Remarks On the Topology of the Fano surface

We analize the semistable degeneration of the Fano surface F when the cubic threefold becomes the Segre primal. This gives an explicit topological decomposition for F. The decomposition is used to decide that the Fano surface is not an an Eilenberg Mac-Lane K(\pi,1) space, this was the question that prompted us to look into the matter.