Walking in the Quantum World: The Italian Quantum Weeks Exhibition 2024

In the context of the Italian Quantum Weeks initiative, the exhibition “Dire l’indicibile” proposed a journey through the rules of Quantum Mechanics, offering a glimpse at the working principles and potential applications of quantum technologies (QTs). We devised a route to introduce the key concepts of quantum superposition, quantum measurements and evolution, and incompatible observables, by exploiting analogies based on custom-made models and tools. As examples of possible QT applications, we choose to discuss: i) the peculiarities of quantum walks (QW), as compared to classical random walks; ii) quantum cryptography and its applications. Two activities —illustrating the basis of QWs and of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol— were actively performed by the public. The outcome of a satisfaction survey is extremely positive, encouraging us to explore this approach in different educational contexts.