The Head of State's fiery summer shifts from the Province of Monza-Brianza to the BAT (Barletta-Andria-Trani), from the ICMESA dioxin disaster to the two trains colliding near Ruvo di Puglia. How many times have those whose ID cards bore the name "... on the Seveso" had to pay the price, both in Italy and abroad? For all those affected by the ecological disaster, the time for redemption has come, fifty years later.
In July 2026, a sad pilgrimage into the darkest of memories took President Sergio Mattarella first to the Bosco delle Querce in Seveso for the fiftieth anniversary of the dioxin disaster and a few hours later to the Andria-Corato route that had become sinisterly notorious ten years earlier for the train tragedy that killed 23 people.
On July 10, 1975, a toxic cloud rose from the Icmesa industrial complex on the outskirts of Meda (then in the province of Milan and now in the province of Monza-Brianza), engulfing the residents of Seveso, Cesano Maderno, and perhaps even Barlassina in a disastrous embrace.
On July 12, 2016, the inexperience of three railway workers caused the collision between two death trains in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani.
Unfortunately, we had to experience those tragedies firsthand, and what Mattarella wanted to highlight with his visits takes on special significance.
Fifty years earlier, the feared disaster hidden by the managers of the Swiss multinational saw children and pregnant women attacked by dioxin and found themselves with their bodies (especially their faces) ravaged by chloracne or at risk of miscarriage.
Right there, that stretch of the then-new Milan-Meda highway, we drove through day after day, even on the Saturday and Sunday of the toxic cloud release, which had been kept hidden for a week. From the old Camnago highway entrance, coming from the Giovi National Road in Lentate sul Seveso, we descended toward Barlassina and then took the sharp right-hand bend, which forced drivers to run over the Icmesa chemical processing plant.
For those coming down towards Milan from the slopes of the hill of Carimate Castle – then the nerve centre of the musical production of Lucio Dalla, Ron and the others of the “Castle” label – the most convenient route was precisely that one, and it was to be taken at least twice a day, even on Saturdays and Sundays, if required for full-time journalistic work.
That July 10th fell on a Saturday. The many elderly people who attended Mattarella's outing in Seveso, in the Bosco delle Querce (Oak Forest), where that tree stands, know this well. Over time, it has proven to be a devourer of dioxin dust: so voracious that it has been held up as an example and a problem solver for similar incidents recorded elsewhere.
Mattarella once again captivated the public, persistently emphasizing a crucial fact: that "accident" must be seen, 50 years later, as a moment of awakening for European consciences, until then insensitive to environmental disasters. And he certainly wouldn't have missed Mayor Alessia Borroni's remarks about the "rejected": "The destruction, the chloracne that affected the children, the homes abandoned overnight, the businesses closed, and even 'isolation by the Italians,' with goods arriving from Seveso being turned away and hotel reservations denied to those 'contaminated.'
"I carry with me the memories and the wounds," the mayor said, "but above all, the hope of our fellow citizens who were able to get back on their feet, who didn't leave. The Bosco delle Querce, built in the most polluted area, is the soul of Seveso. We want to remember but also to turn the page. We," Borroni concluded, "are contagious, but contagious with life." The same words were recited in Brussels, at the community assembly, and go far beyond the renewed promise of Luciano Fontana, president of the Lombardy Region, who specified that the new sections crossed by the relaunched highway will be meticulously reclaimed.
Fifty years later, we're still hearing predictable promises that, as usual, will end up being broken. You can't help but think differently if you're among those who suffered from a lack of proper communication and were denied a hotel room because, when you wrote down your full details, your paper ID card listed the location "...on the Seveso," which was a sign of contamination risk. This was clearly stated both in the "residence" section and in the stamp of the municipality that issued the document, complete with the signature of the local mayor.
For anyone arriving at midnight at a small hotel in the Swiss countryside and being turned away by the night porter on the eve of a "Zurich Championship" for elite runners, it certainly wasn't the best moment of their lives. And to think that the tragedy in Seveso and its surroundings had come from Switzerland itself...
Repercussions were felt years later in both the United States and Great Britain. Living "on the Seveso" meant having to contend with fear and, at times, the ignorance of more or less casual interlocutors. But, fifty years later, we could sing "And we're still here" with Vasco Rossi, with our vitality and the designer furniture—now in short supply, to be honest—produced by that Meda who skillfully directed the cameras and media pens toward Seveso, Cesano Maderno, and Barlassina to distance himself from the location of a disaster that was fundamentally "his."
Moving on to July 12, 2016, which some sources—erroneously—date two days earlier, it fell on a Tuesday. The tragedy occurred between Andria and Corato. Many link the accident to Ruvo di Puglia because there is a station on the single-track line there, where a lack of expert assessment caused the collision that killed 23 people. Mattarella conveyed the thoughts and condolences of the Presidency of the Republic, that is, of all of Italy.
We were scouting those parts for the possibility of organizing an athletics obstacle race, the now classic OCR Spartan. The area encompassing Altamura, Matera, and all the secrets of human evolution is so evocative that it's sad to note the ongoing lack of recognition for the jewels of that corner of land, inextricably linked to a slice of Basilicata and the beating heart of Puglia.
The news shattered the morning in the area cut through by Ferrotramviaria, which was frequented by countless passengers, and spread across the world. It struck us a few kilometers further on, toward Barletta. The phone jam and incompetence transformed that single track into a universal hell, and the President must have been as affected as most. And he expressed it with touching words and gestures.
