Diary from L'Aquila

In my long hours in the hotspot in the beautiful Lido d'Abruzzo village while tending to my recovered files and trying to reorganize my "digital" life, I found here and there stories and articles that touch deep chords and that I would like to point out for reflection.

• Albe spezzate / 2 - La Primavera - Diario di Viaggio di Dino Viani "Spring in the Aquilan province brought with earthquake another novelty, never seen before, deep blue flowers, blossoming here and there as mushrooms all over the landscape - the tent camps of the Protezione Civile ..."
• Special section of La Repubblica magazine on the Irpinia earthquake of 1980, a great lesson of courage, a terrible lesson on state inefficiency.
• 2 days without even pausing - diary of Michele Ruggiero, a firefighter from Foggia.
• The stories of the Earthquake Angels (in Italian) "They digged with wounded hands, still in their underwear helped people out of crumbling houses, got burned, opened blocked doors, challenged their own fear, struggled with the death of friends to save other lives, more lives..."
• The Gran Sasso Angels came down to the ruins (in Italian) "The hands of Maurizio Felici were made to clutch the rocks. Large bony hands, the hands of a tall, sturdy man with straight black hair, a hard sunburnt face ..."
• Cronache dal Mare - poetic, intense reflections of a displaced Aquilan, (in Italian) "Montesilvano. Francavilla. Roseto. Pineto, Tortoreto, Alba, wherever. I leave the hotel, 7th floor of a twin tower. The night was rather bad, as always ..."
• It’s in the little things... by Joshua Lawrence "...Over a month has passed since we had to leave our homes at three-thirty in the morning, grabbing what we could as we rushed over the stucco flakes and other debris out of our house into the dark morning..."

• The Big Picture, from the Boston Globe, "Early Monday morning, central Italy was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake caused serious damage to several medieval hill towns in the region" ... also 35 astounding pictures.
• Italian earthquake: L'Aquila sees history repeat itself 300 years on - from the Telegraph "With its pastel shades, historic buildings and spectacular mountain backdrop, the city of L'Aquila has always lured visitors to the heart of the Abruzzo region"
• Pope visits Italian village hit hardest by earthquake, from The Guardian, "Tearful mothers held out their children to be blessed by the pope today when he visited the Italian village hit hardest by an earthquake earlier this month."
• Italian scientist warned of deadly L'Aquila earthquake, but was dismissed by the government, from The Daily News, "An Italian scientist who accurately prophesized the earthquake in L'Aquila - and was branded an imbecile by the government"