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.