The Nidiaci in San Frediano, Florence The Nidiaci is the modern name, used only from the 1950s on, for a garden hidden behind the Carmine church where the Renaissance began. It lies behind a gate on the narrow Via d’Ardiglione, where Filippo Lippi was born. Today it is a unique experiment in “commoning”, being kept […]
Tag: gentrification
Saving city community life
An article in The Guardian tells us about research showing that the healthiest place to live is a crowded “inner city” – to use the American expression: a place like the Oltrarno. Where an intense social life and especially walking make the big difference, against obesity-promoting, isolated suburbias. This is a key reason we defend […]
1500 people at the Spring Feast of the Ardiglione-Nidiaci
Spring Feast of the Ardiglione-Nidiaci garden in Oltrarno: the first we have ever organised! Three years ago, we were a small group of parents upset at how a real estate speculator had taken over a ludoteca – a kind of after-school playground with toys and animation by professional educators – and driven the children out. […]
Real estate dealer says kicking children out is a fairy tale
In 1920, the American Red Cross donated the means to turn a building in Florence’s Oltrarno district – Palazzo Santarelli, in Via della Chiesa 44, 46, 48 and 50 – into a kindergarten and playground for the deprived children of the San Frediano area. In 2012, real estate dealer Salvatore Leggiero turned the kids out. […]
Proud to love my backyard
A manipulative expression politicians love to use is “Nimby“: if you love and protect the place you live in instead of accepting that it be used as a waste bin by somebody richer than you, you are a selfish enemy of Progress. We see it differently. As usual, a tiny example from our tiny world […]
Cardinal Archbishop of Florence visits Ardiglione-Nidiaci garden
On Wednesday, April 20, the Archbishop of Florence will be visiting the Ardiglione-Nidiaci garden during his pastoral visit to the parish of San Frediano in Cestello. A strong decision, if we think what this area means in terms of popular identity, of tenacious resistance against injustice, speculation and gentrification, and of the capacity people have […]
Community Gardening behind the Carmine church
Literally in the shade of Santa Maria del Carmine, where the Renaissance began, here we are planting tomatoes, cucumbers and other good and healthy things. Our community garden is small, but growing! This little corner of San Frediano/Oltrarno which we are saving from real estate speculation and institutional neglect (to put it mildly) is beginning […]
