About History&Geo Tours
Origins
After the celebrations and commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the Parachute Regiment’s Orsogna Battle Honour (Casoli, December 2013) and the first Battlefield Study visit by the 4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment along the Gustav Line (October 2014), the promoters of these events have been given the responsibility by the SATAM VIAGGI SRL (which is the travel division of Gruppo La Panoramica) to set up a new section in charge of understanding the relationship between tourism, war remembrance and memorialized battlefields.
At the beginning of 2017, after a gestation period, the Satam Viaggi officially launched HISTORY & GEO TOURS, worldwide journey in the footsteps of history . The primary task of this new branch is to promote and undertake remembrance tourism, battlefield tours, geological & natural world tours, and cultural tours in general.
H&G Tours’Methodological Approach
Bearing in mind what Dr. Stephen Thomas Miles argued, we consider the remembrance and battlefield sites as some of 'the most iconic locations in any nation’s store of heritage’. Thus, the best way to analyze and understand the legacy of a landscape of war, ‘that enliven otherwise empty landscapes’, is to walk across the time on the same footsteps of the men and women who lived and fought during a dramatic circumstance in the past, such as a battle or a conflict.
Our guided walks have been conceived as hands-on field trips and enable visitors to identify with situations experienced by soldiers, patriots and civilians during the war. Moreover, to enhance the tourist participation at heritage site, our multiperspective tours have been developed with integrated itineraries covering not only history but also geology, geography and botany because every battle, since the warfare began, has been controlled by the morphological characteristics of the terrain. Understanding the anthropic environment of a landscape of war, deeply analyzing the nature of the ground, the rising of a series of fortifications, or the digging of a tunnel system, as well as their archaeological evidences, allow our clients to find out also the anthropological significance and the cultural resonances. Because without an understanding of local traditions, and the spirit and feelings of local population and their relationship of mutual assistance or conflict with the soldiers, it is impossible to contextualize the events in the general context of history.
In order to provide a better explanation and experience, an international scientific committee has been set up and has involved members of the Archivio di Stato di Chieti, the Department of Engineering and Geology - INGEO ( ‘G. D’Annunzio’ University of Chieti – Pescara), the International Guild of the Battlefield Guides and the Liberation Route Foundation.
Eventually, our work is based on two pillars of scientific excellence:
A multidisciplinary approach (history, geology, archival science, anthropology, archeology and field activities).
Employing qualified guides or experts with acknowledged competence, as vectors of remembrance, who based their expertise on a scientific knowledge.
From a regional project to a worldwide level
Being H&G Tours raised by experts culturally sensitive to the historical theme of the Italian Campaign on the Gustav Line (during the Second World War), it also seeks to meet the expectations of a growing audience of national and international travelers.
Indeed H&G Tours, being an educational and guided travel operator, signed commercial partnerships with the most important institutions of Europe, among them the International Guild of the Battlefield Guides and the Liberation Route Europe Foundation, which, since many years, reached high standard of quality and acknowledgements.
These important steps let our company to offer a wide - range of historical destinations not only in Italy, but all over the Europe.
Our professional staff, operating in the tourism sector since 1973 and working through intermediary and coordination acts with the travel trade industry, is able to efficiently provide admin and logistical support to our customers and clients in every steps of setting up a tour - such as booking hotels, airlines, restaurants, museums and also providing the high quality of our tourist coaches.
We always do our best to meet and satisfy the enquiry and the needs of all our client, mostly during the arranging the tours in terms of costs of booking and budget.
Moreover, to enhance and promote the historic areas, we coordinate all initiatives intended to favour their touristic, cultural or educational development, through the following ways:
A core team with specific expertise in European and National project calls and fundraising.
To foster international links and exchanging informations with our partners and travel trade industry, through lectures, talks and event on battlefield tours/remembrance tourism issues.
Gruppo La Panoramica
Founded in 1948 and based in Chieti, has more than six decades experience in daily bus service in Chieti and, since 1973, this enterprise provides also intercity bus and coach travel services all over Europe.
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