Beauty and tragedy
Beauty and tragedy, the contrasting faces of Italy, came together in deadly fashion on August 24th when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck villages in the picturesque uplands north-east of Rome. At least 247 people died. In 2009 an earthquake devastated the city of L’Aquila, less than 30 miles (50km) away. The lethal impact of the disaster is likely to have been magnified, as it was around L’Aquila, by houses built decades, if not centuries, ago that do not meet modern anti-seismic standards. The earthquake presents Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, with a new headache as he strives to win a referendum, probably in November, on changing Italy’s constitution.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Beauty and tragedy”
From the August 27th 2016 edition
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