Rome's first urban garden was planted in the Garbatella district in 2008. The Latium regional government building provides a stark backdrop softened by trees growing in an area once covered in gravel. Citizens' efforts to occupy abandoned areas and turn them into urban gardens have come up against sluggish local authorities that don't realize the sense of working for the common good. Yet in Rome's quieter parts, untouched by tourism, stories like that of Giacomo and Luigi, generations apart, yet united in respect for nature, show that cultivating an urban garden can be a way to overcome economic hardships.
