Underground a threat to Rome, but there are guardian angels to protect us
Adriano Morabito is 53 years old, he has a degree in economics, in life he is an entrepreneur. In his spare time he goes underground. He is an urban speleologist: one who explores the enormous cavities that extend under the streets and buildings of the metropolis. The association to which it belongs is called “Underground Rome”, about eighty people. Few know how valuable their work is. They are guardian angels who, instead of flying into the sky, slip into the holes in the ground to watch over and protect us from down there, from the abyss. «The association was born in 2000 – says Adriano – at the beginning we knocked on all doors to get the authorizations, but they took us for crazy. Now instead it is the institutions that call us: we are there to intervene in places where we can get off ». The interventions are of two types: those for the Superintendencies, in archaeological sites; and those for the Civil Protection, when a chasm opens or is about to open. Sometimes it happens that speleologists are aware of a danger in advance: “Once, for example, we realized that at Villa De Sanctis, on the Casilina, everything was in danger of coming down: between the surface and the cavity below there was a minimum diaphragm remained, from underground we give the voices of the children playing in the park. And there was also a school up there. We alerted the authorities, the area was cleared and the confirmed state works were carried out ». A worthy and free work: «We do it for the love of Rome. And also because we have a lot of fun ».
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