 353-362. |
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