LONG LIVE CITIES FOR A GOOD FUTURE!

Best wishes to all the Cittaslow communities around the world

As we all know, the future stems from the present, which is why it is truly worth our effort and hard work today to ensure a good future of peace and prosperity for all Cittaslow cities around the world. 

As all Cittaslow mayors know, there is no project without an idea, but there is no idea without motivation and inspiration behind it: in this sense, Cittaslow shows the way forward, which each of us defines, plans, and implements in our own city.

The methods may differ, but the goals are the same.

In 2025, as the Cittaslow International Network, we have made numerous significant steps forward in many areas, from collaboration and co-design between national coordinators, to internal and external communication, from integration with researchers and universities to the creation of new working groups, such as the one dedicated to coastal Cittaslow towns, approved at the Assembly in Wando. All the actions will be detailed in the Annual Activity Report 2025 with your supporting. Next year will see us engaged on several fronts: among these, we would like to highlight just four.

Cittaslow Education: there are signs from many areas of growing interest in Cittaslow, its values, and its projects in schools of all levels. Cittaslow Agriculture: the Association's policies for the primary sector will be updated, revamped  and relaunched over the coming year, and on June 20, 2026, in Greve in Chianti, we will present shared documents and projects that will define our new policy on food production, which is  strategic for the future of the planet. Thirdly, our relationship with the University of Parma,  our main academic partner, will allow us to reintroduce the “widespread Seminar” in various Cittaslow towns to bring proactive discussion with citizens at a local level Last but not least, as announced at the Borger-Odoorn Coordination meeting, we are working on a new Cittaslow Manifesto II, which we will bring to Greve for approval: the aim is to link the cultural and theoretical tradition from which we come with the implementation of Cittaslow projects and ideas. 

Best wishes to all the mayors who are committed to strengthening their cities by following the spirit, ideas, and projects of Cittaslow: today more than ever, planet Earth needs us to “build the future” and lay the foundations for new forms of solidarity among humans. We are all going through an undoubtedly ‘fast’ period of transition, full of old and new challenges but equally rich in new opportunities. Certainly, in deeds and not just words, we have chosen and continue to mark a ‘slow’ path for our cities, for the countryside, mountains, seas, and rivers that surround us, for development and innovation. 

The President of Cittaslow International  

Mauro Migliorini 

The Secretary General of Cittaslow International

Pier Giorgio Oliveti

"...Human plurality, a fundamental condition of both discourse and action, has the dual character of equality and distinction. If humans were not equal, they could neither understand each other, nor understand their predecessors, nor make plans for the future and foresee the needs of their successors. If men were not different, and every human being distinct from every other who is, was, or ever will be, they would need neither discourse nor action to understand each other. Signs and sounds would suffice to communicate immediate and identical desires and needs".

Hanna Arendt, The human condition, 1958,  University of Chicago Press