Over the past few weeks (as of May 2007), a number of items have caught my interest. Among them:
—The UNESCO World Heritage
List (which so far includes 830 natural and
cultural properties in the world having “outstanding universal
value”) is considering adding the Campi
Flegrei and adjacent area of the Bay of Pozzuoli to the list. The
area is significant geologically because of ongoing
bradiseismic phenomena and archaeologically because of
the presence of large-scale Roman ruins (submerged and
on the surface), including those of the ancient Portus Julius, the homeport
of the Western Imperial Fleet. Other areas in
the Campania region of Italy already on the list
are the 18th-century Royal Palace at Caserta with the
park, Carolino aqueduct (built by Vanvitelli), and San Leucio
Complex; the Herculaneum
and Pompeii
archaeological sites; the Amalfi
coast; and the Cilento
national park (including Paestum
and the Padula monastery).
[See this
2013 update: UNESCO sites in
Campania.]
—The Union of Islamic
Communities and Organizations in Italy has
purchased the large and abandoned building on via
Arenaccia that used to house SIP (the old phone
company and one of those that merged to form Telecom
Italia in the 1990s). The building is to become a
mosque. There are two schools of thought: (1) We don’t
want more “creeping Islam” in Italy; (2) The new
structure will help rejuvenate one of the most
decrepit areas in the city. It would; I am betting on
number two. Economics trumps ideology every time
(See also "Islam in
Naples", "Early
Islam in Italy" and From Fish Market to Mosque.)
—What is now called
“Chinatown” has mushroomed up behind the main
train station and runs along the industrial port of
Naples into the adjacent communities of San Giuseppe
Vesuviano, Terzigno, Ottaviano, San Gennaro,
Poggiomarino and Boscoreale. There are now about 800
small enterprises: wholesale stores, restaurants,
grocers, small warehouses, and manufacturers of
textiles, shoes, and general leather goods, etc. The
Chinese community numbers about 6,000 and is
represented by Si.Ci.Na (Sindacato Cinese
Nazionale—Chinese National Labor Union). To some
extent, the Chinese-run enterprises in Naples employ
local Neapolitan labor—a big plus in a city with
rampant unemployment. The bad news is that they have
to pay off “the mob” to stay open.
[Update from July
2014] (See also "Immigration" items in the index); (also March 2020: Chinese
aid)
—In Naples, there are
more than 3000 school children whose native language
is either Arabic or Chinese. In Caserta, there are
2000 and in Salerno 1500. The Campania region has
commissioned the printing of textbooks on Italian
geography and history in those two languages in order
to accommodate members of these linguistic minorities
who might require them. Parents of children requiring
the texts may request them by email;
—The Great Naples Copper
Caper. I had never heard copper referred to as
“red gold” until a number of items started appearing
in the papers about copper theft at industrial sites.
In Naples, there now appears to be a small band of
grave robbers dedicated to stealing copper from local
cemeteries. So far, about 40 copper funerary vases
have disappeared. They are generally mounted on wall
crypts and used to hold flowers;
—The number of “child brides”
(by definition, below the age of 18) continues to fall
in Italy (from 1,562 in 1993 to 456 in 2002). Of that
number, however, half (233) were in the Campania
region, of which Naples is the capital.
—The International
Horse Jumping Competition at Piazza Plebiscito (photo,
right), the third edition of which is currently
underway. It’s beautiful to watch and is well
attended. It’s a four-day affair. The entire square,
the largest open square in Naples, is converted into a
suitable venue by the abundant spreading of
pseudo-earth (a high-tech mixture of chemical non-slip
material) over the otherwise unsuitable and
treacherous paving stones. Get a horse? Hay is not
five dollars a gallon, so maybe it’s the way to go.
—At first, they
thought it was the fault of recent rain, but
apparently leaky plumbing has caused a considerable
amount of water to burst into one of the most
historical houses of worship in Naples, the church of Gesù Nuovo,
located in the square of the same. Some damage —the
extent as yet undetermined— has been done to works of
two of the great names in Neapolitan (and Italian)
Baroque art, Luca Giordano
and Cosimo Fanzago.