Italy’s famous ‘Lovers’ Arch’ collapses on Valentine’s Day
CNN
A powerful Valentine’s Day storm destroyed a centuries-old seaside arch in southern Italy long associated with romance, dealing a blow to local tourism and highlighting concerns about coastal erosion and extreme weather.
An Italian coastal beauty spot known as “Lovers’ Arch” because of its popularity with courting couples collapsed during heavy storms on Valentine’s Day in what one local official called “a blow to the heart.”
Faraglioni di Sant’Andrea, the site of an arch in the stone cliffs on the coast of Salento — the heel of Italy’s “boot’ — has drawn romantically inclined visitors for centuries, with lovers traditionally proposing marriage, stealing first kisses or celebrating unions. Those who kissed under the arch were destined for eternal love, according to local legend.
But when a powerful storm swept across southern Italy over the weekend, the arch’s fragile structure gave way, reducing it to a pile of rubble.
Its collapse has dealt a “devastating blow to the image of Salento and to tourism,” Maurizio Cisternino, mayor of the town of Melendugno, near the fallen arch, told CNN. “It’s a blow to the heart.”
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