As somebody wrote on a motorsports forum this weekend -Ciocco Rally – Paradise – nice weather, great cars and smiling faces… What else do you need to have a great rally?
The 30th Ciocco Rally has just ended with Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi in their Mitsubishi Lancer taking the winning honours in 2 hours 15 minutes and 23 seconds of nail biting driving through the narrow roads in Garfagnana and above Barga.
What has not yet ended though is the clear up operation that will be needed to restore the valley to its original condition before the rally.
Many places are still littered with beer bottles, rubbish and metres and metres of plastic tape used to direct the drivers along the correct routes.
The rally is finished, all the drivers, cars, mechanics, journalists and supporters have all gone home but their rubbish still remains.
So just who is going to clear this mess up ?
No, it’s the rubbish that has left — the race car drivers and fans — apart, that is, from their Ciocco sponsors, who owe it to this community to pay for that clean-up.
Was in Barga over the weekend. It seemed to me that very little of the traffic that clogged up the town stopped and gave something back (except the rubbish). No doubt the organisers will say it gives publicity to the area, yes it will, but who would wants to drive or walk alongside a rubbish tip.
Perhaps as they were the main financial winners Ciocco should at least share the cost of the cleanup or better still organise and pay for the cleanup after this year and arrange proper cleaning at little or no cost to the Commune for future years.
Amid the rubbish that is left are various and sundry bumper and grill pieces as well as a twisted bonnet, from an unannounced and unsupervised practice run-in, head on. We are trying not to get our knickers in a twist but those of us who live on or use this road regularly, from Piastroso, Ferriera, Grifoglia, Friaia, through Tiglio and on must have adequate and timely notification of the practice runs as well as the race itself, in addition to competent clean up afterwards, and I’m not just talking about the car airlifted from the Ania riverbed in front of our place on Sunday morning…