The first Sunday of the pedestrian era of Piazza Federico di Svevia begins with gray skies and clouds over the Ursino Castle. A blessing both for those who set up the stage of the concert that will inaugurate the car-free “premiere” in the square this evening, and for the few tourists in those parts this morning. Area already cordoned off since the early hours of the morning and traffic police at work to alert latecomers of prohibited parking and to remove cars whose owners cannot be traced, refractory to the new rules.
The largest group, near the Federician manor, is the one where the mayor is surrounded by media operators, residents and traders from the area. “We must turn towards an economy that moves from tourism to culture – explains the mayor with microphones turned on – It means that those who come here do not have to come to take a photo and then leave, but must know the intricacies of the real Catania, know every angle , every stone, because that’s what excites them.”
With the microphones off, the mayor’s comparison with the real Catania is not without its edges. There is the resident enraged by the fine she has just received: “Mayor, Catania is not Amsterdam and not even Bari” (who knows why Bari). There is the car rental company with problems checking in with customers, the restaurateur anxious about turnover and the electronics components trader who fears he won’t be able to survive the summer and has been flooding social media with videos for weeks, announcing how a biblical plague, a desertification, according to him, imminent and inevitable.
Answers and advice for everyone come from the mayor and the tone of the dialogue sometimes rises by a few decibels. On the topic of the feared desertification of the Trantino district, he reiterates that, “we will do the first check after the summer. The pedestrianization of the square must be seen as an added value for the city, for those who live there and for the operators. It is understandable that all “In the beginning there may even be a contraction in turnover, but in the long term, I am sure that, as happened in all pedestrian areas, in the end there is always a positive return.” In short, nothing new under today’s clouds, but the hot season has just begun and the debate on traffic regulation in the area, you can bet, will be heated.
For the debut of the pedestrian area tonight in Piazza Federico di Svevia, from 8 pm, free musical concert presented by the comedian Gino Astorina thanks to the contribution offered by the Catania artists: I Lautari, Mario Venuti, Rita Botto, Eleonora Bordonaro and the orchestra of the Angelo Musco Institute directed by Daniele Zappalà. For the occasion, the Metro will make its last run at 1 am.
