SIRACUSA, Italy, March 5 (UPI) -- Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pledged Wednesday to save the archaeological ruin of Pompeii after UNESCO warned of its imminent collapse.
The ancient city of Pompeii, near modern Naples, was buried by up to 20 feet of volcanic ash and destroyed in the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and is now a preserved tourist destination drawing up to 2.5 million visitors annually.
Renzi, in Syracuse, Sicily, Wednesday, said the country should "get over an ideological refusal to involve the private sector, as if only public intervention could ensure our cultural heritage is preserved" after recent collapses of structures in Pompeii led to a 2 million euro ($2.75 million) expenditure by the government for urgent repairs.
Only one major historical restoration in Italy, that of the Colosseum in Rome, has been privately funded, and that project has been delayed in bureaucratic red tape and union opposition, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
