FLORENCE, ITALY – Heavy snowfall forced road closures, shuttered schools in north-central Italy in these days of winter.
Schools were closed Friday morning in Tuscany’s province of Florence, while snows whitened the historic cities of Volterra and Arezzo. Further east, drifting and blowing snow in Emilia Romagna snarled traffic and forced the closure Friday morning of Bologna’s airport.
Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi summoned motorway manager Autostrade per L’Italia to explain on Friday why so many stretches of the country’s motorways were closed after heavy snowfalls in recent days.
One day earlier, Autostrade per l’Italia said it had deployed over 700 vehicles and 2,000 staff to clear heavy snow and ice off 700 km of its network. The situation was most critical on the heavily trafficked A1 highway between Naples and Milan, with more than 40 cm of snowfall between Pian del Voglio and the Citerna pass in the mountainous Apennine area.
High-speed trains were forced to travel at reduced speeds, causing serious delays along the system.
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