Naples, Rubbish, and the NY Times

Recently the New York Times did a nice article entitled ‘36 Hours in Naples‘, which makes interesting reading and is well worth checking out. The trash/rubbish situation is mentioned, but then, in a funny sort of way this typically Italian crisis is increasing the city’s profile at a worldwide level, and some will be drawn there out of morbid curiosity I’ve no doubt.

As Brendan Behan apparently once said ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.’, A quotation which could very well be the motto of someone rich and famous here in the Living Museum. Bet you can’t guess who! Not.

Atac Rome!

No, not literally! ATAC is the Roman equivalent of Milan’s public transport company – ATM.  Like ATM, whose site I talked about in my ‘A useful site, almost – ATM Milan‘ post, ATAC also has a site which allows you to calculate routes around Italy’s capital.

Despite my slightly disparaging comments and owning to my knowledge of Italian, I often use Milan’s ATM site to find out how to get to where I want, so the Roman system should also prove helpful.

You can try out the service by visiting the ATAC site and clicking on the little Union Jack flag in the at the base of the header on the right.

You can even set the date and time of your journey, which means things like summer timetables should be taken into account.

Not sure what ‘private’ and ‘public means’ means.  Maybe if you flag ‘private’ a helicopter will be summoned just for you!  Fun, but probably more costly than a simple bus ticket!

Route planning options include:

• The quickest with (With what? – possibly refers to the options above)
• few transfers (Fewest transfers?)
• few short walks (Fewest short walks – presumably from one stop to another)

Then just choose your point of origin and your destination, hit the ‘Calculate’ button, and see what happens.

The English language is improving, as on the date I wrote this initially, the English language section of the ATAC site was a bit of a mix between Italian and English, now, it’s all in ‘just about’ English.

Let me know how you get on, or if you find yourself going round in eternal circles in the Eternal City.

Happy travelling!

You can book Rome tours and activites here:

Rome’s Right New Mayor

The left bashing trend continues in Italy, with Francesco Rutelli, the former deputy prime minister in the recently ousted Prodi government, being beaten at the mayoral polls by the neo-fascist Gianni Alemanno.

Rome now has its first right-wing mayor in ages, and the fact that the Romans were ready to put someone like Alemanno in the hot seat shows just how disillusioned Italians have become with the perpetually dithering and ineffectual left.

Alemanno the neo, sorry, post-fascist, played his cards right by following a public safety theme during his campaign and this struck the right chord with Romans, who, like many Italians, are afraid that crime rates are spiralling. Then there is the belief that the majority of the guilty are not of Italian origin. Expect a crack down on illegal immigrants from Rome’s new captain. After all, post, neo etc fascists have never been particularly foreigner friendly.

The blue touch paper may well have been lit…

Interesting times in the Living Museum. In theory plenty of good could be done and Italy may be pulled right out of the mire. With a little luck the left-wingers will wake up to the fact that they are no longer held in much regard by the people, and re-group. Maybe, possibly, some new faces will emerge. If not, Berlusconi, if he really does manage to do something, could hold onto power for even longer than his five year term.

Perhaps the Italy’s left should have forecast this scenario before engaging in selfish government-destroying little squabbles. Talk about unholy alliances.

I don’t Think a Lot of Italians Know This – Italy’s Geothermal Power Exploits

Many Italian’s criticise their government for not exploiting the abundance of natural resources which exist in Italy to produce energy, and I was inclined to agree with the criticisms until I met Sean the SEO guy of Antezeta.

He told me that Italy houses a thriving and efficient geothermal power generation industry. Wow, was my reaction. I knew nothing about this, even though I knew that Italy has volcanoes and geothermal springs. … Continue Reading

The ICI Question

ICI, pronounced, approximately, ‘eechee’ is a little property tax which everybody in Italy who has a house is supposed to pay. It’s a funny little tax, and the local Milan council does not even bother to send out reminders. Unlike the in the UK, where a nice little bill will drop through your letter box announcing that you need to pay you glorious little council tax bill.

For some time now, Italian politicians have been making noises about abolishing this little tax, and, on the face of it, this looks to be no bad thing. Why? Well, in a recent article in Il Sole 24 Ore, there was a list of the average ICI payments which are supposed to be made.They ranged from around €400 to under €50.

This means, one suspects, that this little tax costs much more to administer than the income it’s supposed to be raising. Hence, again, one suspects, the keenness with with the politicos are going about having this tax ended.

Indeed, one call almost say that the politicians are itching to remove ICI. Ho ho.

A Chinese Musician

This guy is often to be found at Milan’s Castle filling the ancient courtyard with his mysterious instrument’s haunting melodies. I like the music and had been meaning to photograph him for some time. Now I have: