Reconstructions in Cultural Heritage: The virtual museum of the ancient via Flaminia

A research and communication project has been developed from 2006 to January 2008 by the Virtual Heritage Lab of CNR ITABC, supported by Arcus S.P.A. The goal has been the creation of a Multiuser Virtual Reality installation dedicated to the archaeological landscape of ancient Via Flaminia. The Via Flaminia was an important roman consular road, built in 220 b.C. by Gaius Flaminius connecting Rome with Ariminum, today's Rimini, on the Adriatic sea. Over time the rich and powerful built villas and funerary monuments for themselves along this and other main roads of the Roman Empire. The project had many outputs for different targets and contexts of fruition in order to enhance its efficacy and diffusion: the web site (www.vhlab.itabc.cnr.it/flaminia), a DVD Video, the stand alone virtual reality applications, the implementation of some contents in Second Life for educational experimentation, the scientific volume "La Villa di Livia, un percorso di archoelogia virtuale" that describes the whole research activity at the base of the project (M. Forte, 2008). The main purpose was the creation of a multiuser virtual reality application for public fruition, located inside the Roman National Museum, at Diocletian Baths in Rome. The Virtual Museum of the Ancient Via Flaminia, opened to public in January 2008 after two years of work, has been developed through a complex methodological approach, from the topographical data acquisition on the field through integrated technologies to the reconstruction of the landscape and of the architectures in their diacronical dimension.