It seems incredible, yet the students had noticed for some time that there was something wrong with that building. They didn’t feel it was safe and they could tell by the continuous tremors that the situation was worsening. The cracks were getting bigger and bigger, a nail could be pressed into the wall simply by pushing with your thumb. Not only that: there was a decaying column in the dining hall, ‘rotted away’ some students say, which in fact had been cordoned off, the tables moved as far away as possible.

The succession of earthquakes had begun in mid-December of 2008 with a slight tremor, but from January the shocks intensified. Within a few months four hundred of them had been recorded. On their own the students had then begun doing some research about L’Aquila’s earthquakes and the area. Some had even started recording the tremors and their magnitude day by day. And when a student consulted the dorm’s custodian to find out whether the building was up to standard, to see a document certifying that it was earthquake-resistant, she was reassured. The building can withstand an earthquake, they tell her, not to worry: ‘L’Aquila trembles but it does not collapse! […] Before this building collapses, all of L’Aquila must collapse. This is the safest area of the city.’ In the report of the prosecutor’s experts we read instead that not only had the residence been built without taking into account the potential force of seismic activity, but it was partially built ‘with shoddy concrete’. That is, to skimp on costs a lot of water had been used, skimping on safety.

When on 30 March, a week before the tragedy, a tremor that was stronger than the others was felt, the students had asked the company that owns the property to send a building inspector to do an on-site check. They wanted to know whether staying in the building was dangerous, whether they should move. The manager of the inspection office comes to examine the building but does not report anything in particular. Everything is fine, he says. Following that inspection the students’ representative goes to the architect and says: ‘I didn’t come all the way from Calabria to die here.’ But the architect again reassures her. If they’re really afraid, he advises them to sleep in the study hall with their clothes and shoes on. The same study hall that later collapsed.