Cranes overhead

The national bird of Italy is the “crane”, no not that majestic flying bird but the steel towers that soar into the sky with their long arms hanging over the towns and cities of Italy.

I would love to have one of the companies here in Italy that supplies construction cranes to job sites, I would be rich. These cranes seem to be at every building construction site no matter if it is a one story or twenty story project. Granted that for the way the towns in Italy are put together sometimes the only way to get materials into a cramped space would be by a crane, but I have seen some at home sites in the countryside you can drive up to with any truck you needed. These steel towers rise vertically from minimal bases and can swing a couple hundred feet over rooftops.

Cranes are as much of the landscape in Italy as are TV antennas and satellite dishes. They loom high over parts of Ascoli Piceno at several restoration projects in the centro storico. On our first trip to Italy I thought they were a glaring blight on the landscape but I now just consider them a part of the view. With the prevalence of earthquakes and a country thousands of years old there will always be projects for the national bird of Italy.