Piazza Benigno Zaccagnini. Trash and asphalt in pieces. And the fountain doesn't work.

"If it's night, it'll be day!" This is the translation from the Romagnolo dialect of the sign beneath the name of Benigno Zaccagnini, the famous politician from Ravenna to whom the square where the city's main street market is dedicated on Wednesdays and Saturdays is dedicated. He himself used this saying to demonstrate that dire situations can be overcome, and these words seem to be words of hope, unfortunately, given the current state of the square, a space developed since 1992 with a dual function: both a parking lot and a link between Via Berlinguer and Via Cassino via Via Sighinolfi.

When the square was renamed after Zaccagnini in 2012, the entire square was redeveloped and provided with more services, including for street vendors. Since then, several issues have remained unresolved, some of which have persisted for years. The public address speakers, though still present, are no longer used for background music on market days. The signs at the entrances to the square, which once provided a map of the various street vendors, have been removed because they were broken or in need of updating. The fence bordering Piazza del Commercio and the Morigia Technical Institute is damaged in several places and only partially sealed with precarious systems. Tree roots have uplifted the asphalt and broken the curbs of the flowerbeds in many areas of the parking lot, marked by the usual yellow signs. Furthermore, the sidewalks have several sections of loose tile. The fountain on the Via Cassino side has never been used, and it must be added that, despite the proximity of the Police Headquarters, this part of the city is often used as a staging post for caravans of nomads who carelessly leave their waste scattered throughout the area before moving on to other destinations.

Marco Beneventi