Ancona was founded in 387 b. C. by Greek colons and its name comes from old Greek meaning "elbow", and it is due to the morphological characteristics of its territory. Ancona, with a population of more than 100.000, is the largest city in Marche Region and, as the regional capital, is the focus center in the area for public services and administration. Its geographical position, at the very center of the Italian peninsula and facing the area of eastern Mediterranean, makes the city one of the most important Italian harbours for commercial traffics between Northern and Eastern Europe, especially Greece.
The Municipality of Ancona spreads over an area of about 123 km². Its competencies cover all the matters pertaining the city's organization: social services, town planning, culture, environment and security. The departments in charge of managing the work for Connected Cities are the Department for Environmental Policies and Communitarian Programs and the Town planning Department.
Ancona is characterized by the presence of the port at the very center of the old town. The intense both commercial and touristic traffic adds problems to the already congestioned urban one. Moreover, the orography of the territory doesn't help in finding solutions to this, while it often represents a barrier for urban mobility. The quarter on which we are focusing on for this project, "Archi", suffers from both aspects. In fact, it is situated between the railway station and the harbour itself, on the main access road to the city from the north bound of the highway. Moreover, it lays below a cliff, isolating the area from the rest of the city, even if it is one of the most important TDA's not of the city alone, but of the whole Region.
Through CC, we will focus mainly on two aspects: sustainable mobility and accessibility. Given the point that many of the problems for the quarter, both spatial and social, spring from the pervasive presence of the access road, we'll try to redesign it, transforming it from a high flow road to one with urban characteristics. The realization of a parking lot will help to reduce the flow of vehicles leading to the city centre. Secondly, with the creation of a pedestrian way through the cliff, we aim to connect the railway station with the Region Marche administrative offices and the XVI century park "Cittadella", which are situated on top of the hill. This intervention not only will enhance the accessibility to the area, but will provide it with a greater degree of safety, thanks to the improvement of the public lighting and the rescuing of public blight green. Also participation plays an important role in the project, since the residents have been involved in point out the main problems of the area and their possible solution.
