The Queen had never experienced a “black” Thursday in terms of queues of these proportions in her long history. Word of those who, from 10.30 onwards, were literally held hostage by the traffic in the nine-kilometer stretch (another new factor compared to the recent past) between the Camogge straight in Colonno and the Portizza di Tremezzo area. Everyone queued among ambulances blaring their sirens which with difficulty found their way through the traffic and within the bottlenecks, dozens of tourist buses (in both directions), many trucks and lorries and so an above all expected number of cars with license plates foreign, a direct consequence of the first of the four “bridge” days for Ascension.
The record, in terms of travel times, certainly belongs to the president of the provincial administration Florence Bongiasca, which took three and a half hours to cover the 52 kilometers that separate Como from Gravedona. «Never happened in many years of Regina», the words of the president of Villa Saporiti. Also live was the comment from the commander of the local police of Tremezzina, Maximum Castles: «It’s the worst day on the traffic front for several years». Together with the intelligent traffic lights installed at the ends of the bottlenecks, all ASF bus connections also suffered a serious problem, with delays estimated at over two hours along the C10 line.
A 67-year-old resident of Como also paid the price for the Queen’s “black” Thursday who, on his way back to his post above the Sala Comacina Pro Loco, fell (the dynamics are not yet well defined), causing a strong bruised knee. Rescued by an ambulance from the Cri di Menaggio, he was then transported under “yellow” code.
During this nightmarish morning, dozens of medical visits and work appointments were missed and so those who had to reach the companies in the area or retraced their steps (an operation which was also far from easy given the hour and ten minutes it took from Lenno to Colonno) or arrived very late. And today we repeat ourselves, remembering that the four movieri stations will not be active over the weekend.
