The 10,000 additional tourists on Sunday alone created a security risk for the whole area.
Concerned about reports from tourism bodies that twice the number of day trip deals have been booked for this coming Sunday, February 2, he has summoned the prefecture of the regional capital L’Aquila to ensure proper traffic police and security forces.
Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a Green Party politician from Naples, posted a lengthy Facebook video in which he scolded the day-trippers and tour organizers.
“Go to Roccaraso for 15 euros without a receipt? Throw your garbage in the snow? What are we talking about?” he said. “People who have passes and follow the rules were made to wait three hours in their cars for these people who didn’t have permission or passes to be there. Not in my name as a Neapolitan.”
Some of the day-trippers shot back on social media, accusing the locals of discrimination because they are from Naples. Roccaraso’s mayor denied their city of origin had anything to do with objections.
“Roccaraso welcomes and wants to welcome more and more tourists, but civil and correct skiers,” he said. “The Roccaraso system is unable to contain the assault of those who come only on Sundays. We cannot put a thousand chemical bathrooms in a ski resort.
“I am on the street, these people do not have patience, they get nervous, they don’t give a damn about the machines that come. Sooner or later you risk the accident. I say it firmly: they have to face this phenomenon as if it were a soccer match.”
