U.S. Embassy in Italy: Naples Stinks!
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 07.13.07 | 7:17 AM ET
There’s some serious trash talk going on in Italy. The U.S. Embassy issued a warning earlier this week urging Americans to avoid Naples and its suburbs because they “may encounter mounds of garbage, open fires with potentially toxic fumes, and/or sporadic public demonstrations by local residents attempting to block access to dumps.” Naples, it turns out, is in the midst of a garbage crisis. Trash service has been disrupted since May, according to reports. Dumpsters are overflowing, and those that aren’t are allegedly controlled by the camorra, the Neapolitan mafia. And doing business with the camorra will cost you some euros.
According to Reuters, the European Commission has already taken “legal action against Italy over the thousands of tonnes of uncollected waste, saying it posed serious health and environmental risks through the spread of disease and through pollution of air, water and land.” A Stars and Stripes story, though, says “Italian health officials reported they have detected no outbreaks of infectious disease related to the garbage crisis, and are disinfecting areas where garbage has piled up.”
The news out of Naples offers a twist on the other trash news coming out of Italy in recent months. Often, the garbage on Italian streets comes from grubby, thoughtless tourists.
Related on World Hum:
* Venice to Tourists: Keep Your Shirt On!
* In Rome, It’s Tourists Gone Wild
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Caroline Ely 07.13.07 | 6:14 PM ET
“Often, the garbage on Italian streets comes from grubby, thoughtless tourists.”
PC crap. Neapolitans may not be grubby, but they are cheery, thoughtless litterers—worse than most tourists. Naples has always been filthy. This garbage problem shows a complete breakdown of municipal government.
Lo Lane 08.30.07 | 6:04 PM ET
I know for a FACT that the garbage piling up on the streets is NOT from the tourists! I lived in Naples for 3 years and the residents in rural areas haven’t had regular garbage pick up in over a year. The streets on the outskirts fill up first and it slowly creeps into the neighborhoods as they run out of places to dump. It isn’t just the residents dumping, businesses are also dumping anywhere and everywhere- everything from farm equipment to toilets, couches, mattresses, freezers for Popsicles- all that to go along with the regular everyday garbage that families produce. I wrote a report last year for anyone thinking of traveling to Naples, unfortunately the report remains true today. I have only recently came back to the U.S., I am glad to be out of that cesspool- but, I really feel bad for all the friends I made there- friends that must live in it until….?
Lo Lane 08.30.07 | 6:05 PM ET
Please see the report I wrote-
http://www.globosapiens.net/travel-information/Naples-2336.html