  A summary is given of some results and perspectives of the hamiltonian ADM
approach to 2+1 dimensional gravity. After recalling the classical results for
closed universes in absence of matter we go over the the case in which matter
is present in the form of point spinless particles. Here the maximally slicing
gauge proves most effective by relating 2+1 dimensional gravity to the Riemann-
Hilbert problem. It is possible to solve the gravitational field in terms of
the particle degrees of freedom thus reaching a reduced dynamics which involves
only the particle positions and momenta. Such a dynamics is proven to be
hamiltonian and the hamiltonian is given by the boundary term in the
gravitational action. As an illustration the two body hamiltonian is used to
provide the canonical quantization of the two particle system.
