Interactive and Gamified Educational Virtual Tour for the Preservation of Tangible and Intangible Rural Heritage

How can a closed museum continue to tell stories, share knowledge, and strengthen community identity? This paper presents an interactive, gamified virtual tour designed to enhance both the tangible and intangible heritage of Tuscan rural life, preserved in the Museo della Civiltà Contadina - Casa del Guidi in Sesto Fiorentino. Developed as part of the T-PLACE project, the experience makes use of 360° panoramic images, 3D models, and oral testimonies to offer an immersive, web-accessible journey. The tour is based on the ADDIE instructional design model and incorporates gamification strategies inspired by the ARCS model. It is structured around two modes: a free, exploratory path, and an educational mode entitled The Guardian of Traditions. The latter engages users through adaptive quizzes and branching scenarios, encouraging active learning and critical reflection. The voices of local elders, reinterpreted and associated with museum artefacts, reinforce the connection between memory and knowledge, fostering the intergenerational transmission of traditional know-how. Compatible with multiple devices and enhanced by accessibility features such as automatic text-to-speech, the project offers a replicable model for small cultural institutions. It demonstrates how immersive technologies can support new forms of engagement, participation, and heritage preservation.