Caro Mayor Renzi,
My wife and I visited your beautiful city three weeks ago. We had absolutely beautiful weather! The last time that we had stayed in Firenze was 2009 and we rented an apartment near Duomo, called Palazzo Gamba. At the time the streets were not closed to traffic. But now the streets around the Duomo and in front of the apartment building are pedestrianized. We loved that! Very quiet and very safe to walk around. We noticed many more improvements to the city. Many buildings along the Arno are painted and beautiful. Not that we dislike a building showing age. We also noticed street improvements around piazza Santa Trinita. Thank you for these wonderful improvements. Here is something we find very exciting about your city: from borgo Santi Apostoli there is a small alley with my name on it, I believe it is via del Bene (next to Ristorante il Boccale) that leads to piazzetta del Bene. It is fun to see my name on signs.
Grazie e cordiali saluti, Paul Del Bene
Dear Paul,
Thank you so much for your kind letter. This administration has worked very hard to make the city of Florence more liveable for its residents and, since the early days of my administration, I was keen to transform piazza Duomo into a pedestrian square. At the beginning there were many voices raised against the idea of pedonalizzazione of piazza Duomo, but as this was an important signal I wanted my administration to make, we went ahead. The results have been quite good and many of the scenarios (terrible ramifications on surrounding traffic, for example) did not occur. Florence has the benefit of being a city where people can walk to most places in a short time, and the benefit to the liveability of the city, I think, is enormous. The total number of hectares of pedestrian streets in Florence is 12, bringing it to first place among cities in Italy, according to Legambiente.
If you happen to return to Florence this fall, you may be happy to know that from November 10–13 we will be making the Ponte Santa Trinita open only to pedestrian traffic. There will be no more cars or buses on this historic bridge.
Recently, at Obihall, we distributed a questionnaire to the public asking them what were the five most preferred initiatives of this administration. The number one answer was pedestrianization of piazza Duomo.
I think that speaks for itself!
Best wishes, Matteo
Those interested in writing to the mayor can send messages and comments via email to redazione@theflorentine.net, stating ‘Write to the Mayor’ in the subject line of the email. Emails must clearly state the author’s first name, surname, city and country of birth, and the city and country of residence.
