Up to the Renaissance, the area currently occupied by the Parco delle Cascine used to be an area covered by thick vegetation interrupted only by small water courses, ponds and swampy areas. The river Arno had a much larger area at its disposal than it has today, wandering and creating various branches and islets of different dimensions.

The Parco delle Cascine, as it is currently, sits in facts on one of these small islands, hence the toponym Cascine dell'Isola (Island Farms), and underwent numerous changes in the course of history due to flood deposits and
In 1563, they built the Fosso Macinante (Milling Ditch), and immediately after, the two streams Mugnone and Terzolle were embanked.
For a long time, the Cascine remained an estate for the exclusive use by the Medici, who used it for picnics and hunting, due also to the closeness to the Pitti Palace.

On the 3rd of July 1791, the park was inaugurated and opened to the public, with great celebrations that went on for three days and that are depicted by several paintings. This date coincides also with the settlement by Ferdinando III, who became the Grand Duke of Tuscany when he replaced Pietro Leopoldo, who had just become the Emperor of Austria.
Nevertheless, under Ferdinando III, the Cascine were rarely opened to the public, and only on special dates, like on Ascension Day. It was only with the Napoleonic administration that a regular use by the public started, thanks to Elisa, Napoleon's sister, who concentrated her official celebrations in the Parco delle Cascine. During the following years, the Cascine witnessed several events: in 1861, great celebrations were organised for the Universal Exhibition; during the years when Florence was the capital of Italy (1865-1870), the park was used as a stage for all official presentations, parades and other gatherings.

Passeggiata nell'attuale viale A. Lincoln tratta da AA.VV., Le Cascine un parco per la città, 1998

Foto Alinari, viale della Regina, fine Ottocento

It is a well known fact that today there are several conflicts characterising the Parco delle Cascine due to the role that this park has played in the course of time, with the ever increasing load of a growing city that found no corresponding development of a green areas system with a even spatial and typological distribution, as well as for the connections and the extension of the areas that make it up.
The inspections carried out during preliminary surveys for defining the project have confirmed the importance and the differentiation of recreational uses that concern the park on a daily basis. The most common uses are strolling, cycling, resting and basic sporting activities, such as jogging and skating.
The presence of the river means that the area concerned by the project, contained between the right riverbank and the Viale Washington that delimits the park, takes on a particular interest by expressing a peculiar recreational potential of urban landscape.

Vedute del fiume Arno nella zona del Parco delle Cascine

This type of recreational usage concerns all riverbank areas with any access provided by service ramps or river side stairs that have been recently built with wood and soil between the weir at Isolotto and the Vittoria Bridge.
The small dirt beach on the right hydrographic side, immediately downstream from the weir, emerges with the drop of the river flow rate, thus making it possible to practically walk to the centre of the riverbed. Here, one can find visual opportunities that are very peculiar: of the riverbed itself, and of the treed front of the park, in a state of visual and acoustic isolation. This spot is the only widening of the bank section that can be appreciated along the entire stretch and, also thanks to the connection to the park, during sunny and warm days, it is frequented in spite of the relatively degraded conditions of the river.
This is subject to hydraulic maintenance interventions that can be integrated with solutions and reviews with appropriate schedules aimed at improving the quality of the river ecosystem and semiology, resulting also as a benefit for the abovementioned recreational potential.