Trova Trails · Rome, Italy · Travel & education
Rome, turned into a mission for curious kids.
Trova Trails turns the Eternal City's landmarks into story-driven treasure hunts — kids aged 7–12 chase clues around the Colosseum, the Pantheon and Castel Sant'Angelo while the history sinks in. The founder came to us with an idea in 2022; we've built, shipped and evolved the product ever since.
The idea
Not another tour. A mission.
Kids don't want a guided tour — they want to be the hero. Each trail opens with a story and a task: a missing crown at the Pantheon, buried treasure at the Colosseum. Families walk, search, solve riddles at the monument itself — and the facts arrive as clues, not lectures.
The approach
A story engine,
not a screen full of maps.
The product lives outdoors, in front of the monuments. Everything serves the hunt.
From sketch to both stores
The founder arrived with a concept on paper in April 2022. One focused build later, Trova was live on the App Store and Google Play — and has shipped continuously since.
A content-driven trail engine
Trails are data, not code — story steps, riddles and four quiz formats composed per landmark, so new adventures ship without an app release. Fully bilingual, English and Italian.
The adventure is the product
Trails sell as in-app purchases — the gladiator quiz is free, the missions unlock. Receipts are validated server-side on Google Cloud Functions before content unlocks.
Light on the network, heavy on delight
Each trail's media downloads once as a version-checked bundle, so the hunt works smoothly in front of the monument. Trophies, confetti and fanfares make finishing feel like winning.
The build
History that feels
like a game.
Collage-style art, a bold teal identity and stories that treat kids as detectives, not tourists.
The result
Four years in, still shipping.
Stack — React Native / Expo · TypeScript · Zustand · In-app purchases · Google Cloud Functions · i18next