Siena airport, maybe or maybe not

"SIENA, Italy - Plans to bring this city into the jet age with the expansion of its small airport are being contested by an embattled group of citizens who say that Siena is doing fine, just as it is."

This story was widely reported in early December of 2007 (through the New York Times news network). The fact that Siena even has an airport probably comes as a big shock to many casual tourists to Tuscany, since most international flights drop their passengers in Pisa, Florence or Rome or Milan.

Having had the good fortune to travel many times to that particular part of the world, I can say that an airport is certainly not needed, at least from where I sit. And apparently I'm not alone:

"The last thing these locals want are an additional half-million odd tourists that the backers of the airport predict would be landing in Siena by 2020. Tourism is already thriving, the naysayers contend, with more than a million visitors coming by land each year, many drawn to the action of Siena's colorful horse race, il Palio."

Of course, the folks who operate the airport, called Ampugnano, claim that they must either grow to accommodate larger airplanes, or face "extinction."

I say what's wrong with some species becoming extinct? Frankly I wouldn't relish the idea of having to share the parks with some of the larger creatures that walked the earth 70 or 80 millions years ago, and I can certainly do without another airport.

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"SIENA, Italy - Plans to bring this city into the jet age with the expansion of its small airport are being contested by an embattled group of citizens who say that Siena is doing fine, just as it is."

This story was widely reported in early December of 2007 (through the New York Times news network). The fact that Siena even has an airport probably comes as a big shock to many casual tourists to Tuscany, since most international flights drop their passengers in Pisa, Florence or Rome or Milan.

Having had the good fortune to travel many times to that particular part of the world, I can say that an airport is certainly not needed, at least from where I sit. And apparently I'm not alone:

"The last thing these locals want are an additional half-million odd tourists that the backers of the airport predict would be landing in Siena by 2020. Tourism is already thriving, the naysayers contend, with more than a million visitors coming by land each year, many drawn to the action of Siena's colorful horse race, il Palio."

Of course, the folks who operate the airport, called Ampugnano, claim that they must either grow to accommodate larger airplanes, or face "extinction."

I say what's wrong with some species becoming extinct? Frankly I wouldn't relish the idea of having to share the parks with some of the larger creatures that walked the earth 70 or 80 millions years ago, and I can certainly do without another airport.