Not so long ago, much of Rome was populated by sheep and their keepers. Animals grazed in and around the centro storico and Romans tilled the land that today is occupied by mid-late 20th century urban sprawl. It would be an understatement to say the city has lost its connection to nature, but some are trying to mend this broken bond.
The past couple of years have seen a shift towards rediscovering Rome’s natural world. While this remains a niche movement, several urban farming initiatives do exist, foraging is practiced by at least one Swedish chef and one American food writer and an urban farming shop opened in Monti in late 2011. More importantly, there are around 100 urban gardens in greater Rome and counting.
View “ZAPPATA ROMANA”: community-run green areas _by studioUAP in a larger map
One of the more recent additions to this tiny trend is Hortus Urbis on the Appia Antica. Now Rome residents without gardening experience or land of their own can partake in seminars and courses aimed at bringing them back to nature. There are some really important collaborators in the project including Zappata Romana, Eutorto, Orti Urbani Garbatella, Cooperativa Coraggio, Giardinieri Sovversivi Romani. Starting February 23, a four-installment gardening course will begin at Hortus Urbis. For more details on how to get involved in Rome’s farming initiatives, reach out to the organizations listed above. To book the gardening course or to get more details, email Zappata Romana.
Nicole Winkler
February 13th, 2013 at 11:20 am
How exciting! I live in Sydney, Australia and am in the process of setting up our own verge garden and street food farm. Rome is my other home at heart and would love to see what is going with urban farming when we visit next year. I was so excited to see your post on your foraged olives as we are patiently waiting to harvest the first tiny crop from the verge tree we planted several years ago.
Calgary Snow Removal
February 15th, 2013 at 10:06 pm
Urban gardening is the way of the future, I’m glad to see Rome is getting on board. By the looks of your map, there’s a lot more urban gardening there than in most cities I know.
Greening of Rome | Roma Sostenibile (Sustainable Rome)
March 13th, 2013 at 11:13 am
[...] But Rome have a great ecological history. Like Katie Parla writes in this post: [...]