Our quick round-up of this week’s news from Abruzzo in English.
- The prestigious Italian Artribune Magazine named the MAXXI contemporary art museum in L’Aquila among the best ten new museums opened across the world in 2021. MAXXI is housed in a beautifully post-earthquake renovated 18th-century Palazzo Ardinghelli and is worth a visit next time you are in L’Aquila.
- In 2021, approximately 2500 building projects worth a total of €555,000,000 were approved for Super Ecobonus 110% in Abruzzo, report local media. The statewide measure is intended to make residential properties more seismic safe and environmentally sound as well as lift the building industry from the crisis. There are almost 30,000 construction businesses in the region, which are busy taking on new contracts.
- All hotels and restaurants were booked out in the area of Alto Sangro over the festive period. The area includes Roccaraso and Castel di Sangro and is a lively winter destination popular with Italian tourists, especially those from Rome and Naples. Angelo Caruso, the mayor of Castel di Sangro announced that the numbers of visitors were at the pre-pandemic level, if not higher, and there are no vacancies until at least January 9. The towns in Alto Sangro are becoming increasingly popular also during summer season and many famous Italian actors and TV presenters have been spotted holidaying there in the last two years.
- A record number of skiers and tourists was registered at Campo Imperatore over the festive period. Local media reported that only on December 30, 3000 people went up to the pistes on the cable car. Over one-kilometre-long queues meant that many of them had to wait for over to hours to reach the summit.
- Campo Imperatore has beaten another record: on January 1, the Meteo Aquilano weather station, located there at 2130 meters above sea level registered a maximum temperature of + 11.6 ° C. It is 14/15 ° C above the average for this time of year and a historic record based on the data collected from 1954. The previous highest temperature recorded was + 8.8 ° C on January 30th in 1967. It was noted that these temperatures are more typical for May rather than early January.
- A new animal species has been discovered on the Europe’s southernmost glacier Calderone in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. It belongs to the group of small insect-like invertebrate animals commonly known as ice fleas and has been named Desoria calderonis in honour of the place of its discovery. The scientists believe it is an endemic species that can only be found on Calderone. Given that the glacier is slowly melting, the little critter is at a at high risk of extinction.
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