Mayor Renzi replies to a reader’s queries about renovations at the Cascine park

Mayor Renzi replies to a reader’s queries about renovations at the Cascine park

Dear Mayor Renzi,   I fell in love with Florence at first sight 15 years ago, and if anything, my love for your incomparable city has grown since then. It’s not only the glories of manmade Florence that makes it so special—the art, architecture, food, the

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Wed 13 Mar 2013 11:00 PM

Dear Mayor Renzi,

 

I fell in love with Florence at first sight 15 years ago, and if anything, my love for your incomparable city has grown since then. It’s not only the glories of manmade Florence that makes it so special—the art, architecture, food, the people. It’s the whole setting of the city among the beautiful hills, to which you may lift your eyes from even the most thickly populated street in the city centre. And it’s the wonderful trees, cypresses, umbrella pines, aspens, planes and palms that stand like gods in and near countless palazzos and piazzas. Most international cities have lost this presence of the natural world, as the planet itself has now lost most of its untouched wilderness. In London, we long for contact with nature, which has been driven beyond the outer boundaries of our huge metropolis. It’s the same for people almost everywhere, now that most of the world’s population lives in mega-cities.

                                           

Florence is perhaps the last great city to preserve a sense of its rural inheritance. And this is above all true because of the place you rightly describe as ‘the most beautiful park in the world’: the Cascine. Its beauty arises specifically because it embraces nature: ancient trees, shrubs, grass, leafy forest floors, allowed to grow according to their natural habits and a great range of different spaces, made up of glades, clearings, fields, riverbanks, determined by that growth, rather than by any mere human brain. And yes, this includes the gleaming river itself, in which are reflected the lovely trees and green banks that are such an amazing contrast with the wretched concrete, or mathematically spaced plants one sees along the rivers of other cities. The Arno: a river where people can still stand midstream, fishing. It is a rare and beautiful sight.

 

Of the Cascine you say ‘We mustn’t throw it away.’ But you are proposing to urbanize this jewel: with a ‘visitor centre,’ parking areas, ‘fitness paths,’ 18-hole golf course, restaurant, bandstands [in reference to article, ‘Changing the Cascine,’ published in TF 169]. How was I able to explore the Cascine all these years without a visitor centre? And run there regularly without needing a fitness path, or a golf course, to keep me fit? Or a large-scale restaurant? There are several delightful snack bars whose small scale makes them blend well with the outdoor environment. As for bandstands, one of the Cascine’s blessings is its silence. Are you are going to take that away, too? Also, there is already a children’s playground, as if the place itself were not already one of the few places on earth that urban children can get a sense of the natural world. But it appears you are going to put a stop to that, too.

 

Everywhere in the world, people are feeling increasingly disconnected from the natural world of which we’re all a part. One result of this is that we begin to find nature scary —something beyond our control. We begin to think that a place full of trees, almost like a real forest, must be ‘unsafe.’ Humans can commit crimes anywhere. But please let’s not fall into the error of believing that the Cascine is a particularly dangerous place. A middle-aged woman, I have been running there alone for years. What I’ve found there—apart from joy and beauty—is an unexpected: a network of warmth emanating from and shared by everyone, as though the magic of the park somehow spreads its light over all who enter it. Or perhaps it’s just the shared happiness of escaping from the demands of city life for a little while.

 

Please, please re-think your plans for Cascine. It needs no intervention or renovation to remain the jewel of Florence. It is the very absence of such intervention that makes it special. Go ahead and you will destroy the heart of the very thing you rightly wish to cherish.

 

In hope, Alison Truefitt

 

Born by accident in Washington, DC, but have lived all my life in the United Kingdom, mostly in London, where I still live six months of the year. The other five to six months I live close to Florence, just off via Bolognese.

 

Dear Alison,

I very much appreciate your declaration of love for Florence and cannot but agree with you on this!  I am convinced that Florence and Florentines, even those who only visit for a day, merit a large and welcoming park, one that is safe and liveable. For this reason, we have begun a revolution to return this wonderful space to its citizens with a complex project that will unfold over the next few years.  Several structures within the park will necessarily need to be revitalized and upgraded; but this does not mean any new construction—simply the reuse of what is already there. In Florence we have approved a piano strutturale a volume zero—that is, a ‘zero volume’ city plan, meaning no new constructions at all:  no new cement! 

 

Le Cascine makes up an area of more than 400 hectares (approximately 1000 acres) for which we have planned 30 projects, beginning with an investment in public green spaces and a hedge along Line 1 of the tramvia up to the children’s playground and the pedestrian walkway and bike path that will connect Le Cascine to Argingrosso.  But all with no new buildings!

 

Best, Matteo

 

Dear Mayor Renzi,

I was recently married in Florence and had a wonderful time. It went beyond my expectations of a dream wedding. I am from Washington, MO, in the United States, and my husband is from Glasgow, Scotland.

 

We are currently residing in Barcelona, Spain. I am trying to get my temporary residence in Spain. In order to do this, my marriage certificate needs an apostilles seal less than three months old, with our wedding certificate. Unfortunately, our wedding certificates are about five months old now. I was just curious as to how to go about getting a new wedding certificate with an apostilles seal.

 

Grazie mille! I look forward to hearing from you!

 

Sincerely,

 

Esther Hillermann

 

Dear Esther,

 

Let me first offer you and your husband my congratulations on your wedding—even if they are a bit late in coming!  I thank you for having chosen Florence as the place to begin your new life together; you didn’t mention in which room you were married, but in my opinion each one is more beautiful than the next! Recently we have opened new rooms in Palazzo Vecchio to couples wishing to be married in Florence as well as the Giardino delle Rose and the Bardini museum.As for your specific inquiry, you should get in touch with the prefecture, as they are the ones who handle the authentication of certificates, and in your case, you should contact the Prefettura di Firenze.

 

Best, Matteo

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