The calculation of the damage suffered after the terrible wave of bad weather that hit a large part of Emilia-Romagna is still underway. If in the plains the main problem is linked to the consequences of floods, in the valleys and mountainous areas landslides are the main danger. More than three hundred landslides are considered active throughout the region, many of which have covered entire highways, making them inaccessible. The most striking cases, in the Bologna metropolitan area, are perhaps those of Vado and Monterenzio, where mud and dirt have covered kilometers of asphalt. But smaller landslides, and often outside inhabited centers, have shored up the Bolognese Apennines roadmap with bulldozers, barriers and road signs. The message is always the same: “road closed”.
goose game
The Metropolitan City has reported that some thirty-nine streets are still “closed”, but the smaller and unreported ones are definitely many more. If important arteries such as the Porrettana have been reopened, those that remain blocked make the route through the Apennines practically a labyrinth. An example: on Monday, May 22, to go from Vado to Monterenzio, the travel time was longer two hours. Overcoming the various, and often unsignposted, closures around Loiano, normally the shortest way would be via Idice. Too bad that, at the height of the hamlet of Savazza, the path ends abruptly. A huge landslide covered the road that runs along the stream for more than 4 kilometers and the houses located between Savazza and Monterenzio are unreachable. Therefore, the best way to reach Monterenzio is to go to Pianoro and then go up towards Monterenzio, or at the most head towards the hamlet of Zena and then walk up a stretch of Monte delle Formiche, then turn towards Ca’ de Gennaro. But be careful: it’s not that simple. In many cases, such as Monte delle Formiche, the roads are cordoned off. The solution may be to try your luck elsewhere, or go around the barrier and try to see how far you go. In some cases this last option can work, but the risk is finding an obstacle later, and then going back miles and miles like the Game of the Goose. The last alternative is to enter into a tight bargain with the many workers scattered along the roads of the Apennines and, if possible, beg to be let through. The situation is so serious that even the mayor of Monterenzio, Ivan Mantovani, has been living in his office in the Palazzo Comunale for a week, since going to work and then returning home would take him about four hours a day by car. So much so that yesterday, in his office, he received the hairdresser to fix his beard and hair.
In absence of google maps, which hasn’t mapped all road closures, instinct can be trusted: if someone is coming from a road then that road is passable, otherwise one can resort to the ancient art of “ask someone”, especially useful if the area is known. Well. Finally, there are the caravans, more or less voluntary, that form spontaneously: people trust the car in front of them, hoping that whoever is driving knows a safe passage, or at least an open one.
It is also useless to quantify the delays in work: for now, the Apennines – as well as all the areas most affected by the flooding – live in a kind of suspended time. Now we have to shovel the mud, count the damage, rebuild roads and houses. But everyday life will soon begin again, and mountain dwellers are entitled to a road system that now threatens to create problems for months on end.
