Orti in Festa (Valle dei Casali Urban Gardens)

Orti in Festa: celebrating Rome's community urban gardens

Orti in Festa is the day that the Associazione Orti Urbani Valle dei Casali APS, together with other Roman gardening initiatives, dedicates to the value of community urban gardens as places of social interaction, innovation, and active participation. The event takes place in the Valle dei Casali, a protected agricultural area in Rome's Municipio XI Arvalia-Portuense, and also involves the nearby spaces of the Orti Sociali Arvalia.

A project bridging science, environment, and community

The event was born as part of the Science Week and intertwines research with neighborhood life. The public is guided through the cultivated plots, where groups from Valle dei Casali and Arvalia share the daily work of those who farm in the city. These are concrete moments to understand how a shared garden can become a bastion of biodiversity, environmental education, and neighborly bonds.

What to expect at the festival

• Guided tours of the Valle dei Casali and Arvalia gardens, discovering community urban agriculture.
• The Urban Garden Agora, a space for dialogue between the various city associations committed to shared cultivation.
• Citizen science workshops, to learn how to map urban nature using digital tools like iNaturalist.
• Testimonials and talks by researchers, volunteers, and administrators on the social role of gardens.
• A final social gathering, with refreshments and a toast among the growers under the marquees.

The Valle dei Casali

The gardens are located along Via Palaia, within the Valle dei Casali Nature Reserve, a wedge of Roman countryside that reaches into the Portuense neighborhoods. Here, the association brings together over a hundred members on land leased from the Municipality, transforming a green area into a laboratory for sustainability and participation. Orti in Festa is the perfect opportunity to open these spaces to the city and show families, curious visitors, and new volunteers what it means to farm together.

An event for Rome and the Lazio region

Supported by Roma Tre University, Frascati Scienza, and the Lazio Region, with the patronage of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Waste Cycle of the City of Rome, the day unites the academic world and grassroots associations. It is a model of how the capital can take care of its green spaces thanks to the direct commitment of its citizens, in an open dialogue on urban ecology and the local social economy.