Naples
Miscellany 24 (start early
August 2009)
Links
to
all Naples Miscellany pages:
 Rifiuti in cerca
d'autore ["Garbage in search of an author"] is a pun on the
title of the play by Luigi Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore,
but for our purposes is the name of an International Competition for
Art & Design (2nd edition) sponsored by the organization Salerno in Arte. The
competition seeks to stimulate imaginative and creative approaches to
dealing with the never-ending crisis of garbage, rubbish, trash, waste
or whatever you call it where you live. The competition runs through
mid-October, at which time 40 finalists will be selected by Ecomondo in
Rimini (nowhere near Salerno!). If you need help, the photo that
accompanies this item is by Andrea Petrone and was part of the preview
of the first competition last year. It shows famous Neapolitan comic, Totò being bombarded
by trash erupting from Mt. Vesuvius.
- Gallery Napoli nobilissima
is one of the many art galleries in Naples that sort of doubles as a
museum/exhibition hall. The gallery takes its name from a cultural journal founded by Benedetto Croce and was founded in 1969
in the heart of the historic center and moved to its current premises
at Piazza Vittoria in 1985. It underwent extensive renovation in
February 2009. Currently on display and running through the end of
September is an exhibit entitled Oltre
il
mare [Beyond the Sea], divided into four sections: The Wonders of the Sea, The Sea that Watches, The Myths of the Sea and Man and the Sea. The works cover
centuries of art, from Baroque
masters such as Luca Giordano, Paolo de Matteis
and Salvator Rosa to the present.
- The Cerio museum
on Capri is running a display through
September that covers "everything"! They're not kidding: Greek and
Roman archaeological sites, geology of the island, paleontology
(featuring coral fossils and mammoth elephant bones), pre- and
protohistory (early human artifacts), and unique zoology (the blue
lizards of the Faraglioni, rare sea shells, etc.) The say the
guided tour lasts only 30 minutes. I don't understand that. Best to
call ahead: 081.8376681.
- Volkswagen is here.
Whoopee. The German car manufacturer is sending its "Polo Dance Tour"
around various metropolitan centers in Italy in order to advertise the
new VW Polo. Somehow, people in the Campania region were afraid they
were going to be snubbed and left out in the bitter No-Polo-Dance-Tour
wilderness, but, hallelujah, even as we speak, the dancers—young &
enthusiastic cheerleading types—are springing out of the wood-work in
large commercial shopping centers in Campania and dancing their little
hearts out for ol' VW. It's enough to make me buy a Fiat.
- Seems to me I've
heard this song before... but the Coroglio
road is now definitively and
once and for all open again for alternating one-way traffic until it
closes the next time. The road is the only convenient way from
Posillipo to Bagnoli and back. "Alternating one-way traffic" doesn't
mean that you are forced to drive back and forth up and down the hill
forever like some doomed Flying Dutchman (at least I don't think it means that). They have
these traffic lights that let the downers go down and then the uppers
go up.
 New quarters for 600 Rom—gypsies—will be built in the
Scampia and Soccavo sections of Naples. That will cover about 80% of
the gypsy nomad population in and around Naples. The new quarters will
cost around 35 million euros and will look more or less like other
"popular" blocks of flats in those two areas. "Popular" doesn't mean
that people like them; it means that they can be built quickly and
stuffed with people. The main impetus for the project is the need to
get rid of the squalid gypsy encampments. There are no colorful
horse-drawn wagons or gypsy violinists playing Monti's Czardas; there is a lot of open
sewage, though.
- Capri. Four Neapolitan
tourists from ages 17 to 41 have been caught taking a forbidden
swim in the cool waters of the Blue Grotto. That's right—inside. They
got in there at a time when high tides forced the suspension of the
normal tourist traps
boats. My heart goes out to them because I tried that once with some
other scuba divers and we never even got close before we were spotted
and warned off. These four dropped a rubber raft into the water
from a larger motor launch and went in for a dip. They have been banned
from the island for three years and face some generically bogus charges
of creating a maritime hazard.
- More on Capri. The
summer is winding down, and that’s fine because it has been a
disastrous
summer for the Blue Grotto, one of the island’s greatest tourist
attractions. First, in mid-August, they caught a local businessman
dropping hundreds of glass bottles in the water near the entrance.
Well, glass sinks, you say—maybe that’s not so bad. (You’re wrong, of
course.) Then, a few days ago, two owners of a local restaurant were
caught fouling the waters with raw sewage. They just dumped it in. Now,
the Blue Grotto has been closed until they can figure out what has
caused the gigantic film of white foam in front of the entrance; the
foul, burning odor was enough to send four boat operators to the
hospital. Chemical analysis says that it is a combination of chlorine
and bleach. Likely culprits are leaks from sewage lines or nearby
swimming pools.
|
(metro item 14)
A VERY (!) large tunnel
boring machine (nicknamed