Earthquakes in L'Aquila and Fontecchio

In my last few days in Fontecchio, I’ve been able to see the beautiful structures of rural Italy, as well as see how far this area of Italy has come since the devastating earthquake that took place in 2009 in L’Aquila and Fontecchio.  What amazes me and makes me happy, is that Italy doesn’t remove the remaining’s of fallen buildings and replace them with modern structures, but honors its history by building new structures that are earthquake resistant and honor the history of the original design of the building, with the only obvious changes being different use of paint colors.

My visit in L’Aquila and Fontecchio relate to an article assigned for class that I’ve read that makes a connection between public sector corruption and earthquakes.  It states that there are multiple countries that have the same building codes to withstand earthquakes, yet after some earthquakes that have occurred such as Iran and India that have shown evidence that the buildings weren’t up to code, and there was a connection of politicians or other people paying off city inspectors to have cheaper costs in buildings to not be up to code.  Corruption like this has shown that there are less foreign and domestic investments in those countries, especially in construction.  What I’ve witnessed in Italy is the opposite.

At a museum in L’Aquila, there was a lot of art that was saved and restored by many sponsors that have no ownership of the art, and buildings that have finished reconstruction have businesses lined up, or people living there.  With no evidence of corruption, I have noticed that there are more investments in Italian art and reconstruction.  What I think is also awesome and interesting that I’d like to point out, is that at the time of the earthquake, Italy was also in a Great Recession, Italy still invested in preserving the art and structures, which brought jobs, like how a US market would’ve reacted if there was no evidence of corruption.  However, unlike the US, L’Aquila has structures from the 14^th and 15^th centuries with art or designs that only a specialist can handle.  Therefore, unlike the US, in the recession, Italy’s markets were influenced to hire art specialists, and architects that were specialized for these issues.