Ten Years After Amatrice, Reconstruction Still Lags

As people gather in Amatrice on Monday for a mass to mark the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the town, international reporting has drawn attention to the slow pace of its reconstruction. According to the Guardian, as of April two-thirds of planned public projects in Amatrice had yet to begin, rising to seven in 10 in the hardest-hit areas.

The 2016 earthquake struck central Italy on 24 August, killing hundreds and flattening entire towns across the Apennines. Amatrice, a hilltop town known for its pasta and its place in Italy's culinary identity, became the symbol of the disaster and of the promises that followed.

The anniversary mass, held in a town still marked by cranes and empty lots, has revived questions about how Italy manages recovery after catastrophe. The Guardian's reporting suggests that a decade on, the gap between official pledges and visible progress remains wide.

The reconstruction record in Amatrice is part of a broader pattern in Italy's post-earthquake recovery, where bureaucracy, funding delays and disputes over building standards have slowed work. The Guardian's figures — two-thirds of planned public projects not begun by April, and 70 percent in the worst-hit zones — point to a systemic problem rather than a local one.

For the Liguria bureau, the story carries a particular resonance. This region knows the cost of infrastructure failure: the Morandi bridge collapse in Genoa in 2018 killed 43 people and exposed the fragility of Italy's public works. The lesson from Amatrice is that reconstruction is not merely a matter of concrete and steel, but of political will and administrative capacity — the same forces that determine whether a port, a road or a bridge is repaired or left to decay.

The Guardian notes that the anniversary has prompted renewed calls for accountability. Foreign press coverage has framed Amatrice as a test case for Italy's ability to honour its commitments to its own citizens, a question that extends far beyond the Apennines to every corner of the country's infrastructure.

As the mass is said on Monday, the people of Amatrice will remember the dead. But the living, according to the international reporting, are still waiting for the homes, schools and public buildings that were promised to them a decade ago.