Interno Verde Festival - The city opens its secret gardens
What is hidden beyond the elegant buildings of the Italian historical city centres? Interno Verde once a year exceptionally opens the secret gardens of Parma, Mantua and Ferrara to the public. For a weekend it trasforms the intimate and private space into a shared, inclusive space. It invites the communities to preserve their gardens, and to look at them with different eyes, as precious green islands which innervate the urban fabric, essential for protecting biodiversity and reducing pollution.
National
Italy
Municipalities: Ferrara (in Emilia-Romagna), Mantua (in Lombardy), Parma (in Emilia-Romagna).
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-09-18
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Ilturco Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Riccardo Last name of representative: Gemmo Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via del Turco 39 Town: Ferrara Postal code: 44121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 328 667 2257 E-mail:info@ilturco.it Website:https://www.ilturco.it/
Name of the organisation(s): Interno Verde Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Licia Last name of representative: Vignotto Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Vice President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via del Turco 39 Town: Ferrara Postal code: 44121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 339 152 4410 E-mail:licia.vignotto@internoverde.it Website:https://internoverde.it/
Interno Verde is a festival born in Ferrara in 2016, conceived and organized by the association Ilturco. Ferrara is a small, very fascinating place: its history is ancient, linked to the noble Este family. Its architecture, marked by the genius of Biagio Rossetti, represents a fundamental testimony of the Italian Renaissance. Walking along its streets you come across the red of the typical bricks, and it seems that nature has no space between alleys and small squares. The reality is different: Ferrara is one of the greenest cities in Italy, but the urban conformation hides its wonderful secret gardens from the view of passers-by. For a weekend, Interno Verde opens these intimate and private spaces to the public, offering both inhabitants and tourists a new perspective on the city. In the same days, the festival promotes a rich programme of activities, designed to involve both adults and children and make them more aware about environmental sustainability. It includes thematic itineraries, meetings, workshops, artistic performances and installations, river excursions, exhibitions and conferences. The University of Ferrara has an important ruole in the programme: researchers from the Tecnopolo participate at the event, presenting the innovative projects they are working on to combat pollution.
Interno Verde has grown over time: from 2019 it began to take place in the splendid historic center of Mantua, a precious treasure designed by the Gonzaga court, and from 2021 in Parma, nicknamed the Petit Capital, architecturally marked by the powerful dominion of the Farnese and the Habsburg dynasties.
Interno Verde offers inhabitants and tourists an original and unprecedented key to understanding the past and present of these cities with greater awareness, exploring the elements that have determined their development over the centuries and the many souls that today shape the multiple and irreducible character and of their communities.
Secret gardens
Environmental sustainability
Inclusive community
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Interno Verde is a festival dedicated to urban, public and private green areas. Sustainability is the core of the project, which promote the city’s botanic heritage and aim to raise awareness among different audiences, for which it provides dedicated actions. The first target are the gardens’ owners, families that often do not realise how important for the community the areas that they preserve from the concrete are. Involve this people, convince them to open their gardens, firstly means motivating them to take more care of their properties, which are privates but generate public benefits. The second target are the volunteers who welcome the visitors in the gardens. Hundreds of young people, high school students and university students are taught to look at the urban green areas with new eyes: consciuos, informed and careful. The third target is the visitors: enriches the festival a programme of events and activites, studied to raise awareness of both adults and children about environmental sustainability. It includes laboratories, meetings (f.e. about permaculture, hydroponic systems, urban beekeeping), presentations of tools, products and techniques developed by university researchers to reduce pollution, exhibitions and installations (such as “Spiantate”, dedicated to wild herbs, and “Per fare un albero”, dedicated to artificial nature). The fourth target are public and private institutions organizing events: Interno Verde represents for them an innovative vehicle of good practices, who contributes and actively participates in the work of local, national and international networks (such as Arca Mantova, Urbact C-Change and ZeroWaste). The measures adopted by the festival to reduce its impact are numerous. Some examples: the cover of the book dedicated to the gardens is made of Shiro Alga Carta, a material that recycles the seaweed found in the Venice Lagoon; the bracelets given to visitors are made of recycled PET; all prints are made of Fsc certified paper.
The aims of Interno Verde aren’t all about environmental sustainability. Trying to create an open and inclusive community is also a focal point. The festival mean to be not only a original educational experience for the participants, but also a socially significative moment. That's why the same attention is spent to welcome the visitors, to positively collaborate with the partners, to engage the volunteers and of course to involve the gardens owners. The entire event is built on trust, on the kindness of the families who open their most intimate spaces, and on the willingness of the students who offer their time and effort to look after them. These factors - invisible but definitely perceivable during the festival's days - create a relaxed and spontaneous atmosphere. Exploring the gardens it’s easy to talk to strangers, to meet and make friends with people of different ages, origins and interests. Ilturco promote this process: the aim is to make visitors, volunteers and owners feel part of an open and inclusive community. Before, during and after the festival it plans several appointments such as local aperitifs, parties for the students and meetings with the owners, to encourage people to build a group. The art direction of Interno Verde too is meant to bring people closer: graphic design is light and fresh, texts are nice and friendly. The book about the gardens combines accurate historical researches, botanic and architectural descriptions with a simple and informal language: it’s a precious source of information, accessible to everyone. To facilitate the participation of families with children, it also contains a sticker album: child who wants to complete the collection have to pick up cards from garden to garden.
In Italy, manifestations for the promotion of the historic heritage are mainly attended by people over the age of 50. Since its first edition, Interno Verde has always wanted to characterize itself in a fresh and original way to involve adolescents, young people and families, so it oriented towards this aim both the communication design of the event and the contents of the initiatives included in the programme (meetings, workshops, art exhibitions, performances, etc). The effort has brought good results: a large community of motivated and interested visitors has grown up around the festival. It is equally split in demographic terms between people under 25, under 50 and over 50. Interno Verde has also always wanted to be as accessible and inclusive as possible: that's why its registration cost - valid for two days - is particularly effordabole. It includes the book, the stickers and the map of the gardens, and the bracelet that acts as an access pass: it costs 13 euros per person, 7 euros for people with disabilities and is free for children up to 13 years of age. On the map of the gardens there is an icon indicating the degree of accessibility of each space, for persons with reduced mobility. The program invites visitors to give priority to the elderly and pregnant women. The descriptions of the gardens, published in the book and present on the navigable online map, are available in both Italian and English, can also be heard in audio format.
People visiting the gardens of Interno Verde have the chance to live a truly positive and generative experience, from many points of view. They learn to look at the city with different and more conscious eyes. Using the map, walking or riding a bike to reach the gardens, they leave their usual routes, explore unknown neighborhoods and discover new paths. Reading the descriptions and the stories wrote in the book and listening to the audioguide tracks, they recognize the complexity of the urban fabric, the multifaceded character of the territory, because each place told about a historical period, a legend, a curiosity, a figure from the past or a present reality. The families who open their gardens give a unconventional sign of trust to the visitors: being part of the festival means discovering or rediscovering the meaning and beauty of belonging to a community, the pleasure of sharing and spend genuine time together. The activities included in the programme informe and educate visitors about environmental sustainability: they can be practical laboratories to spread good practices, conference and meetings dedicated to specific subjects, art exhibitions and performances that suggest reflections. Interno Verde is a collective event: the whole community participate to its realization, from the families who open their gardens to the students who propose to be volunteers, from the institutions that collaborate opening their most prestigious palaces to big or small associations that promote laboratories and activities. No one is left out, even those who live in exclusion their day to day life: in Ferrara and in Mantova the festival offer the chance to visit the vegetable gardens which grow beyond of the wall of the city prisons. The prisoners guide the visitors, explaining what and how they cultivate.
The web of the collaborations activated to realize Interno Verde is very wide and structured on various levels. To a local level, in the three cities where the festival is carried out, it includes: institutions that open their headquarters to the public, from the Municipality to the University, from jails to museums (for example: Palazzo Ducale in Mantova, Palazzo Schifanoia and MEIS – National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara), schools that invite their students to participate as volunteers and that offer educational workshops, companies that support the event as sponsors or technical sponsors (such as: Assicurazioni Generali, Chiesi Farmaceutica, Coop Alleanza 3.0, Emilbanca), foundations and associations that implement the programme dedicated to environmental sustainability (such as: Fondazione Palazzo Te, Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, KilometroVerdeParma), professional associations of agronomists and architects that formulate agreements to obtain professional credits by attending conferences and meetings. Among the stakeholders at national level: associations committed to the environment and landscape that sponsor the initiative and promote it through their channels (such as: Associazione Italiana Architettura del Paesaggio, Associazione Parchi e Giardini d’Italia, Associazione Nazionale Pubblici Giardini). At European level, the network includes: artistic organisations contributing to the creation of the programme (e. g. Euyo, the European Union Youth Orchestra, which performs free live in the gardens) and international networks of European projects aimed at disseminating good practices on sustainability in the world of cultural events (for example: Urbact C-Change, Zero Waste).
Interno Verde embraces different fields: history, architecture, urbanism, botany, literature and cinema. The research of the gardens begins from the knowledge of the territory, from the study of the city in its most peculiar elements. This studies are essential to understand which families to contact, to ask them to open their garden. They are also necessary to write the book which guides the visitors through the gardens: its pages often reveal untold stories, never published before because taken from archives and private sources. It also includes the botanical description of each space, notes from literature and cinema (it's easy in Ferrara to find traces of Giorgio Bassani's novels or of Michelangelo Antonioni's movies), and curiosities told by the homeowners. Even the skills that are required to organize Interno Verde are different: history, architecture and botany experts - which create the contents published in the book, in the online navigable map and in the audio tracks - collaborate with communication experts (graphic designer, videomaker, press officers, social media manager), event organizers, production and logistic experts, educators and trainers who involve the students. Every edition requires the effort of 15 people, who work together and coordinate themself using group chat and regular meetings. Listening and discussion are constant: the event is able to maintain a strong inner coherence and to evolve thanks to new ideas, reflections encouraged by the dialogue between experts and different subjects.
Interno Verde from 2016 until today counts 13 editions: 7 editions took place in Ferrara, the city where it was born, 4 in Mantua, 2 in Parma. A total of more than 679 gardens have been opened to the public in these years, more than 46,600 people have participated in the festival, 1,700 students have been involved as volunteers, and more than 500 partners have collaborated (institutions, companies, associations that organized activities to raise awareness about environmental sustainability). The impact it had on the area was important. Thanks to the festival places of great beauty and historical and architectural significance - usually closed and inaccessible, as they are private -were able to be known and appreciated. Direct beneficiaries of Interno Verde are the visitors, which have the chance to explore the city through its most hidden spaces, and the students who participate as volunteers, which participate a specific training. Indirect beneficiaries of Interno Verde are: the business operators working in catering and tourist reception, which benefit from the induced income produced (Interno Verde was the subject of a degree dissertation, presented at the Iulm University of Milan, which analyzes the economic benefits brought by the festival to the city's commercial sphere); scholars, researchers and all people interested in local history and architecture (because the garden book contains a lot of information never published before); the entire community living in the city, because Interno Verde encourages the care of private gardens, which contribute significantly to the absorption of CO2, maintenance of soil permeability, reduction of temperature, preservation and implementation of biodiversity in the urban context.
Events similar to Interno Verde - dedicated to public and private gardens - are not widespread. A recognition carried out at a European level, has counted few similar initiatives. Most of them take place in the countrysides, they include villas and castles: they don't considerate gardens as a privileged spot to understand the city. In the last years anyhow the projects that aim to enhance the historical and architectural heritage of the territory have been growing. More and more often, institutions and associations organize thematic tours through the city or events that allow participants to explore not so known public buildings. In this context is significant the innovative character of Interno Verde. This feature mostly expresses itself by three elements: 1) the active inclusion of the families who share their private spaces and turn them into temporary public space; 2) the attention given to the urban green, meant as a system functional to the health of the community, a resource that have to be known and protect; 3) valueble new content, supported by a strong basis of study and research, which reach the public in a soft and informal way, in order to be as inclusive as possible. About the first element, the most original and delicate: open private spaces to thousands of strangers is not for granted, especially in the years of the pandemic. It takes a lot of trust and openness, a conscious and responsible approach to the common good: even the private heritage can be considered common good if we recognise its historical, architectural and botanical value, when it's considered part of the collective identity. It remains obviously property of the owners but it deserves to be known and lived by the community. With caution and respect, in the right time and way it becomes part of a shared experience. The project stimulates two reactions: much more love from the citizens to the city and more care given to gardens by their owners.
The organization of Interno Verde, in the beginning, was highly experimental. Over the years, after several attempts and corrections of errors to strengthen the elements of success, the organizational method became defined. In this process the most important is the recognition, listening and involvement of the community. Only by devoting effort, time and attention to this phase is it possible to build a relationship of trust with the families who own the gardens and to organize collaborations with those who operate locally, together with whom the program of activities for the environment is built. Interno Verde highlights a richness that is understood not only from an architectural and botanical point of view, but also and especially from a social point of view. By the festival, the community gets to know and recognize itself. For this to happen it is necessary to pose with great respect and delicacy, and with constancy. The close relationships for organizing the event are not business relationships: they do not involve an exchange of goods or money. They are relationships based on the desire to create something beautiful and good together. These relationships are real; they do not end once the event is over; they are cultivated. When the event is gone, they will remain, they will function as a basis for the creation of new initiatives.
Interno Verde suits itself to be transferred in any city possessing a good number of private gardens, better if they are located in a prestigious architectonic environment. At the same time, being based on the urbanistic heritage and on the community that actively participates in its organisation, the event is never the same. Interno Verde is the interpreter of a unique and irreducible character, which is precisely the character of the city, given by the conformation of the territory, by its past and present, by the many souls of its inhabitants. Its replicability is a fact: born in Ferrara in 2016, it began to take place in Mantua in 2019 and in Parma in 2021. In each of these cities, the organisational process was the same, yet the result was different. In Ferrara, for example, among the most recurring themes are organic farming and beekeeping; in Mantua, new plantations and the contribution of trees to contast pollution; in Parma, wild herbs suitable for food use. Each city brings its own traditions, interests and experiences into the festival. In the same way, actors who have taken inspiration from Interno Verde to create similar events have given their own unique character to their festivals. The cooperative Il Raggio Verde asked Ilturco for advice in 2018 to organise something very similar in Padua: the Anime Verdi festival. The format is almost identical but as the cooperative is active in the field of education for adolescents, it pays particular attention to the involvement of students and their parents. In 2019, a group of architects from Verona asked Ilturco for help to organise another initiative, called Giardini Aperti a Veronetta. In this case the focus was the neighbourhood, the gardens werw not located in the historic centre but in a specific neighbourhood of the city, at the foot of the hill, chosen for its characteristic landscape.
Interno Verde responds locally to many of the challenges that humanity is facing globally. Using the ONU 2030 Agenda as a point of reference, these are the goals that the festival contributes to achieve.
Goal 3) Good heal and well-being, because protecting and enhancing the urban green means to build a more peaceful and enjoyable context to live in.
Goal 11) Sustainable cities and communities, because the festival promotes a shared and inclusive use of the urban green, public and private; it encourages a softer and more sustainable mobility, it stimulates attention, care and protection of the cultural heritage.
Goal 13) Climate action, because the entire program of Interno Verde ame to encrease people awareness about environmental sustainability, to share and spread good practices to reduce pollution and contrast climate change.
Goal 15) Life on land, because the festival - thanks to the many activities meeting, laboratories and educational paths about biodiversity - recognizes the significant role of the various animals living in the urban context and invites the visitors to do the same: know it, respect it, help it to encrease.
