We receive and gladly publish this testimony about a short stay over the last weekend for Ed Sheeran’s concert in Lucca: two nights in Viareggio and an intelligent judgment on both realities:
Dear first citizens of the cities of Viareggio and Lucca, I would like to bring to your kind attention my considerations on the cities you administer. A necessary premise: this absolutely is NOT intended to be an attack on your administration just as it is NOT intended to be an attack on your abilities and skills. Being Italian, and loving my country, I find it my duty to report to those responsible the perception of your cities for those coming from outside. I spent last weekend in your cities on the occasion of the Ed Sheeran concert in Lucca, staying two nights in Viareggio.
Let’s start from the “Pearl of the Tyrrhenian”… or at least what it must have been in the past!!!
The attached photos were taken between via S. Andrea / via Mazzini / piazza Piave. I found the urban decay embarrassing between the road surface, broken sidewalks, neglected gardens and flowerbeds, faded parking stripes… even the steps of the church of San Paolino in pieces!!! Private homes are not the responsibility of the administration (and in some cases the situations are truly abandoned), but as far as urban decorum is concerned I would say that more should be done.
I also see it in my house unfortunately… we are getting used to the “ugly”… we no longer have the vocation and claim to beauty and order.
Last consideration: EasyPark is a convenient and functional service (like others like Cicero etc etc)… but in other cities the code relating to the parking zone is indicated on the parking meter columns. Not in Viareggio… but by doing so a user does not immediately understand that there is the possibility of paying using the app and the relevant area. This service must be clear and well explained as happens in many other cities.
What can we say about Lucca?
A tourist from Trento sitting near us defined the city as “ugly”… Well, I am absolutely not in line with the lady’s opinion, but even for Lucca we should aspire to more. Parking the car at Campo Coni, I found the first bins to throw away rubbish in the playground near the former Cavallerizza Ducale. I invite you to take a walk outside the walls and check how much rubbish is thrown into the lawn. Certainly the civilization of tourists can be seen again, but the absence of baskets doesn’t help.
At the playground there is a map of the city which should aid people’s orientation… it should because the map, although well made, does not have the essential red dot of “you are here”!!!
But is it possible I ask myself???, and not only I asked myself this, but also other perplexed tourists.
Last note… at the end of the concert in front of Porta S. Anna, the absence of police to organize traffic made the disposal of people and cars a jungle. But is it possible that an event organized annually and so appreciated does not deserve high-level organisation? Instead not even the shadow of a policeman and not only in that area.
My disappointment, I repeat, arises from the fact that we must want more and not get used to this turn of decay and chaos that our cities are taking.
