As a scholar of antiquity, I spend a lot of time in the company of dead people, but I care greatly also about our society and living planet.
That is why I am always up for collaborations with natural scientists on the history of environments and plants!
I firmly believe that protecting the traces of the people who lived before us cannot be untangled from the protection of the environment where we all live.
I take part in citizen science initiatives on botany and the environment, such as the 'Biodiversity Sampling Week' organized by the University of Florence and the various 'Bioblitz' it promotes across Tuscany, and I never forget to contribute to iNaturalist during my walks. I even gave a little help to the botanists carrying out a floristic study of a valley near Florence (acknowledged for my research on the laurel in Etruscan culture). Much of my love for botany comes from joining my father, a botanist and mountaineer, in his fieldwork. In my free time I'm also an avid hiker (always Leave No Trace!), and I read widely on plants and environmental protection, from Mancuso to Pollan.
If you'd like to do the same, it's easier than it looks: most citizen-science initiatives run by universities are open to anyone. If you're in Florence, keep an eye on the program of Firenze per il clima and check whether the PlantDive_Lab or the Lab Fisiologia Vegetale UNIFI are organizing something cool!