The new Aperto per Lavori (Open for Restoration) project developed by Venice City Council and Insula SpA aims to guarantee accessibility to a number of sites in Venice historic city centre, exploiting the restoration of a bridge. A play of words for an idea both simple and at the same time innovative.

While work is underway to consolidate a bridge, often constructs alternative structures to allow pedestrian transit. When possible, the chosen architectural solution is a level walkway which by its very nature is easy to use for the physically disabled, to the point of being recommended by the PEBA (Plan for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers) as one of the most accessible solutions. As a result, a number of parts of the city, hitherto unreachable, open up - if only temporarily - to disabled citizens and tourists, enabling them to visit new sites, historic buildings, churches or museums.

To publicise the initiative appropriately, Venice City Council's services for communication on disability will be launching an information campaign directly involving sector associations. As the person in charge, Lucia Baracco, explains: "As well as providing all the information on line by means of the Informahandicap site, we will also be organising ad hoc itineraries to valorise the area of the city affected by the improvement work. The new itineraries, available either printed or to download, will help enhance the offer of itineraries without barriers on which we have been working for several months, with highly satisfactory results."

1 - Insula San Pietro di Castello - Ponte Quintavalle (december 2008)
2 - Torre dell'Orologio (10 march 2006 - 18 march 2006)
3 - Insula Maddalena Santa Fosca (7 march 2005 - 31 july 2005)