bologna quake damage?

[caesar novus]

I wonder if any roman artifacts or structures were damaged in last nights 6.0 quake just north of bologna. It did kill a few and take down some scattered medieval buildings. I suppose some ravenna roman mosaics could have been cracked, but i think the quake was moderate enough to hope for the best.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18135898

 

I regret cancelling travel thru this area because florence had opened most museums for free that week. I never could understand florence mania and i still dont. For me the magic of italy is in roman sites and the pretty coastal areas.

[Virgil61]

I wonder if any roman artifacts or structures were damaged in last nights 6.0 quake just north of bologna. It did kill a few and take down some scattered medieval buildings. I suppose some ravenna roman mosaics could have been cracked, but i think the quake was moderate enough to hope for the best.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...europe-18135898

 

I regret cancelling travel thru this area because florence had opened most museums for free that week. I never could understand florence mania and i still dont. For me the magic of italy is in roman sites and the pretty coastal areas.

 

I have a cousin at the University of Bologna. She started at University of L'Aquila of all places and was there during that quake.

 

I'm in the opposite camp I suppose, the Italian city-states & communes of the 11th-15th centuries strike me as a fascinating subject.

[Melvadius]

I tend to take a broader view of the 'Magic' which is really a melange of periods, culture, sights, smells, sounds and tastes.

 

While Roman is my first joy I can't pick and choose one historic period over another I enjoy aspects of them all as in the other aspects of Italy.

 

In addition to the 'human' personal losses I am sad about the inevitable loses to the material culture which can occur with any major earthquake.

[caesar novus]

My bias when young was to despise western culture, and to move mountains to explore far flung cultures and continents. But I did know paris wasnt too bad, then planned a trip to italy. The boss of my boss was italian, knew my plan, and set up an interview. He asked where i was going next and i blurted out nowhere important. Things were icy afterwards, and i didnt fully appreciate italy til years later anyway.

 

To cut to the gist, my love of romans came in spite of biases, and in spite of the usual phase where you try to survey all cultures and expect to find equally valuable sustanence in all (i picked up a social anthropology degree and dabbled in history). After a while i realized the architecture likeability correlated with the cultures charm and impressiveness to me, based on history or observation.

 

So this gift of being a human divining rod of cultural measure has finally made a top choice after exploring every blind alley: todays italy, and yesterdays romans. No need to thank me, i am just a conduit from the gods to mankind. Actually i didnt mean to insult the stricken greater bologna area, but rather overtouristed florence, where i returned to rather than ravenna etc for the first time. The latest bbc pictures show bad aftershock damage... stay safe, folks.

Edited May 21, 2012 by caesar novus

[guy]

I wonder if any roman artifacts or structures were damaged in last nights 6.0 quake just north of bologna.

 

I have a special interest about the earthquake since my relatives live about 30 miles away from the epicenter. I haven't talked to them, yet, but I'm sure they are doing well.

 

The epicentre of Italy's strongest quake in three years was near Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of the Po valley. The tremors were more deadly than any since 2009 - when the central city of L'Aquila was devastated - and were felt as far away as regions bordering France in the west and Slovenia to the east.

 

Among the dead was a woman of 106, killed in her bed by a falling roof beam at her house in the countryside

 

http://www.huffingto..._n_1530531.html

 

The human toll is tragic, of course. A woman who was 106 died during the quake when her house's roof collapsed on her. Imagine surviving the destruction of the Nazis and World War II, only to be killed in your own house by an earthquake.

 

The destruction of property was immense, also:

 

http://www.bonappeti...earthquake.html

 

Millions of dollars of real Parmesan cheese was lost.

 

There are not many Roman ruins in that area, fortunately. The area is more famous for its Renaissance and Italian reunification history.

 

Trivia: The earthquake was near the modern city of Modena. This is the Ancient Roman city of Mutina, near the battle between Marc Antony and the Republic forces of Pansa, Hirtuis and Octavian:

 

http://en.wikipedia....attle_of_Mutina

 

This was also the area where the rebel Spartacus defeated an army of the Roman Republic under the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Gaius Cassius Longinus. After the victory, however, Spartacus did not continue his trek over the Alps and possible escape. He and his followers returned south with tragic results.

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited May 23, 2012 by guy

[guy]

And the quakes keep coming (There is a good video clip in the link):

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18247659

 

Fortunately, the tremors are occuring in mostly agricultural areas. I can only wonder the potential horrific damage done by a similar quake in Rome.

 

I imagine that the Ancient Roman ruins were not originally made earthquake proof.

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited June 2, 2012 by guy

[caesar novus]

Much parma cheese was only dented, not lost. News sez they hold a cheap firesale, and i wish i could get a discounted cartload. Cheese makes my sinuses clog, but i found online source of the best antihistimine... chlorphenerimine maleate in slow release tabs allow my only indulgence away from veganism.