This paper presents the results achieved for the reconstructive study of the Greek-Roman theatreof Taormina, aimed at the realization of a Computer Graphic (CG) film presented at the G7 summit (26-27 May 2017). The reconstruction is now exposed to visitors within one of the two basilicas at the entrance of the theater. The work was commissioned by the Archaeological Superintendence - Park of Naxos-Taormina and proposes the ancient structure in its original aspect in two distinct phases. The first phase dating back to the first quarter of the II century A.D. When, following a first imposed renovation, the complex expanded the receptive capacity of audience with the construction of an external ambulatory and the re-construction of the entire scaenae frons. Thesecond part dating back to III century A.D. instead, it involves changes to the stage building and the orchestra with its transformation into the arena that change the use of the building. In particular the theatre representations were substituted with gladiatorial games. Our reconstruction uses fast 3D surveys based on drone photogrammetry and close range photogrammetry, together with the potential offered by the 3D modelling environment for interpretation and study. This approach has led to some unpublished solutions. The main goal of this work, is to understand the architectural and details of the monument, in an overall vision of the original context that allows the visitors to value its element of originality.

The Graeco-Roman theatre of Catania stands in the heart of the historic centre, on the south-eastern slopes of the hill of Montevergine. The building visible today was built during the Julio-Claudian period as part of a programme that saw the rebuilding of the monument, which probably used structures and materials from the earlier Greek theatre. The work undertaken over more than fifty years, involving expropriation, demolition, excavation, and restoration, has, on the whole, made it possible to bring to light the surviving parts of the theatre, improving the comprehension of this monument, despite the fact that some sectors have been irreparably compromised.

This article present some results related to different case studies in which it is addressed the problem of digital restoration using digital 3D models exclusively produced by means of image-based technologies. The integrally IB approach is justify by different requirements: the first is linked to the possibility to obtain efficient 3D models complete with texture in easy way. The second is linked to the time of capture of these models and the third on the better management of the workflow due to the excellent performance with low-polygon models generated by IB technologies. Of course the same approach you can get on every type of 3D models, also obtained by laser scanning, but with more problems related to the textures and the management of large amounts of data. The full 3D approach to the problem of the restoration of archaeological finds extremely damaged, raises several points of interest, including sculpting and painting directly on surfaces, as well with the possibility of reintegration of the missing parts using other sculptural elements in similar subjects best preserved. Starting from these premises, we carried out a comparative test on different image-datasets with different ISO and different resolution, to provide a metric comparison of results, as an operational base that allows to know, in advance, the criticality metric in IB surveys.

In this paper we illustrate the use of cognitive metaphors for the transmission of historicaland cultural contents as an indispensable condition in the process of museum communication. For this we used the 3D computer graphics animation to introduce the subjects dealt with in the exhibition spaces dedicated to Queen Nefertari, the chapel of Maya, the tomb of Kha, the house of the Golden Bracelet and the house of Octavius Quartio. In these filmed segments, passive viewing is offset by an emotional approach that engages visitors in an information path where, despite the inactive mode of fruition, they are in some way participants, because they are emotionally involved. The film itself is conceived as a showcase of changeable, heterogeneous digital content, capable to offer a concise, preparatory overview of the finds present in the museum spaces.

The roman amphitheatre of Catania stands in a very complex and interesting area where settlement dynamics and transformations have profoundly marked its urban landscape. Over the centuries, the urban and architectural histories together with the formation of the archaeological deposits have led to the complete obliteration of the monument and restricted knowledge of its plan and architectural development. Therefore, it constitutes an interesting context in which to experiment methods and techniques for architectural representation and the three-dimensional reconstruction of the monument.

The paper describes the multidisciplinary research carried out on the Church of Santo Stefano in Soleto (Lecce, Italy) by IN-Cul.Tu.Re. Project (INnovation in CULture, TUrism and REstoration) supported by lbam-Cnr Institute of Lecce, the Politecnico of Torino "Non Destructive Diagnostic Laboratory" and the exSoprintendenza Beni Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici of the region of Puglia.The latest restoration of the Church of S.Stefano, one of the most significant examples of late Gothic painting in the region of Puglia, was realized in 2012. This study aimed to increase the knowledge and the enhancement of the Church through: historical and documentary study; analysis of the past restoration projects and diagnostic tests; new non-invasive diagnostic testing; ICT. A Semi-ARplatform was developed as a tool for the Church protection, conservation and enhancement: a 3D model was exploited as a support for information about paintings iconographic analysis and techniques, virtual restoration and for the results of the latest diagnostic surveys. This platform and non-invasive diagnostic tests allow to monitor the conservation conditions and to map the degradationphenomena. The research analyzes the relationship between heresy and orthodoxy in the choice of the method and also in the (real/virtual) visit of cultural heritage. The Project, winner of the competition announcement Smart Cities and Communities and Social Innovation, was founded by Miur.

This paper illustrates some results obtained by the ITLab (Information Technologies Lab of IBAM CNR Institute) within two PON (National Operational Program) projects called: "DiCet" and "Siracusa Energia", both financed by national funds. These two projects pursue the objective of defining and producing innovative models, processes, and tools for the sustainable development of a smart territory by capitalizing on its cultural assets and environmental resources, to promote their tourism offer. From this standpoint, some procedures were developed to compile technical models for an efficient management of 3D and 2D resources, and to define best practices and methodical protocols for quality certification and process standardization, capable of fostering cross-sector dialogue. The sites were identified as a function of a supply-and-demand analysis with regard to a placement on the market of innovative models and services based on the creation of hyper-realistic digital models and virtual scenarios. Particular attention was given to those uses that permit greater visibility, protection, and conservation of cultural assets characterized by difficult access, vulnerability, seismic risk, hydro-geological risk, etc. In view of this, innovative models and tools were designed and developed for capitalizing on and exploiting cultural heritage, understood as an integrated and complex system conceived as a holistic model strongly based on the use of ICT technologies. Virtual enjoyment is understood here as a form of representing reality that accelerates and strengthens cognitive capacities, which is to say it becomes capable of generating extremely sensitive, "virtuous virtual" learning processes based on metaphors of the real world, and thus easy to use and understand. Operationally, our working group has made some Augmented Reality solutions available; these enable the interactive display - directly in situ and especially on mobile devices - of archaeological monuments integrated within the urban fabric. A simple solution allows the user to display an interactive 3D reconstruction directly on the real site, using the latest-generation gyroscope function. In addition to this, certain inaccessible monuments of the cities of Lecce and Siracusa have been virtualized, chiefly using image-based technologies and ultra-realistic laser scanning, to allow them to be visited remotely both via smartphone and on large virtual theatres.

Lo studio ricostruttivo di un monumento antico risente fortemente di lacune informative, errata trascrizione delle fonti, errata traduzione o peggio ancora, di interpretazioni soggettive che possono compromettere drasticamente il risultato finale, portando a ricostruzioni anche notevolmente diverse tra di loro. Questo lavoro vuole presentare i risultati di uno studio ricostruttivo condotto filologicamente su alcuni monumenti di Siracusa in età greca, cercando di evidenziare il contributo specifico dell'archeologia virtuale nei processi interpretativi, al fine di proporre una presentazione efficace rivolta ad un target specifico di turisti. Seguendo questo approccio sono stati ricostruiti il Tempio di Apollo, il complesso monumentale di piazza Duomo ed il Teatro greco, cercando di fornire output di visualizzazione che fossero adeguati ad una consultazione da smartphone e coerenti alle finalità generali del progetto "PON Energia Smart City". Questo progetto prevede un approccio "smart" alla visita di Siracusa, privilegiando principalmente logiche di fruizione efficiente on-site grazie all'adozione di tecnologie basate sulla Realtà Aumentata, la visione dei monumenti da punti inusuali e la visita virtuale multimodale dei punti di interesse. Emerge da questo studio la nuova fisionomia di quei monumenti che, per motivi diversi, sono stati rappresentati negli anni in forme e modi del tutto differenti, tali da rendere a volte irriconoscibili le diverse ricostruzioni dello stesso oggetto. Grazie alle tecnologie di restituzione 3D basate sull'immagine è stato possibile integrare le parti mancanti di alcuni elementi architettonici e scultorei che, ricollocati virtualmente nella posizione originaria, permettono una lettura dinamica che combina l'aspetto reale con quello virtuale.

The paper illustrates the results of the research carried out by PON In-Cul.Tu.Re. Project (INnovation in CULture, TUrism and REstoration) on the church of Santo Stefano in Soleto (Lecce, Italy). A multidisciplinary study has been carried out in order to increase the knowledge of the church, through non-invasive diagnostic tests, and to monitor the state of conservation of the building. An Augmented Reality virtual tour has been created through the use of Information and Communications Technologies in order to enhance the church knowledge and make it more accessible to the public.

In the present project for the setting of the new Museo Egizio of Turin the "cultural message" has been charged to make a few specific 3D computer graphic (CG) movies, and aims to introduce the topics dealt with the rooms dedicated to queen Nefertari, the chapel of the painter Maia and the tomb of Kha, respectively. In these movies, the passivity of viewing is counteracted with an emotional approach that involves the visitor within an informative path where, despite of the inactive kind of interaction, the viewer is somehow involved in the events because he or she is emotionally invested in them. Thanks to this passive and "self-explaining" approach, the visitor will be enabled to understand the relations between different objects, some of which are not directly visible. Moreover, the visitor will be able to virtually insert the tombs within their original context and above all will have the possibility to visit them as they appeared at the moment of their discovery. This has been made possible thanks the use of integrated technologies of representation, able to enhance the virtualization process to a verisimilar level allowing a hyper-realistic and "participative" vision. The high levelof realism of the virtual reconstruction, the visual effects and the cinematographic representation, with added emotions to the scientific contents, positively contribute to the "dreamlike displacement" of the visitor between the real and the virtual dimensions.

This paper demonstrates how low cost 3D visualization techniques can be easily used for the transmission of historical and cultural content in museum communication strategy. Specifically, we used computer 3D animation graphics to present information about Queen Nefertari, the Maya chapel and the tomb of Kha in the specific exhibition in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. Movie documentaries support the thematic itineraries of the rooms and offer a virtual trip to the places where the goods displayed were found. The same approach was used for the virtual reconstruction of two Pompeian contexts: the House of the Golden Bracelet and the House of Octavius Quartio. Our research allowed us to create an accurate representation of gardens, statues, architectural spaces, and pools with fountains and frescoed rooms, all virtually reproduced in their original context, using communication methods that combine technology with a synthetic and emotional approach. Techniques of close range photogrammetry made it possible to conduct a 3D survey of sixteen statues and other architectural elements; lost artefacts were reconstructed and areas destroyed by the eruption of 79 AD were evoked. The eruption was partially represented, with fluid dynamic simulations and computer graphics effects in order to transmit accurate scientific information in a simple and immediate language developed by lengthy technical experiments. The synthesis imposed by the short duration of the movie required matching all this information with a self-explanatory approach, which allows the visitor to understand the characteristics of the archaeological goods displayed in the exhibition in a general view that repeats colours, sounds and suggestions of the environments destroyed two thousand years ago.

This contribution concerns, in particular, the study of the two most important monuments of ancient Roman Lupiae: the amphitheater and the theater, whose remains, now incorporated in the modern urban fabric, can still be seen and visited only partially. Despite the evidence of the monumental ruins still visible, there is the impossibility for the visitor to perceive their actual size, both in plan and elevation. At the moment there are no information boards and didactic aids to understand the complete aspect of the two monuments how they could appear in ancient. The realization of accurate reconstructive proposals starting from the laser surveys, as well as the application of technologies that utilize Image- Based algorithms SfM (Structure from Motion), have been aimed at the realization of different outputs to facilitate the visit in situ of the two monuments, with different ways of reading. Applications of semi-AR in addition with stereoscopic narratives allow to understand the characteristics of architectural-construction not clearly understood, but rather to make readable reconstructions both within their original context, both superimposed over modern city. An approach useful to provide a sense of the scale of buildings. In this process of study, the contribution of 3D modeling software it is not confined to the pure generation and manipulation of polygons in the space, but it is crucial to facilitate the processes of interpretation.

This paper describes a complete path of research, which, starting from analysis and restitution 3D, gets to the virtual exploration of Hypogeum Palmieri in Lecce, a monument of Messapian age (4th century BC) currently not visible by tourists, as it is located in the garden of a private home. This project is developed under the DICET, an Italian National Operative Program, that aims to define and produce innovative models, processes, and tools for the sustainable development of a smart territory by capitalizing on its cultural and environmental resources, and marketing their touristic offerings. The instrumental survey of the Palmieri hypogeum was executed using two different methods, laser scanner and digital photogrammetry, in order to get a high metric control of the monument and high-resolution textures for the sculpted friezes. The two different survey methods allowed a perfect porting on different outputs: the 3D real time visit on the web and virtual visit on portable devices. A stereoscopic animation, installed at the museum MUST (Historic Museum of Lecce) Lecce, provides an easy diffusion of the cultural message. The richness of the textures and the resolution of the models has allowed the study of the monument from a morphological and structural point of view. The virtual reconstruction contributes to read an unpublished part of monumental tombs in Messapian age. Thanks to a cinematic approach with a great scientific rigor, the historical competence of an ordinary visitor is now largely formed on information coming from these media, thus creating a great increase in the demand for products with a high technological content and popularising historical re-evocations and reconstructions of the past.

The use of cognitive metaphors for the transmission of historical and cultural content is now an indispensable condition in the process of revamping the forms of museum communication. In this project for setting up the new Museo Egizio in Turin, the cultural message has been entrusted to three specific filmed segments in 3D computer graphics, aimed at introducing the subjects dealt with in the rooms dedicated to queen Nefertari, the chapel of the painter Maya, and the tomb of Kha. These are archaeological settings of extraordinary importance for studying and learning about the art and culture of ancient Egypt. In these filmed segments, passive viewing is offset by an emotional approach that engages visitors in an information path where, despite the inactive mode of fruition, they are in some way participants, because they are emotionally involved. The film itself is conceived as a showcase of changeable, heterogeneous digital content, capable of offering a concise, preparatory overview of the finds present in the museum spaces. This passive and "self-explanatory" approach will allow the visitor to understand the relationships between various objects - some not directly visible - like the mummy of Kha and of his consort Merit; to reconstruct the tombs virtually in their original context; but above all, thanks to the techniques of virtual archaeology, to visit these settings as they appeared at the moment they were unearthed. All this was made possible thanks to the use of integrated technologies for rendering and representation, capable of bringing virtualization to a level of verisimilitude that can foster a hyper-realistic "participatory" vision. The high degree of realism of the virtual reconstructions, the visual effects, and the techniques of cinematographic representation add emotion to the scientific content, making a positive contribution towards the visitors "losing themselves" between the real and the virtual dimension.