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| Italy roused to halt plunder of Asolo village | Italy roused to halt plunder of Asolo village |
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| The north-eastern Italian village of Asolo is known as the "town of a hundred horizons" and its beauty has bewitched for centuries. | The north-eastern Italian village of Asolo is known as the "town of a hundred horizons" and its beauty has bewitched for centuries. |
| Illustrious past residents include the explorer Freya Stark and the actor Eleonora Duse. Robert Browning loved it so much that he named his last volume of poetry – Asolando – after it. | Illustrious past residents include the explorer Freya Stark and the actor Eleonora Duse. Robert Browning loved it so much that he named his last volume of poetry – Asolando – after it. |
| Now, however, the rural idyll is at the centre of an ugly row over its future development, with opposition politicians and a chorus of angry local people accusing the authorities of endangering its status as the "pearl of Treviso". | Now, however, the rural idyll is at the centre of an ugly row over its future development, with opposition politicians and a chorus of angry local people accusing the authorities of endangering its status as the "pearl of Treviso". |
| Last week, the town's Northern League-led authority unveiled a plan to build new housing on surrounding land and create a 75-acre industrial zone nearby. The administration of mayor Loredana Baldisser said this was necessary for the area's development. | Last week, the town's Northern League-led authority unveiled a plan to build new housing on surrounding land and create a 75-acre industrial zone nearby. The administration of mayor Loredana Baldisser said this was necessary for the area's development. |
| But the building programme, which is to be voted on by local politicians on Wednesday, has provoked fury among Baldisser's opponents and many residents, who claim it is unnecessary and will create unsightly urban sprawl in an area famed for its natural beauty. | But the building programme, which is to be voted on by local politicians on Wednesday, has provoked fury among Baldisser's opponents and many residents, who claim it is unnecessary and will create unsightly urban sprawl in an area famed for its natural beauty. |
| On Sunday, a group of residents took to a central square to protest. A petition demanding the plans be halted has been signed by nearly 500 people. On the petition, headed In Defence of Asolo, Daniele Ferrazza, a former mayor of the town, wrote: "Because of the love I feel for this part of Italy I will leave no stone unturned in defending it against the assault and the plundering of a handful of people who are without history and without scruples of conscience." | On Sunday, a group of residents took to a central square to protest. A petition demanding the plans be halted has been signed by nearly 500 people. On the petition, headed In Defence of Asolo, Daniele Ferrazza, a former mayor of the town, wrote: "Because of the love I feel for this part of Italy I will leave no stone unturned in defending it against the assault and the plundering of a handful of people who are without history and without scruples of conscience." |
| Laura Puppato, a senator for the centre-left Democratic party (PD) in the wider region of Veneto, chastised Asolo's politicians for trying to achieve what she called the "cementification" of the countryside. "Now this new urban expansion, which has no rationale to it, is putting at risk one of the last paradises of a Veneto which for some time has become a land of urban woe and cultural poverty," she wrote in the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. | Laura Puppato, a senator for the centre-left Democratic party (PD) in the wider region of Veneto, chastised Asolo's politicians for trying to achieve what she called the "cementification" of the countryside. "Now this new urban expansion, which has no rationale to it, is putting at risk one of the last paradises of a Veneto which for some time has become a land of urban woe and cultural poverty," she wrote in the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. |
| The intentions of the Asolo authorities would seem to be at odds with comments made last year by the Northern League president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, who hit out at excessive construction in the region and said it needed to stop. | The intentions of the Asolo authorities would seem to be at odds with comments made last year by the Northern League president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, who hit out at excessive construction in the region and said it needed to stop. |
| Calling this week for a "new sensitivity" towards the environment, Puppato said Asolo could become the symbol of a wider battle in Italy as a whole against the "eating-up" of land for construction. | Calling this week for a "new sensitivity" towards the environment, Puppato said Asolo could become the symbol of a wider battle in Italy as a whole against the "eating-up" of land for construction. |
| "Anyone who cares about beauty is invited to mobilise and stop this latest attack on the land and support all those who oppose this wretched theory of new urban expansion," she wrote. A report for the biggest-selling Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, condemned the plans as "absurd". | "Anyone who cares about beauty is invited to mobilise and stop this latest attack on the land and support all those who oppose this wretched theory of new urban expansion," she wrote. A report for the biggest-selling Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, condemned the plans as "absurd". |
| The local branch of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement agreed. "They are destroying our territory," party activist Michele Ballan was quoted as saying, branding the plans "absurd and devastating". | The local branch of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement agreed. "They are destroying our territory," party activist Michele Ballan was quoted as saying, branding the plans "absurd and devastating". |
| Just over 40 miles from Venice, Asolo's winding cobbled streets and sumptuous Renaissance villas continue to attract tourists just as, in decades gone by, they lured writers and artists. Stark, the redoubtable British globetrotter, spent much of her early and later years there, dying at the age of 100 in her home. She is buried in the local Sant'Anna cemetery. | Just over 40 miles from Venice, Asolo's winding cobbled streets and sumptuous Renaissance villas continue to attract tourists just as, in decades gone by, they lured writers and artists. Stark, the redoubtable British globetrotter, spent much of her early and later years there, dying at the age of 100 in her home. She is buried in the local Sant'Anna cemetery. |
| Browning, one of Britain's most prominent Victorian poets, is known to have been deeply influenced by the town, setting the 1841 narrative work Pippa Passes there and spending much time in the area towards the end of his life. Asolando was published on the day he died in 1889, while Robert Barrett Browning, his and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's only son, died in Asolo in 1912. | Browning, one of Britain's most prominent Victorian poets, is known to have been deeply influenced by the town, setting the 1841 narrative work Pippa Passes there and spending much time in the area towards the end of his life. Asolando was published on the day he died in 1889, while Robert Barrett Browning, his and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's only son, died in Asolo in 1912. |
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