Italian village devastated by quake

‘ Three- quarters of the town is not there anymore,’ mayor of Amatrice laments

One of the picturesque, medieval towns decimated by Wednesday’s earthquake in central Italy was voted by the general public to be one of the country’s most beautiful cities last year.

Amatrice is about 80 miles northeast of Rome and has a population of 2,650. It is part of a network of hilltop communities over a wide area that includes Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto in the agricultural regions of Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche, which are popular vacation spots. More than 150 people were killed in the magnitude- 6.2 earthquake that struck in the early morning.

Amatrice was filled with terracotta- colored buildings and charming courtyards several hundred years old. It is known as the birthplace of spaghetti all’amatri

ciana, a pasta dish of pork cheek, pecorino cheese and tomato.

An annual festival celebrating the town’s namesake food was scheduled to take place this weekend during the height of tourist season in Italy.

The age of the buildings and their proximity to fault lines make them especially vulnerable to earthquakes.

Amatrice’s 16th- century clock tower remained frozen at 3: 36 a. m. — the moment the tremor struck.

Images from the scene show devastation and ruin on a massive scale where traditional Italian architecture once stood.

“Three- quarters of the town is not there anymore,” Mayor Sergio Pirozzi told Italian state TV shortly after the quake.

“The whole village is leveled,” said Steve Audino of Mebourne, Fla., whose parents are traveling in Italy and reached family members who own a home in Amatrice.

“Those villages in the mountains are very high. They are hard to get to,” he said. “You are definitely in the real Italy when you are in that village.”

Audino said his family members are safe, but their home is destroyed. “You can’t rebuild that history,” he said.

More than 40 million foreign tourists visit Italy each year, and it has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country in the world.

None of those appeared to have been affected by Wednesday’s quake.

Images from the scene show devastation and ruin on a massive scale where traditional Italian architecture once stood.

MASSIMO PERCOSSI, EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY Collapsed and damaged houses and businesses line Corso Umberto Street in Amatrice, Italy, on Wednesday.

GREGORIO BORGIA, AP Rescuers search the rubble along Corso Umberto Street in Amatrice. A festival celebrating the town’s namesake food of spaghetti all’amatriciana was scheduled this weekend.

GOOGLE MAPS STREET VIEW This is the same stretch of Corso Umberto Street in 2011. The town is 80 miles northeast of Rome.