Comfort food for Italy quake survivors

Accumoli, Italy: In a children's play park in the tiny Italian village of Illica, survivors of this week's earthquake are enjoying a meal that gives new meaning to the term "comfort food".

As they prepare for a second night under canvas the homeless villagers sit down at long trestle tables to a freshly-cooked dinner rustled up by volunteers from the federation of Italian chefs.

It is a rare moment of relaxation, distraction and pleasure for people whose lives have been turned upside down.

With overnight temperatures plunging to around 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahreneit), the survivors need nourishing, warming fare, said Roberto Rosati, the president of the federation's emergency department.

Rosati is a veteran of the emergency operations put in place after previous deadly earthquakes in L'Aquila in 2009 and Emilia-Romagna in 2012 and for last year's flooding in Campania.

With a dozen blue tents set up in a field on the edge of the hamlet, the gravel paths between them indicate this temporary village is going to be in use for quite a while.

The tables have been laid out so carefully with plastic plates and cutlery and paper covers, that you might think everything was being prepared for a village fete.

Except that instead of Chinese lanterns, it is a blinding halogen lamp that provides the light.

The only soundtrack is provided by a helicopter whirring overhead and lorries crunching their gears.

Rather than roars of laughter, sighs are the order of the day and instead of enticing fumes from a barbecue it is smoke from nervously puffed cigarettes that fills the air.

Over dinner, the talk inevitably returns to the life-changing events of the last 48 hours.

By their sides, some of the diners place plastic bags containing the handful of critical possessions they were able to grab before fleeing their homes when the quake struck before dawn on Wednesday.

The sun has long since dropped behind the mountains, and dusk and the night-time chill are enveloping the ruins of the nearest village house.

The gate to the park holds up a roadsign bearing the village's name: it is all that is left of Illica.