Rain Resurrects Frogs at Passo San Giovanni, Causing Traffic Chaos

Rain arrives, frogs return. At Passo San Giovanni, after ten days of calm, the nightmare has come back to reality: the recent hours’ precipitation has indeed “awakened” the instinct of hundreds of thousands of neomorphosed frogs (the tiny frogs born from eggs laid months ago in Lake Loppio), who have started climbing the banks of the basin once again.

A mass exodus that on Sunday, June 17 (and partly on Monday, June 18), literally flooded the hotel and caused traffic chaos, requiring intervention by firefighters and forest service personnel.

The first, to clean the highway of the mass of small animals crushed by cars with fire hoses, the second to place barriers around the hotel structure.

The second wave of rain and natural defenses

During the night between Wednesday and Thursday, the rain raised the issue again, although this time the situation was considerably better. The “defense systems” held up well against the assault: yesterday afternoon, only a few tiny specimens of “Bufo bufo“ (the scientific name of the common toad) could be seen hopping nervously among the parked cars and trucks in the lot.

However, the bustling green army only stopped a few meters further, “bottlenecked” on the bike path, blocked by a substantial strip of salt that prevents them from reaching both the road and the hotel.

These amphibians have moist, delicate skin that can be “burned” when in contact with sodium chloride. While thousands of specimens hop frantically, they seem almost impatient, ready to resume the march imposed by Mother Nature, which conflicts with human needs.

Concerns and perspectives

It is natural, therefore, that Roberto Vivaldi, the hotel owner, is experiencing these hours with concern: will the defenses withstand new, possibly more massive, assaults that will surely be launched with the next rains? Only time will tell.