Va' Sentiero

The world's craziest expedition on the world's longest trail in the world's most beautiful country.

The Sentiero Italia, maintained by the Italian Alpine Club, runs some 8000 km across mountain ridges from Friuli Venezia Giulia to Sardinia. There is no mountain trekking in the world so long and boasting such scenic and cultural diversity.

To promote it, the Va' Sentiero (VS) team devised an expedition with an innovative format, based on documenting the route and territories, and sharing the experience, both digital (storytelling) and analogue, i.e. inviting the public to join the expedition. To support the project, the VS team carried out a very successful fundraising campaign, managing to involve foundations, private companies and the general public through crowdfunding.

The journey lasted three years, from 2019 to 2021 (with two breaks and a pandemic in between) and was reported day by day on social media and by media partners (Touring Club Italiano, Repubblica, Gazzetta dello Sport, Radio Francigena). Thousands of people, especially young people, from sixteen different countries took part in the adventure.

At the end, the VS team produced a free guide available on the site vasentiero.org, which is also available in English. Sara Furlanetto and Yuri Basilicò published the book Va' Sentiero. In cammino per le Terre Alte d'Italia (Rizzoli) and the travelling photographic exhibition Uno sguardo lungo 8000 km, which debuted at the Milan Triennale in March 2023. Because of its achievements, Va' Sentiero won the Grand Prix at the Europa Nostra. European Heritage Awards 2022, funded by the European Commission.

In the words of the Va' Sentiero team: ’The recognition of the Fondazione Italia Patria della Bellezza represents the crowning achievement of a long journey, not only physical, started in 2019 to bear witness to a part of Italy that often has little voice: that of the Highlands. With our film, we want to recount this incredible journey of ours, with the hope of inspiring many other people to set out - in a literal and metaphorical sense, to seek beauty up there, to touch that vastness and become aware of it'.