Across Italy, former hospitals are becoming museums, ex-warehouses are being revived as centers for culture and food, and formerly abandoned areas are turning into locations for special events. Right in the middle of its historic enter, the Tuscan city of Prato has created a cultural center by reclaiming the old Campolmi textile mill, a monument of industrial archaeology, creating a library, a museum and an exhibition space. This investment has also triggered the renovation of other neighboring parts of the city.

The outgoing mayor of La Spezia in the north-western Liguria region has ended his second mandate by delivering a library built in the former Fitram industrial area. In Verona in the north-eastern Veneto region, the renovation project for the Arsenal was even an electoral campaign subject. In Mestre, near Venice, culture is uniting with trade, events and food in the new M9 museum that has revived a central and strategic area of the city.