May
Cittaslow General Assembly - Parma
Thursday 22 June 2023
06:00 pm: Port on Po River, Polesine Zibello: Artistic performance by Nihat Özdal
Title of the performance and installation: Memory of Rivers. It is a work on the memory of rivers, started on the Euphrates and continued on the Tigris rivers in Baghdad. Our memories are compared to the length of flowing rivers, pieces of land that touch and divide. This memory is also the memory of the world. Nihat Özdal’s performances and installations consist in immersing the poems of him in the rivers in the center of memory written on marble tablets. This series of performative installations, will continue with the Po river and will touch several rivers of the world.
Friday 23 June 2023
4.00 pm: 1st International Summit "Cittaslow Rivers and Lakes" - Teatro Pallavicino di Zibello
With the participation of the Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè
Large rivers, lakes, wetlands and protected areas. A tour of the Cittaslow municipalities from all over the world and their fresh waters.
It is an opportunity to reaffirm the philosophy of the movement, committed to the enhancement of river territories and communities. The critical issues - such as the global drought due to climate change - and the opportunities for sustainable local development will be at the center of a discussion between actors of the riparian Cittaslow of many countries, from Korea and China to Europe, to Italy .
The river constituted in this case by the Po, is the most important physical and mental sign of this territory, which continually refers to a remote and near past rich in specific meanings, material cultures, riparian environments. The Project aims to reaffirm the centrality of the river, with its critical issues such as drought from the climate crisis, and its opportunities, tourism in its various forms, nature, cycling, natural biodiversity, river culture, river management, administrative, technical, indicates. A 360° comparison with the world partners of the Cittaslow Network, other cities with different cultures united by the slow and constant presence of the river, a more or less large mass of water in vector movement that creates closeness and community of destiny between distant villages and several who, however, all speak the same language of the river.
“The 1st Cittaslow International Summit represents a significant step for our association – explains the president of Cittaslow, Mauro Migliorini – It is an opportunity to broaden the horizons and at the same time take stock of the participating Municipalities. There are many projects and collaborations in the pipeline, not counting the new entries that give new life to the whole movement". The mayor of the Cittaslow of Polesine Zibello who will host the initiative, Massimo Spigaroli, reiterates that "the culture of the great river indelibly connotes the Bassa Parmense, a land that promotes naturalistic river tourism, cycling together with the food and wine treasures that make the Parma's "food valley" is unique. The Culatello di Zibello dear to Giuseppe Verdi and Giovannino Guareschi is the main product of our land: the Summit is an opportunity to share the opportunities for a renewed "slow" sustainable development at an international level".
The aim of the intervention is the internationalization of the "great river" theme: here the Po, with its secular culture expressed in Polesine Zibello and in the lower Parma area as well as in the Lombard coastal municipalities, is one of the main elements of meaning of these lands. Land and fresh water in continuous evolution and mutual respect. The river is by its nature a complex and lively world that deserves greater attention from every point of view, hydraulic and hydrogeological, environmental and biological, naturalistic and landscape, social and economic, tourist and cultural, as well as green mobility infrastructure.
Seizing the opportunity of a network of large and small cities worldwide as Cittaslow is, it organizes a World Summit of Freshwater Cittaslows, which in 2023 and 2025 will address the problems and opportunities that a large river can give, with the final production of a Position Chart.
It is an institutional event but also a cultural, technical-scientific, touristic and commercial one, which goes perfectly with the big events already active on site such as November Porc and Festival del Culatello and Slowpo di Travacò Siccomario Cittaslow.
Saturday 24June 2023 Parma - Paganini Congressi, Sala Pizzetti - h 9:00 AM
ASSEMBLEA GENERALE CITTASLOW INTERNATIONAL
More than 200 mayors and delegates from all over the world will gather to discuss numerous issues and projects carried out by the Association including:
- 550th Anniversary of the birth of Nicolò Copernico 1473-2023
- Snail Orange Awards 2023
- Agroforestry: forest policy projects to combat climate change
- Slow mobility:
* Cittaslow Project Cyclability Denied / Cyclability Realized
* Three-year cycling mobility plan
* exchange of good practices and know-how
*Cittaslow Area 30/ Area 290 / Area 10
* Territorial ZTL project: the example of Amalfio (I) Cittaslow
- Cittaslow Metropolis: Current projects, ongoing projects
- Cittaslow Education
* Collaborative projects between Cittaslow and schools of all levels
* Inter-school projects
* "eTwinning cooperation"
- Cittaslow Tourism
* active examples of Cittaslow Tourism packages
*Outdoor activities
- CittaslowBee
- Special Projects: Cittaslow in Progress/ Cittaslow Area /
- The future of Cittaslow: ideas, proposals, projects
* how to organize a Cittaslow Youth cluster
* Cittaslow communities: food districts, energy communities, greencities
* “CittaslowArtVillage”
* Cittaslow Wine Contest
