Cernobbio diventa SMART

Digital proposals for tourists including a new app to discover the city through the stories of its inhabitants and the Info Point in telematic mode: these are the novelties of the summer of Cernobbio.

The App “Cernobbio Tales” is made ad hoc to visit the city in a “new” way and is available free of charge both for iOS and Android, in their respective stores.
Walking through the streets of Cernobbio, and thanks to devices (beacons) that use Bluetooth technology, users will be able to view in some particular points of interest short videos in which citizens and other local characters tell an anecdote related to the context: a special opportunity to enjoy the historical, scenic, gastronomic, artistic heritage through an unusual and exclusive point of view.

In this first version of the app, ten videos have been made available that coincide with ten different points of interest: Villa Bernasconi, Villa d’Este (as seen from the Riva di Cernobbio), the former Galoppatoio of Villa Erba, Via Cinque Giornate with the workers’ quarter and a starred restaurant, the Town Hall, Villa Erba, the landing stage, Piazza Castello and the Riva.

Several people were involved in the stories, including the Mayor Matteo Monti who welcomed the guests, the world rowing champion Filippo Mondelli, the starred chef Davide Caranchini, the president of Villa Erba Filippo Arcioni, and then Marco Tardelli, former soccer player and world champion, the historic owner of Villa d’Este Jean Marc Droulers and finally a couple in costume of the Historical Representation of Cernobbio that participates in the Palio del Baradello.

Additional videos will be implemented with the next update, so as to make the experience and service even more complete and engaging. “The restrictive measures dictated by Covid-19 have made daily life and interpersonal relationships more complex, but we have tried to turn them into an opportunity for improvement by laying the foundations for a virtuous tourism development, through “smart” and future-oriented initiatives, which is looking increasingly digital,” says the Councillor for Territorial Marketing of Cernobbio, Mario Della Torre.

The application project has been developed by two young people from Como, Nadir Bertolasi (engineer) and Isaia Piazzoli (designer), while the video contents have been shot and edited by another young man, the photographer and video-maker Filippo Guatelli (who is doing an internship for Dote Comune).

The aim of the project is to offer an innovative, technological and smart service, within everyone’s reach. In this way, visitors will be able to appreciate curiosities and anecdotes about Cernobbio that would otherwise be difficult to access, because they are the result of life, work, experiences and the point of view of real people.
For this reason, short videos have been created: in addition to being unobtrusive and more easily accessible, they are in line with the current trends of content offered in social media, such as TikTok and Instagram Stories.
Visitors will have the feeling of really getting to know the local reality in a deeper way and can therefore feel even more welcomed by the community.

But that’s not all: there is also the intention to launch a sort of treasure hunt, in which only those who visit every corner of the village will be lucky enough to discover every secret.

The Mayor Matteo Monti underlines: “This is a starting point for a long-term innovative project. We have involved the citizenship in the tourist reception, so that everyone can feel part of this phenomenon that has always characterized our territory. The idea is to make the app interactive: we hope to arouse the interest of many other people and also of productive activities of Cernobbio that in the future could create and upload content independently, so as to enrich more and more the visiting experience“.

In order to use the application, users must activate Bluetooth on their smartphones but the app will not collect in any way sensitive data of users and will not track their position. In order to ensure maximum transparency, no personal data or registration will be requested.

In Cernobbio also the Info Point is multimedia: from this year it will be in telematic mode to offer increasingly up-to-date services.
From Friday to Monday, from 10:00 to 17:00, you can in fact interface via phone call, video call or chat whatsapp (+39 347 8818532) or email (infopoint@comune.cernobbio.co.it), and stay up to date by following the Facebook and Instagram pages @Cernobbio City, where periodically will also be proposed live information.

The security measures against Covid-19, which could have made the experience of access to tourist information uncomfortable, due to the obligation of masks, sanitation and physical barriers, become instead in Cernobbio an opportunity to imagine a new idea of Info Point of the future and experiment with alternative solutions, inspired by smart working and with an eye to the future and the digital world.