Trashy Naples

Poor, poor Napoli!!!

I love yahoo news, I mean, it's my home page.

So I saw this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/ap_on_re_eu/italy_dirty_naples;_ylt=AgS6VTakExktrHqF.JBDeUKROrgF
(I think the link is broken, but the text of the article is at the end of this post in case anyone wants to read it.)

Dang. I know I still haven't posted everything from Europe TWO YEARS AGO, but ... well. When my sister and I backpacked together in 2004, we decided we wanted to visit the birthplace of pizza and also hit Pompeii. I mean, that is just cool. That place is so stinkin' famous, it's kinda a must-see-place-before-you-die.
We were looking around for good places to stay in Naples and then we heard AWFUL reviews. Aaaaaaaaaand, we decided to listen to them. Why not. :P From Rick Steves' Graffiti Wall off his site, everyone was recommending NOT staying in Naples because it was dirty and "unsafe," and we heard about Hostel Brikette, in Positano, south of Naples.

This was seriously one of the best things I've ever done in my whole entire life.

It is one of my most favoritest hostels ever, even though every once in a while I think about how they only turn on the hot water for showers for like, two hours in the morning, and two in the afternoon. And how last time I went, compared with 2004, there was MASSIVE water and mildew damage in the bathroom showers. :(

But I LOVE and still laugh to myself every time I think about being served breakfast, and passing on the coffee/espresso, and asking for juice instead. And the lovely sweet little Italian boy working there who actually SHOWED US TO THE WRONG BEDS AND ROOMS THE FIRST NIGHT would, without fail, say - "Pineapple - it's OK?" And this was repeated 4 days in a row, verbatim. Heh. It was just the way he said "It's OK?" that always has me cracking up.

Because in the end, you get to look at this:

While sitting here:


Anyhoo, I remember that Judes and I were royally SHOCKED at how Naples appeared. It did indeed look much more littered than any other European cities we went to. Since Positano was so incredibly gorgeous, we were very happy we decided to go to Hostel Brikette and skipped Naples.

So I actually went through Naples twice in 2006 - coming by plane from Vilnius, Lithuania, into Rome, taking the train to Naples, and going straight to Positano. Well, actually, I walked around a little bit with my HUGE pack so stinkin' heavy and wanted to try the best pizza in the whole entire world, but since I was there on a Sunday, EVERYTHING was closed. :( I ended up making time for it later, though, of course.

It still looked kinda dirty in 2006.


There was just trash blowing all over the streets.

However, I did also take a night train from Naples to Venice after I'd stayed in Positano.

(Here is Positano, in comparison!!)

Lovely, lovely, Positano.

I mean, in Naples, they did weird stuff like this:

"Hello, what street am I on?"

Who puts a unit IN FRONT of the street sign? I swear that was the reason I couldn't even find the pizza joint originally, because I could not see the name of the darn street. And yes, in Europe, street signs are posted on the buildings themselves. Because Europeans are less obsessed with tearing down old buildings and putting up new eyesores. Sense of permanency and all that.

So then, after reading the article about the state of waste in Naples, I'm seeing unbelievable pictures like these:

This is just awful!!! I know that lots of people do not ADORE Naples, but I do have a rather fond regard for it. Melanie, a lovely Swiss chickie from Zurich said she LOVED Naples, and would always stay in "Six Small Rooms." She said she loved it, and loved the atmosphere. There were some cards and things advertising it in the Brikette in Positano, since lots of hostels have advertisements at other hostels and things.

I do think Naples gets a bad rap, though ... I encountered SUCH nice friendly people! I will spin some tales of my adventures another time (hello, only one of THE most annoying, pointless, useless, aggravating, and Seinfeldian experiences EVER), with some other pics and stuff ... but this is just sad. Naples has a bad enough reputation already, and now it is LITERALLy being TRASHED.

Que lastima!

And then this guy from TripAdvisor has a freaking hilarious narrative about his personal exploits there.

I want to meet him.

If you want to read some more Naples horror stories, apparently they are not in short supply.

*******************************************************************
By SALVATORE LAPORTA, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 4, 8:46 PM ET

NAPLES, Italy - Stinking mounds of garbage piled up on the streets of Naples on Friday and officials around the country blamed organized crime and bureaucratic red tape for the city's refuse crisis.

Effigies of city officials, suspended from lampposts and trees, reflected the fury of Naples' citizens, who have had to live amid small mountains of their own refuse since Dec. 21, when collectors stopped gathering it because there was nowhere to take it.

Residents have resorted to setting trash on fire, raising fears of toxic smoke.
"Garbage is piling up outside our building," said Angela Sepe, a Neapolitan walking on the outskirts of the city. "I don't go downstairs any more to throw it away but throw it out the window because the garbage has already reached" as high as the second-floor window.

Naples and other parts of the southern Campania region have been plagued by a series of garbage crises for more than a decade. Dumps fill up and local communities block efforts to build new ones or create temporary storage sites. In 2004, a garbage crisis prompted weeks of protests.

Some protesters hurled stones Friday evening at a police station in the Pianura neighborhood on Naples' outskirts, where work has begun to reopen a long-closed dump, the Italian news agencies Apcom and ANSA reported. One protester was arrested following the attack which left windows at the station broken, the reports said.

Four empty buses were set afire overnight in the same neighborhood, fire officials said.
About 100 young protesters marched Friday on City Hall. Some occupied a central balcony and the roof, where they hung banners protesting the reopening of the dump and demanding a full-fledged plan to improve recycling in the area, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.
Local, regional and national officials handed out blame for the southern city's chronic inability to properly dispose of its trash.

Several lawmakers said the government's creation in 1994 of a special office of trash commissioner to deal with Naples' continuing garbage crisis was part of the problem.
Leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera ran a lengthy investigation Friday detailing findings by a parliamentary committee that allege corruption and inefficiency in the commissioner's office.
Such reports have helped fuel local anger at the city's politicians who have failed to solve the problem.

"Let's bring it (the garbage) to their homes," said Rosaria Esposito, strolling through the center of Naples where trash was piled up on some streets.

Environment Minister Antonio Pecoraro Scanio, who has been a harsh critic of the commissioner's office, also blamed what he called the "ecomafia," a reference to Naples' organized crime syndicate, the Camorra, and its hold on garbage collection.

In an interview with the free daily E Polis, Pecoraro Scanio said the only way to escape the mob's hold on Naples' garbage was to get more Neapolitans to recycle and to build technologically advanced plants to dispose of the garbage in an environmentally friendly way.

Pecoraro Scanio said the Camorra was taking advantage of the fires set by residents to get rid of toxic waste.

"The ecomafias are behind the fires that are burning Naples and that are set to burn the accumulated trash," he said. "In the chaos that is created, the Camorra is always the victor."
The effigies hanging Friday carried banners with slogans critical of Antonio Bassolino, the governor of Campania, and the city's mayor, Rosa Russo Iervolino, the Apcom news agency reported. There have been calls for days for Bassolino to resign.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi chimed in, calling for "unity" and warning that finger-pointing was making residents have even less faith in the government's ability to deal with the crisis.