Italy institutionalizes its own Paths with a national network that enhances pedestrian, cycle and navigable waterways routes. Not simple paths, but itineraries designed to cross villages, internal areas and lesser-known landscapes, rediscovering slow travel without motor vehicles.
The legislation provides for the creation of a digital database with maps and services, the introduction of quality and safety standards, and coordinated promotion at national level. The objective is to support more sustainable tourism, counteract overtourism concentrated in large art cities and encourage the deseasonalisation of tourist flows. A model that generates new economic opportunities for artisans, accommodation facilities, guides and local producers in the internal areas.
Among the most famous routes include the Via Francigena, which leads from the Aosta Valley to Rome, the Via Appia Antica recognized as a UNESCO heritage site, the Cammino Materano which crosses Basilicata and Puglia up to Matera, and the Franciscan routes which connect Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. But the network includes dozens of other itineraries classified at national, regional and local levels.
Walking thus becomes a way to slow down, discover and restore value to forgotten territories, reconnecting nature, history, culture and community.
The law on the Cammini d’Italia
The Chamber of Deputies approved on 22 January 2026 with 243 votes in favor and no votes against the bill S. 562: “Provisions for the promotion and valorisation of the Italian routes” (Approved by the Senate) (C. 1805-A). The text, already approved by the Senate in March 2024 and modified in the Chamber, will return to Palazzo Madama for final approval.
The law establishes at the Ministry of Tourism a database of the Cammini d’Italia with digital maps and information for travellers, a national control room with the task of defining quality and safety standards, and a permanent table chaired by the Minister of Tourism to promote coordination between the State, Regions, local authorities and associations. A three-year national program for the development and promotion of the paths is also introduced, accompanied by communication campaigns in Italy and abroad.
The planned allocations amount to 2 million euros for 2026, 1.5 million for 2027 and 1.05 million per year starting from 2028, resources which are added to the over 30 million already allocated to the religious paths sector.
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