Mortifying. This is the only word that can summarize what happened yesterday morning at the entrance to the Oplonti excavations in Torre Annunziata. A disabled person, who arrived in the city with his electric wheelchair in the company of a friend exclusively to visit the wonderful Roman residence, had to face the bitter truth: the Villa of Poppea does not have access for people with motor disabilities. The two friends had reached the premises of the Pro Loco Oplonti, a few steps from the excavations, full of curiosities, but already with some premonitions: "Can we have some information?", they asked. "Will I have problems at the entrance?", was the man's next question, with a smiling face but a fearful look. And so, after offering information brochures on the villa and the city, the president of the Pro Loco Ciro Maresca and a Civil Service volunteer accompanied the two tourists to the entrance of the excavations. Here, enraptured by the beauty of the villa, they could not give up continuing their visit. “I can take a few steps without a wheelchair,” insisted the man, who in the meantime was already getting up, not without difficulty, holding on to his friend. The volunteers of the Pro Loco, together with the municipal police officer on duty daily at Via Sepolcri, then helped the two to go down the long stairs leading to the ruins, carrying the heavy electric wheelchair to the garden below.
“We must apologize to this tourist and to all those with disabilities who are forced to give up visiting the beautiful Villa of Poppea,” emphasizes the president of the social and tourist promotion association, Ciro Maresca. “Only great willpower and the desire to know the beauties of Oplonti pushed this gentleman to face, not without sacrifice, the long flight of stairs. But this does not always happen.” In fact, complaints about the presence of architectural barriers at the Oplonti site are not rare. Only a few months ago, a teacher, with tears in her eyes, told the volunteers of the Pro Loco about one of her students in a wheelchair who was forced to wait at the entrance of the Villa of Poppea for his friends to finish their visit, since there were no services for the disabled.
“We have done our best, but we cannot help but criticize those who, despite everything, have turned away so as not to dedicate a little of their normal strength to those who needed it,” Maresca continues. “We fail to understand that, as Seneca said, those who help others help themselves. True well-being does not come from what one might receive in return, but from the act of giving oneself to others.”
“When will everyone, without distinction, be given the opportunity to visit this archaeological site without excessive problems? We asked this as Pro Loco in 2009 to the relevant authorities, and repeatedly thereafter. We are asking it today, after 10 years, despite the many promises received in this long period. In 2011, the Superintendency assured a rapid resolution with the work for the construction of a second entrance to the south, without architectural barriers. We are still waiting. We cannot and must no longer remain indifferent to the numerous and repeated cases that have occurred. This is not civilization, it is abandonment”.
Article published on 26 August 2019 - 14:31
