Summary
The project presented in this paper deals with the problem of enhancing dismissed cultural heritage, focusing on a group of 19th-century forts in the surroundings of Rome. Based on a bottom-up perspective, the project uses low-cost digital instruments and is addressed to a broad user base. By means of 360° video footages, a free app and Google Cardboard, these forts, often inaccessible for conservation or military reasons, are made virtually accessible and are used to communicate history with an immersive and participatory approach.

Innovative VR tools and techniques
• The use of low-cost digital instruments (e.g. Google Cardboard) aims at stimulating a reflection on dismissed cultural heritage in a broad user base, improving social inclusion

VR in education
• VR makes accessible forts otherwise inaccessible
• Through a free app and Google Cardboard, users can experience both the forts’ architecture and the green surroundings of Rome
• The project uses low-cost digital instruments, easily accessible
• The project is explicitly addressed to a broad user base, aiming at improving social inclusion and participation