A sign reading “Airport of San Marino” has sparked controversy in Torraccia. The issue was raised by the Torraccia Civic Committee, which has spoken out against the new signage, contesting the terminology used to describe the Sammarinese facility.
The Committee’s point is blunt: from a regulatory and aeronautical standpoint, the Torraccia facility is an airfield, not an airport. According to the protest’s organizers, this distinction cannot be dismissed as a mere matter of semantics.
«An airport is an infrastructure with specific technical requirements, certifications, services and procedures. An airfield is something different: simpler, more limited, but entirely respectable in its own function», the Committee stresses.
From there, the criticism sharpens, laced with a healthy dose of irony. The new sign is described as «an interesting exercise in local marketing, if not outright creative realism».
The Committee doubles down: «If changing a sign were all it took, every town could boast a port without a sea, a subway without tracks, or a three-storey skyscraper».
Behind the provocation, however, residents want to put a specific issue on the table: whether what the sign states actually matches the official classification of the Torraccia facility.
«For now», the Committee continues, «the only true take-off appears to be that of the imagination. And, at least until the certifications change along with the signs, Torraccia will remain what it has always been: an airfield».
Beyond the irony, though, comes a demand for clarity. The Committee wants to know who ordered the installation of the new sign and who should be held responsible for choosing the name “Airport of San Marino”.
«If words carry weight — and when it comes to infrastructure and institutional communication, they should — the Torraccia Civic Committee concludes, it would be interesting to find out who thought it appropriate to replace accuracy with wishful thinking».
