Mobilità pedonale e valorizzazione territoriale delle città

In a phase like the present one, characterized by the frequent and widespread use of private motorized means of transport vehicles, pedestrianization and walkability are increasingly considered elements of quality and correct access and use of urban public spaces. The possibility to access and walk in the city, as also the possibility to have suitable areas for walkability, has become an objective of urban marketing policies aimed at revitalizing and increasing the tourist attractiveness of places. Moving on foot can represent a multisensory experience that allows urban subjects, citizens or tourists, to feel part of the places they are walking through, savoring signs, imagines and immaterial elements that make up the atmosphere of the city. Walking, as oppor tunity to experience places, although already known in the past (especially in the higher social classes, p.e. flâneurs and elité tourism), is now affecting increasing numbers of travellers, who seek narrative places starting from new and innovative paths. Only a direct and slow experience can give them this emotional knowledge of urban places. However, there are still a lot of limitations that hinder the practice of walking. The difficult pedestrian access to tourist areas is just the first example. The possibility of walking in the historical centres of many cities encounters limits of impervious and inadequate paths (especially for the weakest travelers). In addition there are problems referred to the presence of unsafe areas (or perceived as such) or to the customs and regulatory systems (formal and informal) of different sociocultur al contexts that can play a facilitating role or inhibit the practice of walking and, through this way, the “right to the city”.