Urban freight policies and tourism. The case of own-account operators in Rome’s limited traffic zone

Almost all Italian cities and town have an historical city centres, built in Roman or medieval times, characterised by narrow and winding lanes, often leading uphill, with a dense housing structure. The charm and liveliness of the city centres depends on the its ability to conciliate the very many urban functions and activities that they host: houses and apartments for the various income groups (often low-income family but with a tendency to “gentrification”); artisan and craftsman activities (carpenters, tailors, watchmakers, jewellers, bakers, plumbers etc.), administrative offices (courts, tax offices); kindergartens and schools; local shops (clothing and shoes, chemists, house appliances) and retailers (bakeries, fruit&vegetables shops, cheese shops, dry food shops, butchers, fish mongers, florists); hotels, bars, restaurants and pizzerias. All these activities generate an strong demand for good supply from the local wholesalers and producers, particularly because they have a very small storage space at the disposal. However, goods distribution in the narrow and winding lanes of the Italian historical city centres is not an easy task: the lorry must be small and the parking places are very limited. Moreover, the interaction between passenger and goods vehicles traffic make congestion almost inevitable, especially at certain times of the day. On top of all this, tourists enjoy living and visiting the city centres and their many monuments and churches. And in some of the most famous Italian cities (e.g., Rome, Venice, Florence but also Pisa, Siena, Urbino and so on), tourism is the main source of income for the activities located in the city centre. Hence, finding the right balance between goods distribution and tourism is not an easy task.