Zoning * is clearly not a common practice in most of Italy. Unfortunately you can find all sort of horrors right next to one another: a factory next to a castle, next to a crumbling building from the '70s, next to a dump and a park. These videos are just a few examples of how one of the most beautiful countries in the World is careless when it comes to order self esteem, a desire for self preservation and pride. It's tissue is clearly becoming an industrial ruin.
Not all regions are the same. For example Piemonte seems to be more sensitive than Lombardia when it comes to beauty and order and the list goes on and on.
Italy is also littered with small villages that look more like ghost towns from the '50s and it's painful to see such misery outside the few big cities like Milan, Florence, Rome or Venice. It seems that Olivetti's idea of a perfect society went lost (The Ivrea's area is in shambles as well): preserving the rural tissue of country, while offering new technological jobs and higher education for everyone has become a thing of the past. Italy went from excellence to a near disaster in less than 40 years. Overcrowded highways with their absurd toll booths, which have fewer and fewer exits are often cutting off entire areas of the country. People explore less and less the inner land, which is often at the heart of Italy's miracle years (1950s to 1970s). Get out those autobahns and you can see all that is wrong with Italy today. Years of idiotic economic policies devised by a few crooks and ignorant politicians led to the inevitable ongoing disaster. The heart and brain of Italy are still alive, but the rest of the body is shutting down cell by cell, organ by organ and only few seem to care, while most are powerless. There's a good portion of Italy that is packed with amazing locations and they are up for grabs, for pennies on the dollar, ready to be restored by the occasional foreigner that historically appreciates history and beauty. Brands and industries, the good ones, have been purchased by financial brainless sharks, while entire governments stood by in contempt. These are dark times for the country and a clear vision for the future is badly needed. Political ignorance and not only that, needs to be cured as soon as possible. Italy needs lots of love, vision, like for example the slow food movement. Italy needs less soccer and more ideas, less Goldman Sachs and more sustainable farming, less Facebook and more books, less trash tv and more culture.
*Areas of land are divided by appropriate authorities into zones within which various uses are permitted. Thus, zoning is a technique of land-use planning as a tool of urban planning used by local governments in most developed countries.
Interesting video and good editing. It's not a whole lot different than most places. It comes down to money. I know that my attitude about the dead will stir some people but I can not understand why we wastes so much space honoring the dead. When I'm gone my ashes will be tossed to the wind in the desert. I don't want to take up space that can be used for far better purposes.
imagine it Posted at 2017-6-3 18:19
Interesting video and good editing. It's not a whole lot different than most places. It comes down to money. I know that my attitude about the dead will stir some people but I can not understand why we wastes so much space honoring the dead. When I'm gone my ashes will be tossed to the wind in the desert. I don't want to take up space that can be used for far better purposes.
You're right, like most places, with the difference that Italy could bank immensely more on tourism, compared to most countries, yet it had no Minister of Tourism and the current one is a joke!
France, with way less than Italy, in terms of locations and culture, does an outstanding job at marketing and preservation. Heck, Texas that has so little, has even tourist markings for random stones.
Italy has the largest number of world "cultural" heritage sites, yet it barely banks on that, concentrating deploying hundreds of thousands on people in a square in Venice...Off the cruise boat, roam around for a few minutes, on the boat again, no organizational skill whatsoever. That is repeated over and over across the few known cities. Each inch of Italy has potential, not only the handful of cities like Rome, Florence and Venice.
Italy is widely considered the number one destination for heritage and culture, yet the structures are often shameless and places like Pompei have less visitors than an reclaimed steel factory in the middle of Germany. If you go to Trentino (Italy), you can easily see how money can be spent properly, unfortunately they do not consider themselves Italians.
Interesting video and I enjoyed reading your thoughts. I was expecting to see more examples of the lack of "zoning", however I could only clearly observe one instance during the video (if there were more I am sorry) with the cemetery and industrial area close together. I feel traveling fair grounds don't really count as they are mobile and will set up wherever they can get permission (a theme park would have been different).
Personally when I visited Italy I didn't think much of Florence. Rome was very stimulating, however this was probably more to do with playing Assassins Creed and recognising locations due to the game (all credit to the games makers). My favourite place in Italy is Lucca, not a well known international tourist location, more an Italian tourist location, however we loved it and I enjoyed the lack of tourist "hum" you get with the more popular places.
I did enjoy reading your views though, please do that again, they were most interesting when combined with the video. Gives it a background story. In fifty or hundred years time people will watch our videos and think, wow how times have changed.
Many many thanks for sharing.
pritchiedotcom Posted at 2017-6-5 00:30
Interesting video and I enjoyed reading your thoughts. I was expecting to see more examples of the lack of "zoning", however I could only clearly observe one instance during the video (if there were more I am sorry) with the cemetery and industrial area close together. I feel traveling fair grounds don't really count as they are mobile and will set up wherever they can get permission (a theme park would have been different).
Personally when I visited Italy I didn't think much of Florence. Rome was very stimulating, however this was probably more to do with playing Assassins Creed and recognising locations due to the game (all credit to the games makers). My favourite place in Italy is Lucca, not a well known international tourist location, more an Italian tourist location, however we loved it and I enjoyed the lack of tourist "hum" you get with the more popular places.
I did enjoy reading your views though, please do that again, they were most interesting when combined with the video. Gives it a background story. In fifty or hundred years time people will watch our videos and think, wow how times have changed.
I agree with the lack of zoning samples, but this wasn't planned. The next ones will be more organized for sure. Expect a decommissioned nuclear powerplant next to ghost towns, next to rice fields, next to a beautiful landscape, etc. When you travel Italy off the beaten path, the examples are endless.
Lucca is really wonderful. I have a scientist friend there that deals with graphene research. On the contrary, San Gimignano has become the trash Tuscan town, much like Piazza San Marco in Venice. Going back there after 20 years was shocking. I was appalled at how they trashed the place with cheap chinese merchandise. Volterra is a tiny bit better, while Cortona is still ok, probably because it has been packed with English and American people for decades and they somehow preserved the place.
My rant is because I see the potential, but I also see the utter ignorance and Government should step in with rules that allowed investments to beautify Italy and not just blocking any initiative, but again, our best politician is a cultural beast. 30 years ago they stole money, but they were politicians...Once the 1st Republic was crushed by judges, the resulting political breed was a few notches below the previous one and with time corruption went through the roof, in terms of amount of money while at the same time true investments dropped. Look at Milan's Expo...Horrid steel pyramids blocking the castle's view and now they have been demolished with an immense waste of materials and money. There's no planning whatsoever.
First Officer
lvl.3
lvl.4
Second Officer
