Lazise Blackout: Power Outage Disrupts Town During European Match

Lazise. Total blackout within the walls of Scaliger’s town, while immediately outside there was abundant electricity with street lighting illuminating everything clearly. Outrage and anger from business owners and merchants as an entire evening was «burned away» and plunged into complete darkness for over two hours. A severe fault in the Enel electrical line, in fact, brought the lakeside town—full of Italian and foreign tourists—to a standstill.

Visitors had come to the lake to enjoy a pleasant evening, perhaps sitting at the table of a charming restaurant to taste Lazise’s culinary specialties, which abound here. The crowd was tense, as all of this happened while the first half of a football match valid for the European Championship was underway.

Many of the patrons were watching the game at the bar, with a cold mug of beer or an ice cream. No one saw how it ended, as the power was restored late at night, around midnight.

Effects of the blackout and nighttime atmosphere

Deep darkness across the calli and the lakeside pathway, along Lazise’s most characteristic streets. An extraordinary sight for tourists used to seeing the historic center brightly lit. Saturday evening, instead, everything was soft, all in candlelight.

It was an unusual and incredibly romantic image of the lake, almost an out-of-season nativity scene. A truly unique Lazise by-night, a special experience that, in some ways, is worth repeating.

Enjoying Lazise without lights, with the sky full of clouds, under the threat of an approaching storm and thunderstorm, with the flickering flames of candles, is undoubtedly a unique, unrepeatable sensation from bygone times—when electric light was a rarity, a luxury.

Wonder and amazement for the tourists, anger and nervousness for the shopkeepers and restaurateurs who lost a busy evening of work. Notable efforts by Enel technicians, who had to sweat blood to repair the severe fault that struck the town.