TURIN – 11 municipalities involved, over 150 events spread across more than 100 public parks, gardens, urban gardens, museums and other territories up to Cuneo. After last year’s experimental edition with the involvement of over 20 thousand people, from Monday 20th to Sunday 26th May returns to Turin and the metropolitan area Green Festival – www.festivalverde.it doubling the number of initiatives. Guided tours of the most evocative green spaces, urban agriculture tours, readings and book presentations, volunteer activities, nature excursions to discover urban greenery as it has never been presented.
This year’s edition is entitled “The cities of plants” and is dedicated to that network of urban and natural ecosystems that coexist and interact every day with human beings and their technologies. The Festival, whose main supporter is the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, offers an overall story through direct experience of the invisible stories of these often hidden environments. Each Festival event is categorized according to one of the five plant cities (Green Cities to Grow, Green Cities to Care for, City of Healthy Green, City of Green Heritage, City of Green Culture).
This year they are 11 municipalities involved (Carignano, Collegno, Moncalieri, Nichelino, Pino Torinese, Rivalta di Torino, San Mauro Torinese, San Secondo di Pinerolo, Santena, Settimo Torinese, Turin) to which are added “extra-provincial” trips to Cuneo and the province of Asti. With some participating municipalities the Festival has promoted a competition entitled “1 m2 of garden” for the design and subsequent construction of a public green demonstration area resistant to climate change.
The Festival del Verde weekend (24-26 May) also hosts FLOR Spring which will lead to the Royal Gardens of Turin approximately 150 between horticulturalists, farmers and green artisans, e Green Unveiledan experimental journey that will open the doors of small and large “secret” gardens for the first time, private green areas usually hidden and inaccessible to citizens which will be open to visitors exclusively for the event. Furthermore, during the Festival there will be an artistic illustration exhibition Sprouts it will turn into one “Street Expo” along Via Po, featuring the works of 16 emerging illustrators who tell the beauty of Nature with their art.
“This year too we have recorded great support and enthusiasm from public and private entities, which contribute to improving and taking care of the urban greenery of Turin and the metropolitan area. – Explains Giustino BallatoPresident of Orticola del Piemonte and co-creator of the Festival – The objective is to bring as many citizens as possible closer to an extraordinary world like that of plants in the city.”
The large parks and public gardens will be the protagonists of “The secrets of (urban) greenery – Stories and trees of the city of Turin”, a series of free walks led by public green technicians to discover the unpublished stories of the vegetal city: from Carlo Alberto’s plane trees to the Sister Michelotti park to the botanical rarities of the Royal Lower Gardens up to the natural forest of Parco Leopardi. While the unusual olive tree that grows in the green area belonging to the central registry office of Turin will be at the center of a story dedicated to the spread of this tree in Piedmont. In collaboration with Torino Spazio Pubblico, the active citizenship project for the care of public spaces and common goods promoted by the City of Turin, it will also be possible to participate in green maintenance activities in various areas and gardens. Also not to be missed is the walk in the area of high naturalistic value in the morainic forest of Rivalta di Torino.
On May 25th and 26th it will also be possible to visit a wing of the Park of Villa AbeggThe discovery of the Park will be accompanied by a rich program of activities curated by the Department of City Care, Public Green and Parks with the Public Green Division of the City of Turin, in collaboration with the Web Garden cultural association, the IED of Turin , the Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences (DISAFA) of the University of Turin and the Academy of Agriculture of Turin.
With this year’s Festival a new one also begins first mapping of the gardens and school gardens of the City of Turin which this year will be open on an extraordinary basis for one day while school groups will be hosted at FLOR Primavera on the morning of Friday 24 May.
For the Festival del Verde, from Monday 20th to Friday 24th May, it opens with a reduced price entrance ticket the Botanical Garden of the University of Turin where it will be possible to participate in a free guided tour led by experts.
The Green Festival offers the opportunity to get to know, with a free guided tour on Wednesday 22 May, the Fruit Museum Francesco Garnier Valletti e the Academy of Agriculture in via Andrea Doria which will be accessible at the weekend. Also on the calendar is a visit to the Garden of Palazzo Madama with an in-depth look at the plants that attract bees and pollinators. In the Festival there will also be a lot of space for urban agriculture: from the women’s collective garden and orchard to the Mennea Park managed by ColtivaTo, weTree and other associations up to those of the Bunker and Viale della Frutta. In Pino Torinese, however, the “From the Hill to the Table” Festival.
“This week is so eventful – he adds Fabio Marzanoco-creator of the Festival – it also offers a great opportunity for information on urban greenery, both public and private, and on the value of our natural heritage”.
From 24 to 26 May the third edition of “A degree and a half. Festival on climate and environment”this year included in the Festival del Verde calendar with the aim of sparking new and fruitful collaborations.
The value of 1.5°C is the limit of increase in the average global temperature which should not be exceeded at the end of the century, compared to pre-industrial values, to guarantee us a less uncertain, healthier and more equitable future. The festival “A degree and a half” was created to make the public reflect on the future that awaits us: 3 days of events, free and open to all, dedicated to protecting the environment, to talk about climate change from different points of view by mixing different registers. Hosted at the Alberto Geisser Civic Library, on the banks of the Po, excellences of Italian research will alternate with writers, journalists and popularizers to discuss a very important topic: water. Opening the proceedings will be the mountaineer and popularizer Hervé Barmasse who will accompany the public on a fascinating journey to reflect and be fascinated by the close relationship between water and mountains.
More information on the Festival del Verde at the link www.festivalverde.it
