THE CENTRE of L’Aquila has a totally surreal feel about it following the deadliest earthquake in almost 30 years, which has killed at least 150 people, levelled buildings that have stood for centuries, and left at least 50,000 homeless.
The people of L’Aquila are nowhere to be seen amidst the disaster. While there are plenty of reporters, TV cameras and rescue workers, the locals have left for fear of an after-tremor.
Apart from the rubble, there is the disconcerting experience of looking at what should have been a wall and finding instead that you are in somebody’s office, complete with computer printer and trophy cups, doubtless won in some local football tournament.
As I sit on the roof terrace of a rainswept filling station on the outskirts of L’Aquila, a medieval city in the Abruzzo district 100km northeast of Rome, the ground suddenly begins to shake and move in what is a minor after-tremor.
One can only imagine the terror that struck people in their beds at 3.32am yesterday as their world began to shake.
Down at Tendopoli, the tented village for survivors set up by the Protezione Civile, 64-year-old Adriana weeps as she recounts her experience. “It was like the end of the world. The whole house was swaying. It was infernal. It seemed to never stop. We were lucky. Our house was built in reinforced concrete so we were able to get out and phone my son and hear that, thanks be to God, he had got out after the first tremor around midnight.
“But all those other people, they were not so lucky, God have mercy on them.”
In what was the worst Abruzzo earthquake in living memory, at least 150 people are feared to have lost their lives and 1,500 are injured.
Although the tremor wreaked serious damage on L’Aquila itself, it is probable that it did even more damage to the villages around this 12th-century city.
Two types of buildings appear to have succumbed to the earthquake – medieval buildings and those built in the post-war period.
Outside a collapsed building on Via XX Settembre rescue worker Giuseppe takes me aside.
“Look at that building beside this one. It is still standing, hardly damaged at all, four storeys high. Yet this one here is as flat as a pancake. From the look of them, they were both built at the same time, maybe in the 1960s. One was built well, in accordance with the anti-seismic regulations and the other . . . Well, what do you think?”
People queue patiently in the rain for a Red Cross packaged meal. Later, they try to make themselves as comfortable as they can in tents that for now are still without camp beds, blankets or sleeping bags.
Those with friends, relatives or money have found other, more permanent, roofs for the night.
Meanwhile, all the homeless can take some comfort from yesterday’s expressions of solidarity, not only from Pope Benedict XVI, but also from Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (who cancelled a trip to Russia to visit L’Aquila yesterday).
Taoiseach Brian Cowen expressed his sympathy to the Italian government and said he hoped to speak directly with Mr Berlusconi once he had returned from the disaster zone.