«Our camp is still a large canyon, just like a year ago». Thus begins the memory of the first flood in Romagna of Riccardo Marchetti, of the agricultural company of the same name in Via Casolana in Fontanelice, which on the morning of 3 May 2023 saw three hectares of its land cultivated with barley and alfalfa devastated by a landslide. «I still have those hours in mind – he explains -. It was still dark, the sun was about to rise and I went out to check the situation in the fields. I still remember in the silence the sound of landslides coming down. And then my land, which was still slowly moving, suddenly slid down about 50 meters.”
Over the last year «I have tried to repair the sinkhole at my own expense as best I could, but to put it completely back in place, drainage and other interventions would be needed, costing, according to the technicians, around 750 thousand euros – explains Marchetti -. We’ll see if the contributions from the Government arrive, in the meantime applying on the Sphinx platform is really complicated, so much so that I still have to send it.”
What unites this story with the others, different or similar, coming from all over Romagna is that feeling of fear that still grips citizens today. «That is always there – confirms the farmer -. Even more so after the latest rains, which fell on the same days as the first flood. For this reason in the last few hours I went to see if the interventions made have resisted or if new problems have arisen. However, working-wise, not much has changed for me, but for the area to still see landslides and roads reopened or partially blocked is really bad.”
An area, the one around Via Casolana, which was the scene around the same time as the tragedy in which the 78-year-old farmer Enrico Rivola lost his life that morning due to a landslide, crushed under the weight of his home. As the crow flies, one kilometer away from the land of the Marchetti agricultural company. «I can only say that thank goodness that day went well for us» he concludes.
