CAMPOTOSTO – Campotosto Lake is one of the most beautiful places in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, at 1,300 meters above sea level. For days now it has been surrounded by campers, very popular with tourists and especially cyclists and motorcyclists. Regional road 577 connects the junction with state road 80 to the lake and the towns of the municipality: Campotosto, Mascioni, Poggio Cancelli; and it is the main route that goes down towards Amatrice – as Pietro Di Stefano wrote in a press release –
A road that is the responsibility of the Province of L’Aquila and is in such bad condition that it constitutes a real danger for all its users. The conditions of degradation and decay of this road system require us to shout out loud our indignation and shame for the abandonment of these places. I have the clear feeling that precisely because they are “weak” locations, the Province body cares little or nothing. They are dramatically closing down several businesses that have nevertheless tried to resist from the earthquake to today, 15 years of resilience and also of trust in the future, a trust that has not been met, as is happening in Campotosto: our thoughts go to the resisters, like Assunta Perilli, who with her laboratory “La Fonte della tessitura”, in the small wooden house where she works, represents a jewel of craftsmanship.
But the restaurant trattoria “Barilotto”, once reviewed by the best Italian magazines, has closed permanently after a strenuous resistance inside a temporary structure in the square. Others are still suffering and could soon throw in the towel, between a slow reconstruction and the general indifference of those who, by institutional and professional duty, should make the existence of the entire Campotosta community less problematic, fixing the roads, making them safe, erasing the feeling of abandonment that is constantly felt in the villages around the lake. Words are no longer needed, now we need indignation, even shouted, because it is a crime to ignore such a delicate territory also from a naturalistic point of view, letting it die; and it is an atrocity to take advantage of a historical moment of fragility.
In this context, LR 32/2021, which intends to counteract the demographic decline underway in mountain areas with an economic incentive of 2,500.00 euros per year, seems like a mockery: demographic decline is countered with services on the territory and with its maintenance – concludes Di Stefano.
