In Salerno there is a viewpoint to be saved: online petition

An online petition. The online petition was published on May 5th Change.org to save the viewpoint of via Benedetto Croce and collected 108 signatures in just one day, reaching (as of 4pm yesterday) 236 signatures. “The state of total abandonment of the viewpoint and the panoramic promenade facing it, with pavement and trees, between Salerno e Vietri sul Mareis under the eyes of the city and of the numerous tourists who frequent these places” we read in the petition which reminds us that “all the people of Salerno who love walking to reach the Amalfi Coast know that the only majolica fountain which is the pride of the citizens remains in that place”.

Hidden by the vegetation and the fence, the blue “basket” fountain (because, with its upper arch, it resembles the shape of a basket) which, many years ago, was located on the seafront, now barely resists. “Let’s save those places, let’s make our voice heard loudly by the administration that boasts of a European city that has only changed its face Milano in the recent period”, concludes the note.

The online initiative is only the latest, in chronological order, among the many requests that have been received, over the years, by the administration to intervene on this small terrace overlooking the sea. Neighborhood committees, city councilors (starting from the group leader of Oltre, Donato Pessolano) they wrote, requested interventions, threatened tests of strength but nothing made a dent in the situation. And, over the years, there has also been no shortage of proposals from strong-willed councilors who, once the gardens had been renovated, had even imagined create an ice cream kiosk. Indeed, in 2022, it was announced that the lookout would be recovered and would become, as the page of a then city councilor stated, even becoming “a Mirador from which to admire the city and the gulf with the beauty of its coastline”. In short, from the basic request for a redevelopment intervention continuing to a necessary maintenance planning continuing with the most imaginative and xenophile ideas, the reality is that decades pass, citizens protest but, rather than a flowered terrace, the belvedere of via Croce it looks more and more like a slice of urban jungle.