New Prato:
Spaces to innovate

Riversibility

The wellness river park

The city of Prato is lucky enough to be crossed by a river, the Bisenzio.
Since its origins it has a very strong and unbreakable bond with it which has determined the economy and the conformation of the city.
From Roman and Etruscan times with the first settlements in Gonfienti, to the medieval times with the fourteenth-century walls that in a stretch are the embankment to the river and to the development of the market place for trade, foothills villas and farms, almost touching the river bank, up to the recent industrial and manufacturing complexes. The river is set up as a kind of buffer between the densely urbanized city to the west and the areas of great natural and landscape value to the east. The city lives and feeds just on this ongoing dialogue.
Ambition of this Municipal Administration project, called "Riversibility" - the Bisenzio river park, is precisely to restore and enhance the city-river relationship in its many aspects (cultural, natural, scenic) and at the same time promoting what can be defined "urban wellness” through the dissemination of psycho-physical healthy lifestyles, indications on good behaviour and socialization activities that start right from attending the river and its park.

A real scientific project on urban health, studied together with the USL, the Society of Health and Pin, which collects the information of an inquiry by the World Health Organization, such as to make the healthy choices affordable and promoting health as a public welfare.

The Riversibility project consists of 16 picnic areas (new and rearranged) spread north to south, from St. Lucia to Gonfienti, by placing 13 used but in good condition containers (for recycling and recovery), flexible and removable containers for multiple functions available to the community (cafés, space for associations, meeting spaces, bicycle repair areas...), all connected lengthwise and crosswise by 18 km of bicycle path (rearranged and new), which enable to enjoy the park, allowing the city to reclaim the relationship with the river.

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