Publications
Cultureaction! An Interaction and Experience Design Project to Explore San Marino’s Historic Center as a Living Archive.
Design-driven approaches can transform cultural heritage sites into dynamic, engaging archives that bridge tangible and intangible heritage. The 'Cultureaction!' project in San Marino's historic center demonstrates this by using interactive installations, including a device called Iride, to reveal hidden historical layers through multisensory experiences. These installations enhance visitors' cognitive and emotional connections with local stories, offering a model for small historic towns to replicate. By integrating digital technology with community memory, the project reimagines archives as evolving cultural engagement sites, highlighting design's potential in preserving heritage dynamically rather than statically.
Nation Scale NeRF Reconstruction
A breakthrough in large-scale 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage sites, Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) rendering techniques have been successfully extended to handle multiscalar datasets, addressing previous limitations in scalability. This advancement, demonstrated through a case study involving seismic vulnerability surveys in San Marino's Historic Centre and Mount Titanoenables more accurate representation of built heritage features compared to traditional structure-from-motion methods. The proposed system links geographic coordinates with large datasets, paving the way for unprecedented precision in digital preservation and analysis of complex architectural landscapes.
Seismic Resilience of Palazzo Pubblico (UNESCO) with 3D Numerical Simulations
A 3D numerical model of Palazzo Pubblico, a UNESCO-listed historic building in San Marino, reveals critical insights into its seismic resilience. This model, developed using single-station asynchronous ambient vibration measurements and a comprehensive 3D laser scanner survey (3D-LSS), assesses the fundamental resonance frequencies to evaluate its dynamic response under seismic conditions. The study highlights the importance of retrofitting measures for this strategic building, which serves as the seat of Parliament and a focal point during natural disasters. This model provides a foundation for future research on retrofit options and resilience-based evaluations, ensuring the preservation of San Marino's cultural heritage in seismically active regions.
SRB (Seismic Resilience-Based) methodology for historical centers: San Marino case study
A novel methodology for assessing seismic resilience (SR) at the scale of urban blocks, rather than individual buildings, has been successfully applied to San Marino's historic center—a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This approach combines 3D surveys and visual inspections to derive empirical fragility curves, enabling more accurate quantification of structural vulnerabilities in historical city centers. Unlike previous studies focused on singular structures, this method provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating recovery investments, addressing the complex interplay of adjacent buildings with shared typologies. The findings highlight its potential for preserving cultural heritage while enhancing seismic resilience in vulnerable urban regions.
Towards the application of EU Habitats Directive to a non-EU country: the case of San Marino
A study confirms the presence of nine habitat types within San Marino, covering just 4.4% of its territory but including rare species found in surrounding Italian regions. This research tests the application of the EU Habitats Directive (HD) to a non-EU microstate, offering a blueprint for area-based conservation strategies. By surveying vegetation plots between 2019 and 2022 and using non-metric multidimensional scaling, the study identified potential habitats within a 10 km radius of San Marino's borders. While the confirmed habitat types are limited in coverage, their rarity underscores the importance of local conservation efforts and policy alignment with Italy. The findings suggest that adopting the HD could serve as an effective framework for non-EU states to develop coherent biodiversity protection measures.
Il turismo a San Marino. Un bilancio storiografico
San Marino's tourism potential, driven by its unique status as a small independent city-state with a distinguished historic center, has been the focus of extensive scholarly research. This study synthesizes key findings from various books, highlighting how San Marino's tourism industry has evolved over time. The research adopts a historiographic approach, reviewing and analyzing existing literature to provide a comprehensive overview of the historical development and impact of tourism in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The findings underscore the significance of San Marino's historic center and its role in shaping the country's tourism narrative.
Liberty Dreamt in Stone: The (Neo)Medieval City of San Marino
San Marino's historic center, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2008, embodies a unique neomedieval identity that transcends its medieval origins. This study reveals how the microstate transformed into a symbol of liberty and tradition through architectural revivalism, particularly between 1884 and 1943—a period marked by the construction of landmarks like the new town hall and the rise of Fascist influence. The research employs comparative historical analysis to explore this phenomenon, highlighting San Marino's dual heritage: one rooted in medieval history and another shaped by modern reinterpretation. This neomedieval identity, characterized by its enduring symbolic power, sets San Marino apart as a distinctive cultural landscape.
One night in San Marino
A rare acoustic survey in Borgo Maggiore, San Marino, revealed the presence of six bat species, including Nyctalus noctula, which was documented for the first time in the country. This discovery increases the known bat fauna of San Marino to 18 species. The study, conducted over several hours on August 30, 2020, recorded foraging activity using acoustic methods, confirming the presence of five common and widespread species (Eptesicus serotinus, Hypsugo savii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, P. kuhlii, and Tadarida teniotis) alongside the newly identified Nyctalus noctula. The findings highlight the biodiversity significance of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, offering insights into its nocturnal ecosystems.
San Marino, San Marino
San Marino, a unique microstate nestled within Italy, presents a distinctive blend of urban and natural heritage. The city, which shares its name with the country, is characterized by its triple-walled structure perched on the western slopes of Mount Titano. This geographical setting not only provides strategic significance but also contributes to its agricultural landscape, which contrasts with the dense urban fabric. The site's connectivity via roads and railways extends its reach to other parts of Italy and the Adriatic coast, underscoring its role as a vital link in regional transportation networks. This publication offers an insightful overview of San Marino's geographical, historical, and socio-economic dimensions, highlighting its dual identity as both a capital city and an independent nation.
Impact Assessment of Pollutant Emissions in the Atmosphere from a Power Plant over a Complex Terrain and under Unsteady Winds
A proposed natural gas-fired power plant in the mountainous Republic of San Marino, near the Adriatic Sea, demonstrates spatially confined environmental impact despite high NOx emissions. Simulations using advanced atmospheric models (SPRAY, SWIFT, SURFPRO) under varying meteorological conditions revealed that pollutant dispersion is largely limited to a single peak where the plume interacts with Mount Titano's hillside, 5 km from the plant. This finding suggests minimal widespread environmental impact, even under worst-case scenarios, due to the complex terrain and land-sea breeze dynamics. The study adheres to Italian and European regulatory frameworks, providing critical insights for sustainable energy development in small, topographically challenging regions.
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