From the 8th to the 10th of May, at the Indro Montanelli public gardens in Milan, visitors can see the 20th Mostra Mercato Orticola, a floral exhibition organized by Associazione Orticola Lombardia, in cooperation with the municipality of Milan.

The aim of this event is twofold: on one hand, to expand public knowledge about the floral production in Italy and, on the other, gather resources in order to fund maintenance and requalification activities of urban green areas.

This year, on the occasion of Expo 2015, Orticola focuses on the Italian floral tradition, that is the valorization of our gardening and lower-growing activities, the Italian garden, and national typical breeds. Mostra Mercato Orticola integrates perfectly in the main topic of the universal exposition, by promoting the importance of environmental sustainability in urban areas, as well as the protection of landscape and biodiversity.

Enchanting arboreal compositions welcome visitors in the “green entries”: a palm grove (Dugnani), an orchard (Cavour), and an exotic Bamboo wood (Palestro). Within the garden one may visit the botanic exhibition “Gardens to eat”, and take part to laboratories and recreational activities for adults and kids.

This event is tightly linked to other initiatives fostering the requalification of green public areas promoted by Associazione Orticola di Lombardia. In particular, MiColtivo, a project sponsored by Expo 2015 S.p.a., aiming at the education of students on urban gardens.

The exhibition can be followed day by day through Orticola blog.

Originally written and curated by Giulia Ciuffreda as part of the Multimedia Center team members training course – EAThink Project.
This article is also available in Italian.