It is becoming clear now how Italy has destroyed and is still destroying one of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe: too many complicated laws; municipal councils funding themselves by handing out building contracts; major companies and politicians dreaming up new motorways; construction firms and quarry owners profiteering from the building boom. But we are starting to see a new phenomenon: increasingly, citizens are forming committees to fight against the destruction of their land. “There is a backlash among the people,” says Professor Vallerani, “although they need to be more savvy. In the Veneto, these local committees have also become a form of group therapy. We have an extraordinary cultural heritage, and this makes us all the more angry with ourselves for having taken part in its destruction. We used to be a nation of emigrants, but we stopped being poor in the 1990s; we now have to learn how to be rich, how to live in a different way. I hope our children will manage it.”
Two Italies
While the art world celebrates Palladio’s quincentenary, no-one is
pointing out that his famous villas and the sublime countryside around
them have been wrecked by hideous urban sprawl.