Forbidden foreboding The 1908 Messina quake, Europe's worst-ever, claimed some 200,000 dead.
By Christopher P. Winner
Published: 2009-04-06 C lose encounters with earthquakes leave hangovers. Following Monday morning's fierce L'Aquila tremors, Rome picture frames bore the brunt of not-so-distant bad news. Landscapes hung quirkily ajar, their portrayed trees, houses and sunsets angled improbably toward the floor. It was the same scene — aftershocks included — following major quakes in Naples (1980) and Umbria (1997). As the apartment's resident fixer, I was expected to set the day straight by going painting-to-painting, restoring order. I was also charged with soothing the souls of neighbors eager to tell their stories. A drama queen with an operatic population, Rome wishes always to appear in harm's way even when it's not. Nor does it matter that devastation and death is very real elsewhere and nearby (poveri!). Rome is self-centered. Walls, I was told when tremors hit the city, had "nearly" collapsed — never mind that the quakes in question were often two or three regions away. Paintings had "jumped." Floors had "moved." Chandeliers had swayed as if "on a boat in a storm." Sometimes all the explosive ingredients were made to gang up: "When I looked up from my bed the walls seemed to shake and the chandelier swayed while the paintings moved and even the rug seemed to slip down the hall." This typical post-tremor description came via a family friend, an 85-year-old contessa, who lived for life-altering events. Certain that Rome was poised on the brink of an apocalypse that would see it slip into the sea, Atlantis-like, the contessa scanned newspapers for supporting clues.  Vesuvius: Asleep for now.
Her irrationality owed a debt to both anecdotal and actual history. The Alban and Sabine ridges near Rome are of gurgling volcanic origin whose seismic indigestion had been known to cause Rome some trouble — and may yet again. In 1349, a Sabine quake cracked parts of the Coliseum. The seabed off the coast of Tuscany and Lazio represents another stewpot of hiccups. Underwater quakes can transmit inland jolts. On Aug. 22, 2005 one such rattle (4.5 on the Richter Scale) unnerved the somnolent city. Ask a 100 Romans and they'll tell you of a dozen more cases. No, Rome isn't southern California (or Sicily). No one fears a "Big One." At the same time, seismologists, geologists and contessa-like seers agree that the so-called "Naples ring," an imagined circle that extends concentrically around now-tame Mount Vesuvius, is vulnerable to shocking arousal. Despite Vesuvius' ongoing dormancy, Naples has a "Red Zone" a plan to evacuate the 600,000 people who live in the 70-odd towns and municipalities under the volcano. A Bronze Age eruption that long predates both Pompeii and Herculaneum and is known only as the Avellino event is believed to have incinerated the region and kept it lifeless for centuries. The 1980 quake — Italy's most visible for decades — decimated cities and villages in the regions of Campania and Basilicata, killing 2,570 people and leaving more than 30,000 homeless. Its epicenter was in Eboli, the town novelist Carlo Levi made synonymous with postwar destitution. Some blame the revival of the Naples underworld on post-quake society. |
ITALYNotes from OzPortrayals of Italy as economically stagnant miss a deeper trickery.  The Italian methodItaly's history of wartime failure and ongoing sense of global inadequacy make combat deaths unbearable. 21st century foxSilvio Berlusconi may be over the top, but someone put him there. Numeral stewBy winning national elections, Silvio Berlusconi has entered Italy's top-flight Roman numeral league.  The dinner partyA meal with Alleanza Nazionale leader Ignazio La Russa can leave you feeling a little empty. More Italy |
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September 7, 2010 | Rome, Italy | Partly Cloudy, 25°C
