Luigi De Marchi, architect, is the editor and publisher of Cultural Heritage Online. He founded the archive in 1998 as beniculturalionline.it and has published it without interruption since.
Contributions: 59 articles · 1,242 heritage places · 14 events · 27 itineraries · 3 road-books · 28 photographs
Published on beniculturalionline.it, the Italian archive of this publication, online since 1998. They are being brought into Cultural Heritage Online.
Twice in three years, formations of S.55 flying boats left the Orbetello lagoon to cross an ocean: Rio in 1931, Chicago and back in 1933. A memorial park in Tuscany and a contested Roman column on the Chicago lakefront still mark the route.
An ancient Roman column from Ostia on Chicago’s lakefront, sent by Mussolini’s government in 1934 to commemorate the 1933 formation flight.
The Tuscan lagoon base from which Balbo’s formations left for Rio in 1930 and Chicago in 1933.
Ten French heritage cities in one September loop — Paris to Bordeaux via Reims, Nancy, Strasbourg and Albi — timed for the Heritage Days of 19–20 September 2026, with mapped route and GPX.
Ten heritage cities in one September loop: Paris, Versailles and Rouen in the north; the coronation cathedral of Reims, royal
Every country opens its closed doors on a different September weekend. The confirmed European Heritage Days 2026 dates — England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Brussels and beyond — in one calendar.
Two stops across the European Arctic on the route both polar airships flew: the mooring mast at Vadsø, their last
Two Italian-built airships flew the same route to the top of the world: the Norge to the first verified attainment of the North Pole in 1926, the Italia to triumph and disaster in 1928. Two mooring masts on that route still stand.
The steel mast at 79° North from which the Norge left on 11 May 1926 for the first verified journey to the North Pole, and where the Italia based…
The red steel mast on Vadsøya island where Nobile’s airships moored on their way to the North Pole: the Norge in May 1926, the Italia in May 1928.
