Økoluoghi

In Danish Ecology is Økologi, which is pronounced something like Ökologhi for Italian speakers. If combined to the Italian word luoghi, it becomes Eco-luoghi (in English Eco-places), which is today's news topic.

Last 4th February at the Triennale di Milano an exhibition called Green Life has been opened.
It proposes urbanistic projects developed according to eco friendly principles.
In the smoky and grey city of Milan, this international exhibition shows the example of ten European cities that have already developed, or are about to accomplish, some innovative projects in their urbanistic system. Of course Northern Europe represents the avant-garde. Not only Stockholm and Copenhagen though, but also Hamburg, Friburg, Amsterdam, then down until the closer Salzburg and Vienna.


Unbelievable thinking that Amsterdam has an eco neighborhood with a limited number of cars shared between its inhabitants since 1998. Additionally , those crazy Dutch people want to make their capital the first eco-sustainable city in a few years: the so-called smart city project that has been launched in 2009.
Well...crazy...I'd rather say ambitious. In fact...if they state something, they usually go straight until the end, or at least that's the impression I got until now.

Amsterdam is ages, even decades, ahead of Milan then, which is, at the moment, only the hosting city of such an interesting and innovative exhibition.
We might hope, once again, that the Expo 2015 will give Milan the chance to start an eco project, and long-term ideas will replace the endemic Italian habit to patch things up, barely enough not to sink. Frankly, I'm quite sceptical though: Italy is a still country where personal interests are always more important than collective ones and où on en parle, en parle, mais rien change jamais. As Tommaso di Lampedusa wrote in his masterpiece Il Gattopardo, the principle that rules Italy is: "Cambiare tutto per non cambiare niente" [Changing everything in order to not to change anything]


E.