Harborea returns to Villa Mimbelli from 11th to 13th October #finsubito richiedi mutuo fino 100%

It will be dedicated to the fruits of the earth the 2024 edition of Harborea, the review that for 13 years has brought to Livorno the latest and best of the international floriculture market. Organised by Garden Club Livorno and the Municipality of Livorno, Harborea has enjoyed growing success in recent years, attracting up to over 10mila visitors, many of them from out of town.

This year’s title is “Various fruits, colorful flowers” is a quote from the Canticle of the Creatures, in which St. Francis of Assisi celebrates the beauty and variety of creation: “The fruits are the concrete gifts of nature – explains the president of Harborea Marcella Montano Musetti – that nourish and sustain. The beauty of flowers instead elevates the spirit. Together flowers and fruits express the harmony between the material and spiritual worlds, paying homage to creation as a reflection of divine greatness”.

The event will take place, as usual, in Villa Mimbelli Park, home of the Civic Museum “G. Fattori”, which for the occasion will be opened in continuous hours from 10 to 19. By presenting the Harborea entrance ticket, you will also be entitled to a reduction on the entrance ticket to the Fattori Museum and the City Museum.

The program of the festival, as always rich in events and guests, was presented to the press on Friday 4 October at 12.00 in the Hall of Mirrors of Villa Mimbelli in the presence of the mayor of Livorno Luca Salvetti, of the Councilor for Tourism and Commerce of the Municipality of Livorno Rocco Garufo, of the president of Harborea and of the Garden Club Livorno Marcella Montano Musetti, Harborea’s vice president and scientific curator Paola SpinelliCampora, the vice president of the Garden Club Stefania D’Alesio.

“The 13 years of this event – ​​the Mayor began – have meant, on the one hand, reaching a prestigious rank given the high number of visitors, and on the other, they have allowed us to make decisions, which later turned out to be winning ones, which have become the heritage of the event, such as the selection of exhibitors, the literary café, the workshop with children. The ability to make new choices, such as this year’s theme dedicated to fruits, gives the organizers the opportunity to experiment with new events and themed appointments. I wish the organizers good luck for the 2025 edition of Harborea”.

“We thank the Municipality of Livorno – commented the curator Paola Spinelli – which, in addition to the usual availability of the Offices involved and the use of the Park, this year also granted us a financial contribution. It is a small support, but we were very pleased because it is a sign of recognition of the work done in recent years by the organization and by all the members of the Garden Club who, I remind you, give their help voluntarily. We also thank the ASA, which granted us a sponsorship and will give 200 water bottles to the children who will participate in the workshops. We also thank the other sponsors of the event: D’Alesio, Del Corona and Scardigli, Fondazione Maurizio Caponi, Neri, Telegranducato”.

This year the exhibition will open its doors at 11.00pm Friday 11th October and it will close Sunday 13th at 19.30pm. In the early afternoon of the Friday, 14.45, there will be the traditional Exhibitor Awards Ceremony with the participation of the jury and the mayor Luca Salvetti.

THE EXHIBITORS

The theme chosen for the 2024 edition is the fruits of the earth: the garden as an element not only of beauty, but also of sustainability and well-being. Throughout the event there will be an exhibition of fruits of the Earth and during the meetings at the Literary Café we will talk about the interaction between the earth and man and the joy that comes from growing and consuming the products of one’s own gardens or terraces. The emphasis on this theme has also led to small changes in the choice of stands. Of the total of approximately 90 exhibitors, 15 will be present for the first time in Harborea, including some from Livorno and Tuscany. There will be more fruit trees, olives, citrus fruits, red fruits, food plants, collections of aromatic plants and foods derived from plants such as: spices, oil, ancient grain flours, rice, chocolate, beer and liquorice. Among the new products there is also a display of Australian and South African flora, a type of vegetation that grows in climatic conditions very similar to ours and can adapt well to Mediterranean gardens. There will be no shortage of garden furniture and accessories, maintenance equipment and organic fertilizers, thematic books and water purifiers, organic fabrics printed with leaves and flowers and some advances for Christmas, but most of the exhibitors will still be linked to plants, so ample space for roses, hydrangeas, camellias and azaleas, climbers, glim hybiscus and pomegranates, flowering salvias, irises, all the herbaceous perennials and cyclamens which together with the exotic flora represent a considerable group of species suitable for cultivation in our territories because the event wants to maintain a mainly scientific character, of dissemination and knowledge of the plant world.

LITERARY CAFE

Al Harborea Literary Cafe, also curated this year by Silvia Menicagli, there will be a series of events dedicated to the importance of the relationship between man and nature. Starting from the rediscovery of plants of the bible up to what has always sustained man: medicinal plants such as sage, wild herbs, wine and oil.

“It will be an invitation to rediscover the peasant traditions of cultivation – he explained Menicagli – and to adopt a healthier lifestyle through the correct use of the properties of food, all this to learn to defend the richness of biodiversity, vital for the ecosystem in which we live”.

The first appointment is set for Friday October 11 16.30 with the writer Marilena Roversi Flury in a talk entitled “The Garden of the Bible: Discovering Ancient and Endangered Fruits and Vegetables“.

Saturday October 12 we leave at 11.00 with the interventions of Mariarosa Castelletti e Maurizio Lunardon, authors of “The tomato and its large family” (Ed. ADIPA 2021). Saturday afternoon at 15.00 Davide Picchi of the nursery “Lorenzo’s little house” of Capannori (LU) will talk about wild herbs and their collection (foraging). At 15.45 the professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Pisa Marco Macchia will lead us to the discovery of nutraceutics, or the study of the therapeutic or preventive properties of foods. Following the 17.30 the meeting with Cecilia Tessieri Rabassi, the world’s first master chocolatier, who will tell us how cocoa becomes chocolate.

Sunday October 13 we leave at 11.00 with the architect and landscaper Elijah Renzi in a talk dedicated to the iris, “symbolic flower of Florence made famous in the world thanks to Livorno“. At 11.45 instead we will talk about why “Oil is a serious thing” with Fausto Borella, food and wine critic and founder of the Maestrod’olio Academy. At 15.00 focus dedicated to sages of all types together with Marco Licheri of the nursery “The Essences of Lea” by Gennarino (LU) and to the 17.00 the winemaker specialized in biodynamic agriculture Saverio Petrilli will be the guest of a meeting entitled “Why Working the Land Makes You Smile: The Connection Between Biodynamics and Happiness”. The review will close on Sunday at 18.00 with the award ceremony of the competition “The flowery painting”, directed and created by Maisi Gozzi Razzauti e Stefania D’Alesio“Flowers as works of art, flower paintings created by the SIAF composition school in a journey through Art and History of floral decoration from the Renaissance to the twentieth century”. Visitors will be able to express their preferences and thus compete for the award of the most beautiful painting.

The presentations at the Literary Café will be enlivened by floral displays created by Maisi Gozzi Razzauti, which will have as protagonists the tomato, aromatic herbs and recipes of Mediterranean cuisine, and the themed readings of Emanuele Gamba.

WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS

There will be no shortage of them this year either. workshops for children to learn how to handle the art of gardening from an early age.

In the Garden Club pavilion on Saturday and Sunday there will be the traditional “Floral decoration course” (hours 11.00) is “Small Galenic Laboratory” (hours 16.30), where a spray and a syrup will be prepared. At the LIPU stand (stand no. 77) environmental education workshops will be offered over the three days “Play with us”. The Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean offers “Nature between sea and land” (stand no. 22) and the Livorno Botanical group “Four steps to discover plants” (stand no. 21). There will also be workshops dedicated to the construction of insect houses and the path: from seed to flower, (stand no. 81), to the weaving of marsh grasses (stand no. 56), sowing of medicinal plants (stand no. 69), rustic weaving according to the Tuscan tradition (stand no. 16), a botanical painting course together with the painter and illustrator Pamela Marinelli (Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 15.30pm) and many others.

Adults, on the other hand, will be able to try their hand at making kokedama (stand no. 4), take part in an oil tasting guided by Fausto Borrella (Sunday gold 15.15 – Garden Club pavilion), try creams, perfumes and ointments made with spontaneously collected plants (Friday, Saturday and Sunday 15.00 at stand no. 11), learn how to grow orchids (Saturday and Sunday 11.00 at stand 5) the roses (Saturday and Sunday gold 14,30 and 16,30 stand no. 38) and hydrangeas (stand n.49).

Thanks to AAMPS/RETIAMBIENTE, this year too, the soil from the treatment of organic waste produced in Livorno will be donated and thanks to ASA it will be possible to drink microfiltered water at point no. 34.

The complete list of Literary Café meetings and workshops is published on the official Harborea website: https://harborea.it/

INFORMATION

Opening exhibition

Friday 11: 00 – 19: 30
Saturday 09:30 – 19:30
Sunday 09:30 – 19:30

Ticket office hours

Friday 10: 30 – 18: 30
Saturday 09:00 – 18:30
Sunday: 09:00 – 18:30

Cost tickets

Full ticket € 5,00
Free: up to 14 years – disabled person in wheelchair with companion.
Tickets can be purchased from October 3rd at the ticket office of the Fattori Museum, temporarily located on the ground floor of the Granai di Villa Mimbelli, and from Monday October 7th at the Harborea Secretariat in the park of Villa Mimbelli from 10.00 to 12.00.

Harborea Secretariat: segreteria@harborea.it, +39 3398560212