Accessible Tourism Guides in Italy

Before becoming a journalist and blogger, Valentina Tomirotti, 36, created jewelry, designing and crafting it from her own creative imagination. The name she chose for the collection was Pepitosa, an adjective derived from the word nugget (pepita). And, just like a nugget, a pepitosa woman is a woman who shines, full of light and color.

An autobiographical adjective, absolutely, because, in telling her story as a woman in a wheelchair, Valentina always chooses words pertaining to the semantic field of light, energy, and courage. The same courage she had in pursuing her projects and her vision as a media entrepreneur, starting from what many would consider a disability: her inability to walk. Affected by dystrophic dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder characterized by a defect in cartilage growth, Valentina lives a life on wheels. And after all, what better synonym for wheels than travel?

Thus was born Pepitosa in a carriage, bringing the jewelry brand's name to a blog, first, and into a larger project involving an online presence and offline initiatives, collecting all her ideas and impressions, real reviews of wheelchair-accessible trips, evaluating the accessibility of hotels, restaurants, accommodations, clubs and places of interest.

Valentina arrives in the cities she chooses to visit by car, specially designed to allow her to travel completely independently. She evaluates the accessibility of transportation, accommodations, and attractions, and writes about them, collecting material that is then reworked into practical wheelchair travel guides. Evaluation criteria include, for example, the presence of architectural barriers, the paving of public streets, or the possibility of easy access to public transportation or to shops and restaurants.

Anyone among us who travels knows the importance of having a good guide to inform us about what to see or where to eat, but if we're not able to climb a lot of stairs, for example, we'd like to know in advance. Which is essentially what Valentina does: she informs those who live on wheels how many steps are needed to reach the Duomo, whether the elevator is working and easy to reach, or even whether a hotel pool has a suitable lift.

Aboard her Pepi Mobile, the car Valentina was able to purchase thanks to a crowdfunding project and which she's only been able to drive for a year due to the difficulty of finding suitable vehicles for her to travel unaccompanied, she began her journey across the peninsula: from Mantua, where she lives, to Palermo, passing through other cultural capitals like Parma, Perugia, and Matera. Because for Valentina, culture also means, above all, accessible and inclusive tourism.

The City of the Sassi seems to be the opposite of accessible, yet, reading what she writes on her blog, it is a city that has worked hard to make its beauty accessible to the physically disabled, for example by organizing services like the Ape Calessino, a real Ape car specially equipped for tours of the Sassi, providing tourist routes and ad hoc accommodations.

Valentina's journey will be documented with an onboard video camera, using a video format designed for dedicated channels. Guests will join her on board to share their ideas about accessibility and inclusion, not just from a disability perspective, with the specific goal of raising awareness about accessible tourism. Traveling on wheels is, fortunately, increasingly easier, but there's still a long way to go.

(Featured image accompanying the text taken from the Facebook page of Pepitosa in a carriage)

Valentina, a blogger from Mantua who travels miles in a wheelchair to discover accessible Italy.

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