Ports in the Port: The Case of Messina

In seaside towns, the port has always constituted an essential element of their collective memory. From being the main cultural and identity element, this close port-city relationship has increasingly become a rich ecosystem that only lives with the cooperation of all its parts; ecosystems now more than ever called upon to face future challenges to ensure their sustainability, by creating green ports, from an environmental, economic and social point of view, using appropriate integrated approaches. The case of Messina will be analyzed. The area presents profiles of complexity that can make it a paradigm: the historic port is located in the city center and in it interacts commuter transport for the Calabrian side of the Strait serving workers in the areas, traffic on the Tyrrhenian -Ionian Seas axis and vice versa of pure transit, which in turn intersects with train, vehicle and passenger traffic on the Sicily-Calabria axis of non-commuting traffic. Finally, the port is affected by cruise tourism, the top 10 nationwide. Examining the interactions between these different traffic flows and ‘destinations’ with the immanent city that is totally integrated with it, may indicate a strategic model that can be adequately developed in larger port areas. And the imminent redevelopment projects of the former market areas with the I-Hub of the Straits and the Customs House for a new cruise terminal in one with the recovery of the Real Cittadella in the rear port will also imply a study of the bureaucratic interactions between different bodies.