UNDER – A Journey Through History, Culture and Identity
ACe20 presents UNDER – Underground Navigators Exploring and Revealing, an innovative European project that blends cultural tourism, international exchange, and professional training. The initiative aims to explore and reveal the hidden soul of European cities by starting from their underground spaces to rediscover stories, memories, and identities that are often forgotten. In a time when tourism tends to standardize experiences, UNDER offers a radical and meaningful alternative: a path of discovery that places authenticity, active participation, and connection with local communities at its core.
Exploring as a Cultural Act: Rediscovering the Roots of European Cities
UNDER is more than a journey, it’s a transformative experience that combines education with hands-on exploration. The project seeks to bring renewed focus to places of collective memory and underground environments, forgotten architecture, oral traditions, and local micro-histories through a slow and conscious form of territorial exploration. In contrast to fast, superficial tourism, UNDER promotes a way of visiting cities based on attentive listening, observation, and meaningful dialogue.
The project involves a wide range of professionals: tourism operators, heritage experts, local storytellers, archaeologists, historians, citizens, and associations that preserve the living knowledge of the territory. Together, they will guide participants through educational and sensory pathways designed to spark new perspectives and co-create shared narratives that highlight the uniqueness of each place. Interactive labs, storytelling workshops, immersive experiences, and guided tours of lesser-known sites will bring learning to life, blending theory and practice, where storytelling becomes a powerful tool for cultural and social enhancement..
Project Milestones: Deep Experiences and Meaningful Connections
The project is funded under European adult education programs and is led by the Municipality of San Giljan (Malta).
It includes three international mobilities, each focused on a specific theme and set of activities:
Orte, Italy – May 28–31, 2025
A journey into the heart of underground Tuscia. Participants will explore tunnels, cisterns, and hypogeal environments, guided by experts who will illustrate the historical and urban development of Orte through engaging storytelling techniques.
Sümeg, Hungary – September 24–27, 2025
Discover one of Central Europe’s most fascinating historic towns. The program includes visits to the medieval castle and insights into traditional storytelling forms, including theatrical performances and artisanal practices.
Znojmo, Czech Republic – March 2026
Znojmo’s historic tunnels and underground wine cellars will serve as the backdrop for this mobility, focused on territorial marketing strategies and digital technologies for cultural promotion.
Training, Sustainability, and Local Impact
One of UNDER’s main goals is to support the development of cross-sector skills and new professional opportunities in the field of cultural tourism. Training activities will strengthen participants’ ability to interpret territories in depth, promote them sustainably, and build authentic and compelling narratives. The project also places strong emphasis on local impact. Each mobility will foster dialogue between host communities and international participants, generating positive outcomes in terms of visibility, local economy, and social cohesion.
Towards a New Idea of Europe
With UNDER, ACe20 reaffirms its commitment to creating high-impact, value-driven projects for local territories, combining direct experience, professional development, and European cooperation.
This journey into the underground becomes a metaphor for deeper exploration, one that uncovers shared cultural roots, hidden heritage, and the unseen stories that still speak to us today. Through this process, the participating cities not only tell their stories but also build a new vision of tourism: slower, more genuine, and more respectful of local identities.
UNDER invites us to inhabit Europe in a new way: more consciously, more humanely, and more collectively. It calls us to see Europe from a fresh perspective, one that is authentic, profound, and shared.