The Centro di Educazione Ambientale “Giano” [Environmental Education Centre] in Monterubbiano is based on the second floor of the Polo Culturale di San Francesco.

It operates throughout the middle and lower Valle dell’Asso, an agricultural zone with a high level of agricultural biodiversity.

The CEA “Giano” has a scientific library inside the Polo Culturale San Francesco, and has created a botanical kitchen garden with various medicinal plants in the cloisters of the former convent. The garden is tended all year round and used for educational activities.

The CEA promotes a number of different initiatives each year, including a market for typical local produce and the “Settimana del Bambino” [week of the child], during which it organizes educational workshops and play sessions for children from the surrounding area.

Many of the initiatives promoted by the CEA “Giano” are held outdoors, along the network of paths equipped with signs, posts and information boards. Open to walkers and cyclists, these paths cover a total of around one hundred and fifty kilometres and allow users to rediscover the old routes that once linked the villages and hamlets in ten local municipalities. The network also encompasses a number of historic and environmental attractions.

Lastly, the CEA has also worked hard to promote local food specialities (particularly oil, fruit and vegetables) in partnership with a number of local farms.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Centro di Educazione Ambientale “Giano”

Polo culturale San Francesco,  Via Pagani, 25

http://www.museipiceni.it/page.asp?id=106040100

http://www.ambiente.regione.marche.it/Ambiente/Educazioneambientale/ReteCEA/GianoMonterubbiano.aspx.