• Dolphins are not afraid of Ilva.

    A sedentary colony populates the Gulf of Taranto (photo)

  • The other Taranto.

    Dolphins in the shadow of Ilva

  • Taranto, inside the Clock Tower the photos that tell the story of the old city

  • Taranto, "No reclamations, here it is worse than before" the voices of the citizens of the Tamburi district

  • Taranto, the relaunch of the old city starts from the Church of Sant'Andrea degli Armeni

Share

by Silvia Balducci

11 August 2015There is a Taranto that pushes to break the thread that binds the image of the city to the problems of steel mills and industry alone. Young people who populate the old city, for years ghost, researchers who guide tourists to discover the treasures that are hidden in the waters of the gulf.



Without forgetting, it goes without saying, the problems of the city: Tamburi, Borgo, Paolo VI, where people continue to die and in these months the reclamation operations have begun to limit the damage caused by exposure to dust.



The rebirth also starts from the sea. The gulf of Taranto, with its canyons and the depth of its waters, hosts a colony of sedentary dolphins. A reality discovered in years of research by the marine biologist Carmelo Fanizza. Since 2009, with its Jonian Dolphin conservation association, it has been involving tourists and citizens in research activities at sea. Thanks to this initiative, his name was also selected to represent Puglia at the Expo.



The sedentary dolphins of the Gulf of Taranto. Carmelo Fanizza with the Jonian dolphin association takes tourists and Taranto to the sea to study cetaceans

"I was personally tired of always and only hearing about the problems of Taranto - says Fanizza as we follow him aboard the Taras catamaran - so I decided to involve tourists in the research, to make them discover the potential and beauty of our sea". Today his initiative is in great demand. Impossible to get on the catamaran before the end of September, already fully booked. For the most part those who participate come from outside, but on board they also meet Taranto. After the sighting, thanks to a special software that analyzes photographs of the dorsal fin are then identified.



The species sighted are mostly the striped dolphin, a common species of medium-sized dolphins, about two meters, but also the bottlenose dolphins of about three meters, and the huge Rush that reaches 4 meters. Some specimens of the very rare Common Dolphin. Sightings can take place offshore, such as a few miles from the coast, even near the industrial area of ​​Taranto.






Taranto, old city seen from the sea 

From the catamaran you then go down to the old city, the beautiful but abandoned island. “One of the most fascinating historical centers in Italy” is how one who knew about these things defined it, the art critic Giulio Carlo Argan. With its narrow and narrow alleys, built in this way to protect the inhabitants after the total destruction of the Greek-Roman Taranto by the Saracens in 927.



One of the symbols of the Old Town is the Clock Tower which, with its bells, has marked its rhythms for centuries. Inside are exhibited the images that tell the maritime vocation of the city, fishing and mythiculture. An initiative organized by a small association, Le Sciaje, which is committed to safeguarding and transmitting the traditional culture of Taranto and recovering the spaces in the center. "We organize guided tours in the old city and try to restore centrality to the island with our initiatives" explains the president of the association Angelo Cannata.



A few alleys away is the Church of Sant'Andrea degli Armeni where a project was born to facilitate tourists in visiting the old city. “This is an ad hoc sign associated with cue code that guides people inside the island” says the tour guide Giovanni Berardi. "But the interesting fact is that the information is translated into multiple languages, including Arabic, Iranian and Russian, thanks to the involvement of the refugees present in the city".






The clock tower in an ancient photo 



This Taranto, therefore, coexists with the one that continues to get sick and die. In the Tamburi district, which rises just below the Ilva, a few meters from the mineral deposits (the bulkheads built to limit the dust from flying towards the inhabited area are of little use) the buildings and streets are covered by the usual reddish dust. The inhabitants seem skeptical about what will be the results of the reclamation, started in February, which involves the removal of 30 cm of polluted soil which is then replaced with virgin soil after a spraying operation to prevent the dispersion of dust.



And to think that the district owes its name to the gurgling water that came to the Tamburi from the Triglio aqueduct, dating back to the Roman era, which also made it one of the healthiest places in the city. Today, however, the Ilva fireplaces have also arrived inside the church, in that image of Christ to which the population appeals in the hope of not dying of cancer.