Yesterday morning was pretty dramatic. I had just left the office at 7:35 am to go and greet our Colosseum Tour and while reaching Piazza Cavour in my little smart car, Kristin called me as our bookshelves were shaking and books were falling off. She was screaming at our dog Doris to get away from that part of the living room. We live on the 6th floor, so an earthquake of that magnitude is even more wavy.

I reached the Colosseum and as I was printing the tickets for our clients they were shutting down the Metro. They announced they were going to check all of the train and metro lines for damages. I immediately opened the news on the iPhone and realized it was a 6,5 richter right in the same area as it has been hitting lately. Reading through headlines as I was waiting for clients I was relieved to know that nobody was killed as most of those areas were already considered “red”, and had been evacuated since late August. I was sadden to know that our beautiful treasures of central Italy, medieval borgos that hold the history of our land (from Romanic and Gothic architecture to the original writings of our famous poet Giacomo Leopardi) were being attacked by mother nature and that we were rapidly losing them as they were being replaced by disaster and fear. 

Numerous articles came out about what was going on in our peninsula, and geologists from all over the world were analyzing the phenomenon, some with more disastrous outcomes and some with just a regular description of what is happening and has been anticipated for decades maybe centuries. Don’t even get me started on all the conspiracies that I read….

As a tour guide myself, but certainly not a geologist, who is obviously interested in history and constantly tells clients about floods, plagues, earthquakes and destructions that occured in Rome in more than 2000 years, I decided to do a bit more research. I found out that the Mediterranean is common to earthquakes and that of the ones that have been recorded in 2000 years (about 1300), 500 of these happened on the Italian peninsula. 

We don’t have much information about the earliest ones as you can imagine, but according to some resources we have records of the first one felt in 217 BC in Etruria (the Etruscan valley that sits between souther Tuscany and Lazio). Traveling forward then we have one of the most “talked-about” events of ancient history: the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and its consequent earthquake. Interestingly enough though, before the eruption, under Stabia, an earthquake happened in 62 AC where Pompeii, Herculaneum and Neapolis were partially damaged.  We then all know what happened in 79 AC with the complete burial of both Pompeii and Herculaneum.

So then in this list I was looking for Rome…! While we know that earthquakes are most likely to happen on the Appenine hills, through and down the spinal chord of the peninsula, all the way to Mount Etna, Rome, in my lifetime, has always been declared as a safe place. And yet, in 442/443 AC an earthquake was recorded that apparently damaged the Teatro di Pompei in the Forum, part of Saint Paul’s out-of-the-walls and even the Colosseum. Until I noticed a common thread in the list: the geographical areas that have been struck the most during my lifetime (Abruzzo, Umbria, Marche and Calabria) are the ones that through centuries of historical earthquake recordings appear the most. 

Italy and the Italians have been through a lot: Empires, invasions, wars, vulcanic eruptions, floods, earthquakes….and yet, every time, they stand back up, pull their sleeves up and rebuild in honor of history, culture and tradition. Which is what we love most about this beautiful country. We are surprised and sadden when we read about beautiful buildings, bell-towers, Churches, being damaged by these uncontrollable events, mainly because we know them to be so beautiful and soothing to our eyes when we get to visit them. But this is because they have been rebuilt time after time, in honor of our ancestors.

Lets keep our hopes up and continue to cheer for this behavior. Corruption will be in the way, but the People of Italy will guarantee the beauty of this country! The government’s duty now is to help people that lost their homes and members of their families, and monitor that structures will be rebuilt in honor of the most recent safety laws in order to protect its citizens as much as we can from future events.

LivItaly Tours is actively taking part in helping people of Central Italy, and as part of our eco-sustainable program, will keep you updated on our projects and duties so that you can be a part of it!

List of all major world’s earthquakes available here.