Dig at Roman villa trapped in red tape
ROME • Italy has been likened to a “banana republic” for its inability to protect the remains of a 1,600-year-old Roman villa discovered in Tuscany.
For seven years, archeologists have been working at the site, patiently removing tonnes of soil to reveal the mosaic and marble remains of a villa which they believe to have been owned by a powerful Roman nobleman.
But a familiar Italian saga of red tape and confusion between authorities means further digging at the site, near the tiny village of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi, has come to a grinding halt.
Archeologists say that unless a last-minute solution can be found, they will be ordered to fill in the site, covering the remains of the villa’s reception rooms, atriums and mosaic floors with soil.
The Roman villa, one of the biggest in Italy, was excavated up until 2012 by Italian archaeologists working alongside colleagues from Belgium.
“I hate to say it, because I’m Italian, but the whole thing is shameful,” Marco Cavalieri, the scientific director of the project, told The Daily Telegraph.
“My Belgian colleagues are calling it a banana republic saga. The impression that Italy is giving is that it doesn’t care about its cultural assets. It’s so ridiculous, it’s almost comic.”
A bureaucratic stalemate has emerged because the villa is located on land once owned by a bankrupt farmer.
The archeologists are obliged to pay a modest fee to whoever owns the land, but because of his insolvency the farmer is no longer deemed to be the rightful owner.
The matter has been referred to a court in nearby Siena, but the tribunal has been unable to rule on who the fee should be paid to.
The local council says it would willingly buy the land outright, but it, too, has come up against a bureaucratic brick wall.
“We’ve earmarked €40,000 [$56,560] for the purchase of the land but the court has not responded. The whole thing is blocked,” Giacomo Bassi, the mayor of San Gimignano, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
San Gimignano, which lies just a few kilometres from the villa, is one of Tuscany’s most famous hill towns — nicknamed “the medieval Manhattan” because of its ancient stone towers.
The picturesque town is invaded by busloads of visitors daily, but the villa, if developed into a tourist attraction, could provide an alternative focus for tourism, archeologists said.
They added that they have so far been able to excavate just a quarter of the site and there are more discoveries awaiting.
“It would be a way of channelling people elsewhere. Italy relies too much on mass tourism, where people come to a place for the day, take a few photographs, and then leave,” said Prof. Cavalieri, a specialist in Roman archeology at Leuven University in Belgium.
“This is an important villa on a big archaeological site that is right in the heart of beautiful Tuscan countryside. But Italian bureaucracy is a hard thing to fight.”
To add insult to injury, burying the villa would not come cheap — $28,000 in labour and the use of machinery.