You’ve been warned

By Alessio Colonnelli – Thoughts on Europe – 24 May 2020 –

Aerial view of the Vajont Valley shortly after the 1963 disaster showing the lake filled with mud and debris from the landslide (Wikipedia)

It all began with Wuhan and the breaking eerie news from the Milan area – the coronavirus was banging on our doors. Up until then, I had lived without a television for many years. With the lockdown looming I finally decided to buy one.

Fortunately, TV has been a saviour on various lonely occasions, and helped take my mind off things a bit. I’m glad, almost grateful for it. I never thought I’d concede any of this.

Soon I spotted a different Corona.

Mauro Corona, an Italian mountaineer and sculptor who took up writing late in life, appeared one evening on my flat screen. I had heard of him; some told me his books were a bit naff, a bit sickly-sweet. Word-of-mouth bad publicity. So I never paid much attention to them in the bookshops whenever I saw them. I never picked them up.

But thanks to my new television, I now know my sneering was unfair. Corona is a regular on a social and political affairs programme by the great investigative journalist Bianca Berlinguer. They tease each other. The show’s very informative but not pompous. A good mix. It’s called #cartabianca (carte blanche).

Corona speaks simply, slowly, with a broad, chirpy Alpine accent – I had never heard him before. I like his voice; it puts me in a good mood. But he’s well-read too, you can tell; his choice of words is elegant without affectation. Most importantly, Corona is modest without being deferential, witty and has a social mind. Aged 69, he has lots of direct knowledge of the natural world. Without a TV I wouldn’t have found this out.

I very much look forward to reading one of his novels – I have Aspro e Dolce in mind (“Sour and Sweet”), about the Vajont Dam disaster of 1963 in Italy’s north-eastern Alps.

The mountain that collapsed into the artificial lake was called Toc, which means ‘rotten’ in the local dialect. As a teenager, Corona witnessed this horrific landslide which killed 2,000 people in his village and surrounding area. He saw first-hand how mankind unthinkingly meddled with nature and ignored its many warnings.

Sounds like the story of the other corona, doesn’t it?

(Written by Alessio Colonnelli on 24 May 2020. Twitter: @co1onne11i.)

Read more:

• MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE IN ITALY’S NEXT EARTHQUAKE

• ITALY – NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM

• ITALY HAS 29% OF THE ALPS BUT ONLY 5% OF THE TOURISM