THE SORRY STORY OF JERANTO AND THE PADLOCKED GATE

Just before Christmas, 29th December to be precise, I decided to walk down to Jeranto from Nerano since it was some time since I had been there.

All was well until I tried to access the area of the ex quarry. Here I found the gate locked  by a large padlock and with the notice you can see in the photo: "closed for safety reasons".

I peered through the bars of the gate and all looked pretty normal to me. Admittedly we had had a spate of dreadful weather with gale-force winds and torrential rain, but I couldn't see any evidence of damage from where I was. Rather annoyed that access was being denied, I squeezed through the railings to the side of the gate and proceeded along the path. Although there were indeed a couple of fallen branches further in, there was nothing else that I could see to warrant the closure.

Maybe I am a little suspicious by nature, but it all seemed rather strange, so in the end I posted the photo with the simple question WHY on my SorrentoAmalfiWalkWithUs Facebook page, little imagining the reaction it would get:

2652 views (which might not seem many, but on average I get around 150 to 200 for a "normal" post), 8 shares (from other hiking groups and hikers) and 12 comments. The shares generated yet more shares and more comments.

This was 3rd January. The following morning the FAI (who are responsible for the maintenance and management of this area) put their own post up on their Facebook page, evidently in reply to the general indignation caused by mine, stating that the TEMPORARY closure was necessary due to the complexity of the damage both to the trees and to the buildings caused by the bad weather in mid December. Evidently other people were just as sceptical as myself and also went down to take a look, confirming that apart from a couple of branches that could (and should) already have been removed, there was nothing untoward.
Requests to the FAI to produce photos of the damage were consistently ignored which of course just fuelled more and more disquiet about the possible reasons behind the closure.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with the FAI, its Wikipedia  definiton is as follows: the Fondo Ambiente Italian is an Italian non-profit foundation, founded in 1975 with the aim of acting for the protection, safeguard and enhancement of the Italian artistic and natural heritage through the restoration and opening to the public of historical, artistic or naturalistic assets received by donation, inheritance or loan. 
The FAI received this area in donation in 1987 and in 2002 an official agreement was signed between the FAI and the Comune of Massa Lubrense. This agreement states as follows:
- article 1:  FAI undertakes not to prevent the free public use of the paths and areas identified
- article 2:  the routes and areas will be frequented by the public at their own risk... with the FAI having the only task of reporting any dangers to the users with specific reference to the type of danger... and with the exclusion of  signs limiting the free use of the routes and areas covered by this agreement.
- article 3: the parties agree that the access and free use of the routes and areas must not be prevented or reduced. The FAI is required to eliminate the closures and check that no impediment to access and free use is put in place by personnel of the organization or by third parties. In the presence of such impediments the Municipality is required to remove them without notice, providing for the recovery of the expenses incurred to the detriment of the FAI.
In other words, the closure of the gate was in complete violation of the above agreement, whatever the motives, and the fact that the local authorities had not been informed of the situation in the 2 weeks following the storms, certainly still makes one wonder if there was actually more to it than meets the eye. 
It took a lot of pressure on the local authorities before they finally sent someone down to verify the situation. As a result the FAI has been given 10 days to take the necessary actions and re-open the gate. Reading between the lines, the damage was not nearly as complex as they were making out, so hopefully the deadline will be respected and everything back to normal before we know it.
We shall see.