Only one kind of ticket for hydrofoils in the Gulfs of Naples and Salerno

From June 7 it is possible to buy a unique ticket for any hydrofoil company linking all the isles of the Gulfs of Naples and Salerno including Capri, Sorrento, Ischia.

The ticket is available at the local ticket offices in the various ports. For timetables and costs please check www.navlib.it , www.snav.it , www.alilauro.it , www.volaviamare.it

The true story about a ‘trashedy’

The worldwide known story of the ‘Emergenza rifiuti‘ (’garbage emergency’) in Naples has been heading newspapers and websites all around the planet for almost a year or so. It is our strong will to clarify all this a little bit.

First of all, this is not what a proper emergency should look like; an emergency is something temporary, while this disaster is something that has been permanently keeping an entire region on its knees for many years now. When we usually speak to our friends and clients abroad the first question is: “why all that?”. Well, we could briefly reply to such an elementary question saying that the main reason is represented by a fatal mixture between politicians‘ incapability in organizing an efficient system of garbage treatment and their links to the criminal interests of the so called Camorra who discovered in the past years that putting its tentacles in such a business could turn into something extremely profitable.

Looking now from the travellers’ point of view we must here clarify again that no place of interest has never been affected significantly. That is to say that you will rarely find big amounts of garbage in Capri, Pompeii, Sorrento and even in Naples city centre. The real core of the problem is in the suburbs of Naples; little towns like Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Quarto, Portici, Torre del Greco, Torre Annunziata, San Giorgio a Cremano, Qualiano etc. have been tremendously suffering in the past years and their inhabitants got nearly accustomed to a situation more expectable in the third world rather than in a territory that is worldwide recognized as as the land of myth and ancient history.

So if you’re planning a visit to Naples or its surroundings there will not be anything special threating your health or safety. Just remind the Neapolitans about the beauty and richness of their homeland…just in case they forgot !

San Gregorio Armeno

San Gregorio Armeno is the worldwide known street in Naples for presepi, the nativity scenes that represent the birth of Jesus Christ with lots of handmade puppets called pastori. This year I went after many time to San Gregorio and I was surprised to see a couple of things: prices went really down and people seemed to be more interested in buying lots of pastori at very valuable rates; I also realized how the stalls were full ofpastori representing celebs from all over the world, much more than the usual ones reproducing the christian figures: there were more Pope, President Bush, Osama Bin Laden and Angelina Jolie than Father Joseph and Mother Mary. As a neapolitan this is no surprise because I know that the artisans do this to catch the attention of the media, but I wonder if they are going to forget Jesus child next year!