Livorno, 19 April 2024 – A collaboration agreement between the Valle Benedetta Association and the Municipality entitled “Shared administration project for the Valle Benedetta wash houses” was signed today in the Council Room of the Town Hall.
The agreement provides for the recovery and safety of the property in order to make it accessible to the community, also through the provision of a possible toilet and an external patio. Once restored, the washhouses will become a center of knowledge of the Livorno hills and of social aggregation, a reference for the numerous public who go to the Benedetta Valley as walkers, hikers, archers, botanists, cyclists coming from different areas of Italy .
“We are one of the gateways to the Livorno Mountains Nature Reserve – he declared Leonardo Lepori, president of the Valle Benedetta Association which signed the deed – the structure of the wash houses must be recovered for those arriving from the city for a walk”. The idea of recovering the structure is in line with the work carried out by the Association, which since its birth in 2017, has taken care of the picnic area on the curve at the foot of the village, taking care of the maintenance of the lawn and trees and also placing a work of art there, the sculpture “Incontro”. In the area, located next to the car park where visitors are invited to leave their cars, there are picnic tables, a fountain and games for children: “It is already a little gem – comments Lepore – in the summer it is very frequented”.
“The Valle Benedetta association is an example of important active citizenship – commented the manager of the Cultural Activities, Museums, Foundations and Tourism sector of the Municipality Giovanni Cerini – the new structure can become an important meeting point in a suburban neighborhood. The signed agreement is an example of administrative transversality, because it involved different sectors of the Municipality: the Environment, Tourism and Culture Offices”.
In detail, the association undertakes to make volunteers available to carry out the activities envisaged by the agreement and assumes the burden of expenses relating to the redevelopment, care, enhancement and maintenance of the property. For its part, the Municipality undertakes to formally hand over the property to the association and allow its free use for the entire period of validity of the collaboration agreement (15 years).
