This paper is focused on the study of spatial organization of recreational activities through space and time in the ‘twin cities’ of Gorizia and Nova Gorica at the Italy- Slovenia border by means of GIS and geostatistical methods. The attention is drawn on
the border effect that, due to the enlargement process of European union, is now reducing and becoming more permeable, creating new opportunities of interaction. In particular we try to model the different characteristics of the two cities in terms of locations of recreational activities allowed in the different parts of the cities and in different times of the day. The analysis is developed to explore the recreational business districts (RBD) in the urban environment and is performed from a selection of human activities, geocoded as address points and elaborated through Kernel Density Estimations (KDE). This allows
visualizing the functional urban environment with density surfaces and highlighting areas and times of the day where recreational activities and functions concentrate.
