Genoa travel advice – is it safe to visit and how are tourists affected?
The collapse of a section of Genoa's Morandi bridge on Tuesday has been described by Italian officials as "the biggest tragedy involving a bridge of this importance in Europe in decades" - leaving tourists heading to the region, and the country at large, with worrying questions.
Why did the bridge collapse?
We don't know yet. Lack of maintenance, structural failure and severe weather were all factors that could have contributed to the catastrophic collapse of the Genoa motorway bridge. At least 38 people died when a 650-foot portion of it disintegrated yesterday morning during an intense thunderstorm and torrential rain.
A report published in 2011 by the Italian highways agency said the concrete bridge, finished in 1967 and designed by celebrated Italian engineer Riccardo Morandi, who died in 1989, carried heavy volumes of traffic and needed constant maintenance.
Approximately 25 million vehicles use the Morandi bridge every year, raising concerns that its structural integrity had deteriorated over time.
However, a senior manager from Autostrade per l’Italia said the bridge’s collapse was impossible to predict and it was too early to determine what caused it.
Morandi bridge collapse, Genoa
"The collapse was unexpected and unpredictable. The bridge was constantly monitored, even more than was foreseen by the law," Stefano Marigliani told Reuters. "There was no reason to consider the bridge dangerous."
What areas does the bridge serve?
The Morandi bridge, which locals describe as their “Brooklyn Bridge”, covers an area of light industry as well as several railway lines, with the section that collapsed spanning the Polcevera river.
Genoa bridge collapse map
It connects the A10 highway towards the south of France and links Genoa with the Italian Riviera, and the A7 highway that continues towards Milan.
Its collapse was an "incident of vast proportions on a vital arterial road, not just for Genoa, but for the whole country", said the governor of the Liguria region, Giovanni Toti.
"The Morandi bridge connects three major ports in our country, used by tens, even hundreds of thousands of people. They depart from these ports on holiday. These docks receive most of our country's imported goods. It damages the very structure of the Italian logistics system. We are expecting a very fast response from the government."
"What we are carrying out at the moment is a search and rescue operation for the victims and the injured, to get the victims out and recover the injured," he added.
"Then we are obviously also trying to work out how to set up a viable route that is an alternative to the motorway, and also for entry and exit from the port."
What does the Foreign Office advise?
A tweet from the British Embassy in Italy reads: "We are saddened by the incident in #Genoa and our thoughts are with those injured or killed and their families. Our embassy are in contact with local authorities for updates and we are ready to offer assistance if needed."
The Foreign Office hasn't released a Genoa-specific statement yet.
We are saddened by the incident in #Genoa and our thoughts are with those injured or killed and their families. Our embassy are in contact with local authorities for updates and we are ready to offer assistance if needed.
— UK in Italy ???????? (@UKinItaly) August 14, 2018
Are cruises affected?
Several cruise operators depart from or make stops at Genoa - MSC chief among them - but none have announced changes to their schedules.
A statement issued by MSC this morning read: "We are still assessing the impact this may have for our guests embarking and disembarking in Genoa this upcoming weekend. At this point, our upcoming calls on Saturday [August] 18th (MSC Opera and MSC Divina) and on Sunday 19th (MSC Fantasia and MSC Seaview), are all scheduled to take place as planned.
"The excursions that are planned in and around Genoa this weekend are currently not affected. Guests travelling to and from of Genoa need to take additional travel time by road into account.
"We are currently expecting to receive an updated road traffic plan which will be issued by the authorities shortly. This will help us to schedule transportation for our embarking and disembarking guests."
What about flights?
Genoa Airport is just over four miles from the city centre, serving airlines including British Airways, Air France, Air Italy, Lufthansa, Ryanair and Turkish Airlines.
No flights have been disrupted, but the airport warns that as a result of the bridge collapse, traffic on the A10 is interrupted and travellers should factor in extra time when getting to the hub via alternative routes. More information on how to reach it is available on the airport's website here.
What will happen to the bridge?
Italian Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Edoardo Rixi announced on Tuesday that the rest of the remaining bridge should be demolished, and said he hoped a suitable detour road would be ready by October.
"The entire Morandi Bridge must be destroyed, which will lead to serious consequences for movement and problems for citizens and companies," he said during a meeting at the Civil Defense Service in Genoa.
Longest road bridges across water
Should I be worried about other structures in Italy?
Concerns have been raised about the integrity of other structures built following the Second World War, with one engineering body saying tens of thousands of bridges and viaducts in Italy could be at risk.
Giuseppe Conte, the Prime Minister, said "all infrastructure" across the country needed to be double-checked. "We must not allow another tragedy like this to happen again," he added.
It's has been suggested that substandard concrete supplied by the mafia at the time of Genoa's bridge being constructed could be a factor. However, with investigations only just starting, it's too early to speculate as to exactly which other structures could pose risk.
Other Italian bridges engineered by Morandi include:
The Ponte Amerigo Vespucci in Florence, a 162m bridge straddling the Arno River which was built in 1957
The Fiumarella Viaduct in Catanzaro, 526m in length and built in 1960
Carpineto Bridge in Potenza, completed im 1977, which spans 200m
Morandi also designed the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge in Western Venezuela, a concrete cable-stayed bridge that was opened in 1962 but partly collapsed two years later after an oil tanker, the Esso Maracaibo, lost control and crashed into it, bringing down a 260m section and resulting in seven deaths. The section was later repaired.
How popular is Genoa with British tourists?
Telegraph Travel's consumer expert Nick Trend, who visited Genoa six weeks ago, writes: "It is a great city, with a spectacular medieval cathedral and dozens of renaissance palaces.
"But it is much overlooked in favour of its more famous Italian neighbours: though it suffers from occasional waves of day-trippers from the cruise-ship dock, its day to day rhythms are largely unaffected by tourism.
"Walk into a restaurant in Florence or Venice and you will be surrounded by other tourists, while the waiters will have commuted in from distant suburbs. In Genoa, once you have negotiated the throngs of the old town’s thriving passagiata, there is a good chance you will sit down at a table and be told that the menu is in Italian only. But the collapse of the viaduct is a terrible tragedy for the city and the mood will be sombre for some time to come."
Chris Leadbeater also visited in 2016, hailing it as one of Italy's most underrated cities.
