Main Roads: Kids who study while traveling around Italy

Anna discovered Luigi Pirandello's plays when she entered his childhood home in Agrigento. Luigi couldn't believe a leaning tower like the one in Pisa existed. Lorenzo is a keen hiker and never tires. Manuela learned a lot about the Second World War by traversing some of the Gothic Line trails.

Il Main Roads Program is an Italian educational initiative that proposes a itinerant school year, during which high school students travel on foot across Italy while continuing their studies. The year is perfectly regular, lasting 240 days, with only the Christmas and Easter holidays interrupting. The students, 14 in total, accompanied by five adults—teachers and guides—divide the day into two parts. The first part involves hands-on learning, in the locations of the walking trip: from encounters with people, visits to natural and cultural treasures (cities, villages, mountains, countryside, forests, archaeological sites, museums, exhibitions, shows, conferences, artisan workshops, manufacturing plants, and more)—all of which are supported by activities conducted with the teachers. The second part consists of regular lessons with related tests.

At the end of the school year the path of Main Roads It concludes with an aptitude test taken at a public school.

Ultimately, it is an educational journey that closely resembles the Grand Tour, the formative journey that young people from Europe's ruling classes took in the 19th century, traversing the length and breadth of Italy, precisely to develop a deeper understanding of places and people, and not just what they learned from books.

The lessons integrate traditional subjects (Italian, mathematics, science, history, etc.) with:

• environmental education
• active citizenship
• direct experience of the territory
• community life

  The project is promoted by the association WalkingMents, which deals with experiential education and training courses.