Bicycle networks as a new ground project: the Montesilvano case study

The Adriatic city is a linear conurbation that runs along the coastline of six regions: Veneto, Emilia, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise and part of Apulia. Its construction began in the early 1900s and was resumed, with great intensity, after the Second World War, mainly for tourist purposes. Such construction continued, in the following decades, with a single common factor: the coastline. Construction continued, incessantly, in the following years as well, to the point that the Adriatic city now appears as a compact whole in which the rarefaction of the fabric is an exception with respect to a rule that never changes: its alignment with the coast. The saturation of space, however, is not only an indicator of a specific building paradigm, but also a testimony to the fact that the Adriatic city has never lost its appeal and, even today, continues to remain one of Italy’s major tourist attractions. A construction process that now appears to have reached its final stages. Almost crystallised in an image where everything seems to be coming to an end. Where the future perspective is the restructuring of what already exists, rather than the addition of anything new. If, however, one looks carefully at the specific territorial features of Abruzzo, the characteristics of its landscapes and its environmental values, then what emerges clearly is that there is still a lot of work to be done in favour of a more sustainable type of tourism.