Slow Food, Slow Cities

Cities where the living is easy.

Despite fast food, instant communications and labour-saving devices, we often seem to have less spare time, not more. In an effort to 'rediscover time' and recapture the rhythms of life in a simpler age, 33 Italian towns have formed an association of 'slow cities'.

Slow Cities has developed out of the Slow Food movement, which started in Italy in the 1980s. Slow Food promotes the protection of local biodiversity, the right to taste through preserving local cooking and eating traditions and the folly of fast food and fast life. Slow Cities is expanding the concept to be a way of life.

The Slow Cities movement emphasises the importance of local identity through:

• Preserving and maintaining the local natural and built environments;
• Developing infrastructure in harmony with the natural landscape and its use;
• Using technology to improve quality of life and the natural and urban environment;
• Encouraging the use and production of local foodstuffs using eco-sensitive methods;
• Supporting production based on cultural traditions in the local area;
• Promote quality of local hospitality.

The aim of the Slow Cities movement is to implement a program of civilised harmony and activity grounded in the serenity of everyday life by bringing together communities which share this ideal. The focus is on appreciation of the seasons and cycles of nature, cultivation of local produce and the growing through slow, reflective living.

Slow Cities are not opposed to progress, but focus on changes in technology and globalisation as tools to make life better and easier while protecting the uniqueness of town characters.

Slow Cities have developed a:

• Manifesto (which sets out underlying principles)
• Charter of Association (which cities wishing to become slow must sign)
• A list of member cities (mostly in Italy) and
• Plans for an annual gathering (eating, living and networking slowly)

To be a member, and to be able to display the movement's snail logo, a city must meet a range of requirements, including increasing pedestrian access, implement recycling and reuse policies, and introduce ecological transport system.

Working with the Slow Food Network, the Slow Cities movement is spreading the word about its slow brand of community connectedness.

Follow this link to visit the Slow Food website