The meaning of trash

You may be aware that Naples had a trash problem back in 2008.  It was all over the international news at the time.  The closure of local landfills led to the streets being filled for huge stretches of time with rotting, stinking and sometimes enormously hazardous trash.  What you may not realize is that this same trash problem still exists today.  Naples has a complicated relationship with trash. Years of poor management, mafioso influence, corruption, and apathy has led to a situation in which all existing landfills are full to capacity (often with trash from as far away as Northern Italy, and often with incredibly TOXIC materials.) and "temporary" landfills are opened, filled, and closed before the trucks can deliver their loads.  Any additional trash then has to wait until a new landfill is authorized and opened.  Naples government has looked into building an incinerator to burn the excess trash, but the populace has been highly opposed-- to a great degree because of fears of lack of oversight leading to hazardous material being burned and greatly contributing to what is already a noxious cloud of haze that burdens the city.  As a result, trash struggles continue, and the city and the roads and the skies and the agriculture and the people suffer.

On an entirely different and not nearly so morose a note, Naples also suffers from a trash problem of a different sort.  The music that I have discovered so far is awful.  There are some sappy Italian love songs, yes, but the VAST majority of music on Italian radio in Naples is either A)  Really bad American music, or B) Really bad house mix music with the never ending thrumming base that makes the juice in your eyeballs jiggle and eventually causes a migraine.  OH, and then there is the ONLY SONG IN THE WORLD.  Here it is.

Michel Telo-Ai Se Eu Te Pego

Catchy?  Yes.  BUT IT IS THE ONLY SONG THEY PLAY.  And it has been since I arrived in November.  Sigh. I guess I should figure out what they are saying, but it isn't even Italian.

La Befana and La Bufala

Pazzo (Crazy) Italian Lession #1:  La Befana and La Bufala
One is a witch, and the other is delicious.  Well, It itself may not be delicious, but what it produces certainly is.

La Befana is a big part of Italian Christmas tradition, which typically lasts through January 6th, The Feast of the Epiphany. (The Twelfth day of Christmas, and yet another Italian National Holiday).  The tale goes as follows:  On the evening of January 5th, the wise men were traveling to the manger and stop at an old womans' house to ask directions.  They then invite her to join them, but she refuses.  Later that night she sees a bright light in the sky and decides that she wants to join them, bearing gifts for the baby Jesus from her own child who had died.  She gets lost, however, and never finds the manger.  Now, La Bufana flies around on her broomstick on the 11th night of Christmas, bearing gifts (fruit and toys for good children and coal for bad) in the hope of finding baby Jesus.

La Bufala is where Buffalo Mozzerella comes from.  Long a fan of Buffalo Mozzerella, I never had stopped to think about what exactly was producing this lovely cheese.  Turns out, it isn't a Buffalo.  At least, not in the American West, herds of thundering sense.  This Buffalo, as you come to find out, is actually a Water Buffalo-- much more like an Asian Yak.  Naples turns out to be is ground zero for la Bufala in Italy.  Small herds of these animals are kept in muddy pastures under the freeways.  Sounds not so romantic, but despite that, the cheese is to die for.

New Years Eve

After we tucked both boys into bed and began our movie marathon leading up to the New Year, we should have known that Italy would do things differently.  As midnight approached, bottle rockets and whistling Petes began going off prematurely.  It sounded interesting, but not interesting enough to drive a wedge between our behinds and the comfy leather couch.  As soon as the clock struck midnight, however, we knew that we needed to haul our tails up the freaky spiral staircase and onto the rooftop terrace.  And was it EVER worthwhile.

This video is a 1.5 minute clip of the nearly 25 minutes of continuous 360 degree madness that surrounded us for the arrival of the new year.  Naples apparently isn't satisfied with benign city displays timed to classical music, instead choosing to shoot off enormous fireworks from every backyard and rooftop.  I felt the need to duck twice when our next door neighbors launch sequences went awry.  The noise was deafening, and inside the house (with our single pane, drafty windowpanes) it sounded like the entire neighborhood was under siege.  The grunions, amazingly, slept like little lambs through the entire thing.  The dog, however, may need Prozac.