L'Aquila - Destroyed

You've probably heard that the sleepy mountain town of L'Aquila, about an hour and a half outside Rome, was destroyed on Monday by an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. Just over three months ago, N and I spent a pleasant few hours there on our way to Santo Stefano di Sessanio, an even smaller mountain town in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The photos of the earthquake damage are devastating- many students and families are currently homeless and spent the last night or two in either a tent or their cars. Rescue workers are still digging through rubble hoping to find one or two last survivors.

From what I can find, Santo Stefano suffered little damage - incredibly. The man who owns and rebuilt the albergho in which we stayed said this (from the Guardian's website):

Santo Stefano di Sessanio, high in the Abruzzi Apennines, is only 10 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake, and yet survived nearly unscathed. Hotelier Daniele Kihlgren said: "The restoration we did was very conservative, which is probably why we survived. Most of the buildings destroyed in the earthquake today were modern and concrete. It is perhaps a testament to the 'real Italy'."

It's hard to believe that such a quiet area of Italy will not be the same for many, many years. I'm thankful that we got to enjoy such a wonderful place before it was hurt- and my heart goes out to the thousands of people who will spend the next months and years rebuilding their lives.