Shoe king to fund Colosseum clean-up
'End of a nightmare' says mayor as Tod's Della Valle steps in
21 January, 17:21
(ANSA) - Rome, January 21 - Italian shoe king Diego Della
Valle will fund the entire multi-million-euro clean-up and
restoration of the Colosseum after efforts to muster a
consortium of businessmen ran aground.Della Valle, head of the Tod's footwear empire, told a press conference Friday he was pleased to be able to help and pledged not to exploit the project to publicise his group.
"I won't put a Tod's shoe on the Colosseum," he promised, adding that it was "a duty but also a pleasure" to be involved in the landmark restoration.
An accord was signed in Rome city hall between Della Valle, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, Culture Undersecretary Francesco Giro and the government commissioner for central Rome's archeological area, Roberto Cecchi.
"It's the end of a nightmare and the start of a great hope," Alemanno told reporters.
"In the past I have stressed the need for private sponsorship to relaunch the image of the monument because public resources were lacking". He said Della Valle was "making a great gift" to Italy in what should prove a "pioneering" initiative.
Work on the 25-million-euro project will start at the end of this year and will take "between 24 and 36 months", Giro said.
Visits to the Rome icon will not be affected, the officials said.
Della Valle's cash will back a round of tenders to select firms to carry out the project.
Rome city council's bid to muster a group of private sponsors behind a project to refurbish and make safe the world-famous site fell apart in mid-December.
Tenders submitted before an October 31 deadline were adjudged "not appropriate".
Advertisements for sponsors to fund the restoration of the increasingly vulnerable Colosseum first appeared in Italy's Official Gazette and two international newspapers in August.
The exact form the eventual sponsorship will take is still not clear.
Some concerns were raised over allowing corporate advertisers to use the 2000-year-old symbol of Rome to promote their products.
But the culture ministry and Rome city council representatives have promised the sponsorship will be discreet and in keeping with the dignity of the ancient monument.
Alemanno has also guaranteed that the sponsor will not be allowed to put his name on the giant tarpaulin sheets masking the scaffolding during the restoration work, expected to take at least two years.
Pressure to get the project moving rose after parts of an inside wall fell off in May.
Fortunately, their impact was cushioned by protective netting that has been around several sections of the Colosseum since the 1980s.
"The Colosseum is chronically ill. It's showing all the signs of its age, a natural, physiological disease," Giro said at the time.
The complete restoration of the almost 13,000 square meters of exterior walls is expected to start in the coming months.
As well as the clean-up, unsightly barriers between the lowest arches will be removed and replaced by protective fences like the ones set up around the Roman Forum some years ago.
The monument, which is already lit up occasionally for special events, will then get a permanent illumination system.
The project will follow the recent reopening of the Colosseum's third tier with its panoramic views of Rome and, far below, the first opening of the underground network of tunnels that took gladiators and wild beasts up to the arena.
As part of the restoration, new fire and security systems will be installed.
There will also be state-of-the-art metal detectors which, like the fences, will be positioned at some distance from the monument.
Alemanno has described the planned project as "epoch-making", promising it will make the monument safe for years to come.
