Naples Miscellany 8 (early December, 2007) Links
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There must have been a clown in that casket because this bread sure tastes funny! A few days ago, some honest, hard-working bakers were down at Piazza Plebiscito handing out free bread. They were protesting against the unfair competition from some 400 illegal bakeries run by the camorra (the Neapolitan version of the mafia). These establishments, commonly working out of basements around the city, have not been using standard, clean wood to fire their ovens. Instead, they have been turning to funeral homes and using wood recovered from caskets. Such wood gives off fumes from the varnished outside surfaces and who knows what-all from the inside. The city estimates that it is a 400 million euro per year business.
The Frederick II University of Naples is now going into Distance Education in a big way. The program—called "Federica" (the feminine form of the name of the university, and no, I don't know why) is going to put up 52 courses on-line, downloadable in the from of iPod lectures. When I was teaching at the university, I noticed how students failed to show up some of the time—maybe most of the time. Now, they will have another excuse. If you drive around Naples for any length of time, you will be approached at a stop-light by someone who either wants (1) to sell you packets of paper tissues or (2) to clean your already clean windshield with dirty water. These people are almost all illegal immigrants. Some are cheerful and some are in an even worse mood than you are, but this is how they grind out a living. How much do they make? They get the tissues in the morning from suppliers down near the train station. If they pick up, say, a stash of 48 packs, each containing 6 smaller packets of tissues, they pay eleven euros. If they can sell them all—that is, each small packet for 50 cents each—they will take home about 400 euros per month. "Take home" means just that; it is undeclared income on which they pay no taxes. If you add to that the extra income from washing windshields (done by them or perhaps a nearby family member), they probably make about 700 euros a month. That is not a fortune, but it is better than many part-time legal jobs in the city, which may pay from 400-600 euros per month. Before taxes. The beautiful new "Sirio" trams have turned out to be refrigerator cars, at least according to the passengers who complain that even with the chilly season upon us, it is still colder in the tram than outside on the street. Drivers are unable to adjust the automatic climate control from their compartment (it's somewhat of a sealed-off cockpit, really, and they may be blissfully unaware that you are freezing to death back there). The city is working on it. Links
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At four in the
morning a few days ago, the
pilot, co-pilot and some other members of the crew of an early-morning
flight from Naples to Milan left their downtown hotel and thought they
would grab coffee at a local cafe before heading up to the Naples
Capodichino airport. They were promptly robbed by two armed bandits who
burst into the cafe, cleaned them out and fled. What with shaken
nerves, police reports, etc. etc. —well, these things take time. The
plane sat at the terminal for a while with no crew before the 140
passengers found other flights.