Roadman's houses and religious tourism in Sardinia: designing a GIS based decision support system

Religious tourism and pilgrimage routes are gaining in importance in some European countries like France, Portugal, and Spain. Also in Italy, pilgrimage routes such as ‘Via Francigena’, ‘Cammino di San Francesco’ from Assisi to Rome, and ‘Cammino di Sant’Antonio’ from Camposampiero to Padua, are well known. In the Italian region of Sardinia four pilgrimage routes have been recognized by the Regional Government Agency for the Promotion of Sardinia, and a number of roadman’s houses are localised along such paths. These houses were built to accommodate roadmen, personnel employed to manage and refurbish the surface of roads belonging to the national network. Currently, in Sardinia about 40% of the houses are abandoned, deteriorated and in some cases ruined. Against this background, we aim to design a geographic information system based decision support system, able to select the most adapt roadman’s houses with respect to the provision of accommodation services to pilgrims walking religious itineraries.