ROME, JULY 29 – With a record of 58 World Heritage sites, “Italy as a whole should be considered as a UNESCO site”, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said today in his opening address to the G20 meeting of the Ministers of Culture today at the newly restored Colosseum in Rome.
Heritage protection, Draghi stressed, requires greater environmental sustainability. In Italy, more than ten World Heritage sites are endangered by rising sea levels, while Venice risked to lose its World Heritage status because of the threat that large cruise ships pose to its fragile ecosystem. The risk of flooding threatens between 15 and 20 percent of the country’s cultural assets. “We must act now so that tomorrow’s generations can enjoy the treasures we admire today,” said Draghi, who referred to the ban imposed by his cabinet to the passage of large ships in front of St. Mark’s Basilica and in the Giudecca Canal.
It was this act that has prevented the inclusion of Venice and its Lagoon in the “black list” of UNESCO endangered sites, as appreciated by the Director General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay. Only last week, on the other hand, the UN Agency for education and culture designated three more Italian sites: Padua for the Giotto’s frescoes, Montecatini as European Spa town and Bologna for his network of porticoes.
Riccardo Muti closed the first day of the ministerial meeting with a concert of a youth orchestra at the presidential Quirinale palace. Tomorrow the whole day will unfold at Palazzo Barberini where the final declaration on protection, restoration and fight against traffic is expected to be adopted. (@OnuItalia)
