Abstract

In the preliminary draft of the new Urban Plan of Genoa (2011) a «special» regulation was drawn up to redevelop agricultural activity in Vesima area. The creation of this privileged space - the area occupies 1,5 out of 180 kmq of the Genoese extra-urban area (¾ of the city) - was an opportunity to investigate the general policies put in place over the last fifty years in order to understand and manage rural spaces. The analysis highlighted the success of homogenizing categories (green, nature) together with management proposals (building dispersion, leisure time, naturalization) that, regardless of the characteristics of sites and resources, actually encouraged the abandonment of rural spaces. The invisibility of rural areas is a hyperbole: it indicates the lack of a topographical approach that, as shown by historical ecology, is able to point out these spaces as historical products as well as stimulating more informed actions on these artifacts.