Poeti e Veleni nel Golfo

Ecco l'articolo pubblicato sul Daily Telegraph:

Shelley's 'divine' bay under threat from new port
By Bruce Johnston in San Terenzo
(Filed: 09/03/2003)


The "Bay of Poets" on the Italian Riviera, a beautiful stretch of coastline
that the poet Shelley described as "divine" shortly before his death by
drowning in it, is being threatened by a scheme to double the size of the
container port of La Spezia a few miles away.

Ten-thousand local people have joined a pressure group, Save the Bay of
Poets, fearing that the area will be ruined by extra sea and road traffic.
The state-funded project is due to start next month.

The project involves digging deeper shipping channels to enable 1,000ft-long
ships - twice the size of those currently able to use the port - to dock at
La Spezia.

Opponents are fearful that the dredging could stir up tons of lead and
arsenic that have been illegally dumped on the seabed for years, threatening
nearby shellfish farms and the livelihoods of the fishing villages along the
coast.

Although Percy Bysshe Shelley died in the Gulf of Spezia at the age of 30
after his boat overturned, the poet had found its idyllic scenery
inspirational. He and his wife, Mary, moved to the area in 1822, living in a
seaside villa in San Terenzo, a tiny harbour near Lerici, a few miles from
the container port. Byron, a friend of the Shelleys, used to recite verse in
a rocky cove nearby.

Almost 200 years later, the view from his villa over the bay towards the
islands of Palmaria and Tino, and the peninsula of Portovenere - named after
Venus, the goddess of love and beauty - remains one of the most stunning in
Italy.

Giorgio Bucchioni, the president of the port authority and La Spezia's
leading shipping agent, claims that the port expansion will not affect the
views but will have a "positive impact on tourism and bring more people to
La Spezia".

Heritage groups, however, insist that it will sound the death knell for
tourism. "If one thing is certain, this project will mean the ruin of the
Bay of Poets," said Enrico Schiffini, an industrialist who spearheaded the
pressure group.

"Shelley will be spinning in his grave. Not only will the view from his old
house be marred by 20-storey high freighters queueing up to enter the port,
but road traffic to pick up the containers will increase to 2,400
articulated lorries a day.

"It's a lot for a town of 90,000 to take. The containers bring little
employment, they are an eyesore, and they suffocate other industrial
development - especially tourism, the area's main natural resource."

Emanuele Fresco, the mayor of Lerici, is waging a "bitter battle" against
the expansion of the port. "We are in favour of tourism," he said. "To think
that someone is planning to develop such a beautiful area in industrial
terms is frightening."