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(Mar
5) There was a
partial collapse at 10 A.M. yesterday
morning of the Guevara di Bovino building, shown
in the photo (right). Contrary to some reports,
the building is not in "the center of Naples" but
is on the street named Riviera di Chiaia across
from the west end of the public gardens, the Villa Comunale. It is
near the Mergellina boat harbor. There were no
fatalities and all persons are present or
accounted for; that reassurance came from first
responders two hours after the collapse.
Speculation as to the cause of the collapse is
centered on erosion in the earth beneath the
street due to the presence of water leakage from
the underground construction of the new #6 metro train
line. The construction site for the new Arco
Mirelli station (see map, left), itself, is
directly across the street. The building is one of
a long string of buildings on what used to be the
main avenue from Naples to the west. Many of the
buildings go back to the 1600s. and they really are
on land that is geologically solid. They are at
sea level with none of the treacherous
cavities (700 or so!) that underlie much of
the city. The problem is that there are now about
200 meters of additional land between what used to
be the main road and the sea. That is all
on reclaimed swamp and landfill, and that is what
the metro builders are now tunneling through.
Tragedy was averted apparently because those who
live in the building or use it for office space
started staying away after they noticed the
warning signs of shifting in the earth below; that
is, cracks in the plaster, doors not closing
properly, etc.
The incident is an urban nightmare.
The road is on the north side of the park and was
recently converted to two-way traffic in order to
free up the parallel road on the south side, via
Caracciolo, that runs along the sea, in order to
turn that splendid thoroughfare into a pedestrian
zone. It was an important bit of cosmetic surgery
for the city (see this
link), but all eastbound traffic into the city
that had formerly gone along the sea was rerouted
onto the new eastbound lane on Riviera di Chiaia. It
had been hastily set up beginning at precisely the
point where the collapse took place; thus, that lane
is closed and will not reopen for some time. Not
only is the mass of cars moving east into the city
now back on the seaside road, but since the collapse
has caused the Riviera di Chiaia to be closed,
outbound traffic can't use it either and has also
been rerouted onto the seaside road, all of which
has turned that shiny new playground for joggers,
bicycles and pony carts back into the race track
from hell that it used to be. It will be useless, as
well, as a venue from which to view the America's
Cup boat races this summer coming up in a few
months. The collapse will cause a long interruption
in the construction of the #6 metro line (eventually
intended to reach the main port of Naples).
Worst-case scenario: the construction will cease
permanently and the line will never be finished. (This is a
link to a couple of dozen short general items
about metro construction in Naples over the last 10
years, including the misadventures of the #6 line.)
(Mar
5) More bad news
for the city. A fire broke out at around 10
p.m. last night in Bagnoli on the premises
of La Città della
Scienza (Science City) (photo, right), a
hands-on science museum and exposition grounds
spread over a large area about 4 square miles
along the Bagnoli waterfront near the isle of
Nisida. The facility stands on the area once
occupied by the large Italsider steel
mill, closed in 1992 in order to
renovate the area as part of a gigantic
"renaissance" project for this suburb of
Naples. Science City was finished about 10
years later. The facility attracted hundreds
of thousands of visitors a year and was seen
as one of the few jewels in the crown of said
renaissance, which continues to sputter. The
fire destroyed virtually everything in the
main part of the exposition grounds. Most
sources say today there is little doubt it was
arson.
This
item is also included on the Consolidated
Bagnoli page.
(Mar
6) A few more details. The building collapse mentioned in
the top item, above, at Arco Mirelli is
certainly connected with the construction of a
transfer tank to handle water from the
groundwater aquifer almost 30 meters below the
surface. The tank was either imperfectly
planned or shoddily built and has not done its
job, which was to ensure that surplus water
from the aquifer and from rain run-off was
channeled away and not allowed to collect and
erode foundations on the surface. This is an
enormous problem for the remaining stations
that are currently under construction on the
way to Piazza Municipio and the port,
especially the station that will be called
Martiri (see map at top). It is a
three-tier affair leading down from the top
street surface at Monte di Dio (aka Pizzofalcone,
also Mt. Echia) in front of the church of S. Maria degli
Angeli, a short distance up and to the
west of the Royal Palace along the street
called Via Chiaia. The intermediate tier is at
the street level of via Chiaia, itself. The
bottom level is the train tunnel. This photo
(above right) is about a year old and shot
from the top street surface in front of the
church. The shaft is square and about 20
meters on a side. It is meant to lead down to
the second level, via Chiaia, 40 meters below.
They have made progress since the photo was
taken but the deeper they go the more nervous
people get. The shaft is surrounded on all
sides by buildings which could collapse.
(Mar 6)
Aw, c'mon!
Isn't there any good news? OK. I see
that the newest university in Naples, the
Partenope (main campus here),
is continuing to spread out. They have
acquired the old phone company premises, the
Telecom building (alias the Pacanowski
building, the modern building in the center of
the photo on the right) overlooking the sea
from the Monte di Dio hill (not too near that
Metro Station, thank goodness!). There are 25
classrooms and places for 2,300 students,
ample office space, meeting halls, cafeteria,
library, etc. etc. spread over 11 stories of
the building. There is a multi-level
car-garage for parking and supposedly three
elevators from the uni premises down to street
level near Piazza Vittoria and one public
elevator from near the uni down to Santa Lucia
and sea-level. I know that last one is not yet
in service, but I don't know about the others.
The building is from 1959-66. The architect, Davide
Pacanowski (1905-98), was born in Poland
and became a naturalized Italian. He has
numerous works throughout Italy, including the
upper station of the cable-car on Capri as
well as some villas on the Posillipo hill in
Naples. He was a student of Le Corbusier, and
the Telecom building (now the Partenope
University) is typical of post-war "modern"
Neapolitan architecture. Pacanowski, a Jew,
was interned under the Fascist racial laws
during WWII near the town of Sepino. He put
his energies to work helping to excavate and
catalog the ruins of the nearby ancient Roman
town of Saepinum,
for which he was made an honorary citizen of
Sepino after the war.
courtyard of the Girolamini
(Mar 9) So much for the good news.
Preliminary hearings are about to start (so
maybe this really is good news because
they caught the bastards!) in the arrests of
14 persons charged with criminal conspiracy
and the theft of about 1500 precious book and
documents from the library of the Girolamini
(for additional items on that institution, click here). One
of the accused is the former director of the
library! The crime entailed removing the
materials and then altering the library
catalogs to remove traces of the stolen items.
In monetary terms, the loss is estimated at
about 20 million euros. Some of the items have
been recovered; others may be recoverable, but
some may not. Interpol is now on the case and
is covering possible sales at various auction
houses in Europe. The library, itself, dates
back to 1586 and is the oldest public library
in the city. In the 1700s many of the
acquisitions were overseen by none other than
Giambattista Vico, who
lived right around the corner. That's how
historically important this place is. And
through all of this, the library, of course,
has been closed to the public.
(Also see this similar item
from 2018.)
(Mar
14) Now that the
NATO HQ has
moved up to the sunny shores of Lago Patria a
few miles to the north, the future
disposition of what used to be NATO HQ
in Bagnoli is up for grabs, and
everybody is grabbing. (In the photo,
right, the ex-HQ is the 40 hectare (100
acre) green patch in the middle. It is
about 1 km from the Bagnoli coast line,
visible in the lower left-hand corner).
This morning the papers announced that
the historic Palazzo Santa Lucia is now up for sale. (It is not far
from the Egg Castle in Naples and is historic
in that it's from the great urban renewal of
1900 called the risanamento).
For decades the building has housed the
administrative offices for the Campania region
of Italy.
There are a few possibilities, and it is not clear if they might exclude each other or whether they might somehow co-exist. One would turn the ex-HQ into a sort of second Centro Direzionale, the new Civic Center in the eastern part of Naples; in that case you would move as many offices as possible from downtown Naples out to Bagnoli in the west, including those of the Campania administration. You would thus, so the reasoning goes, free up such buildings as the Palazzo Santa Lucia for other uses such as hotel space for tourism. Another possibility is to return the space in Bagnoli to about what it used to be when it started out in 1940. Originally, it was a "Young People's College" named Colleggio Ciano (named for Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law); it housed and educated about 2,500 boys. The modern incarnation sees it as a giant youth facility including schools, sports facilities, leisure activities, etc. Yet another plan would turn it all or partially into a university. [Nov 2013 date here.] [Jan 2016 update here]
This item is also included on the Consolidated Bagnoli page.
(Mar
19)
Without looking at actual
statistics on
tourism in Italy, I am guessing that the
two best-known Roman archaeological sites
in the nation are the Colosseum in Rome
and the ancient town of Pompeii near
Naples. Whatever other sites might be on
the top ten, I suspect that one of the
most important historical sites is not
included; that is, the Villa Jovis (photo,
right) on the isle of Capri. This is not
some obscure site of little interest; it
is the residence from which Tiberius ruled
the mighty Roman empire at the time of
Christ. According to sources at FIA (Fondo
italiano per l'ambiente/Italian Fund for the environment)
the site is in terrible condition. It had been
open until recently on reduced hours (because
of cut-backs in staff, the usual no-money
routine, etc.) but has now actually been
closed completely to the public for a number
of weeks. FIA has planned its annual spring
grand opening (at least for a few days) of
about 700 sites throughout Italy that are
generally unavailable to the public. The Villa
Jovis apparently won't make that list either,
due to the run-down condition of the site.
There are some sites in Italy that have
received private sponsorship and international
help, but no one seems to be running to save
the Villa Jovis.
- (Mar
21)
A few
days after Pope Francis was elected, he
mentioned to Cardinal and Archbishop of
Naples, Crescenzio Sepe, that he (the pope)
had "an aunt in Castellammare" (just a few
miles from Naples at the beginning of the
Sorrentine peninsula). That was enough to
occasion a few items in the morning papers,
including the phrase, "The hunt is on!" I'm
not sure if they have found anyone yet, and
I'm not sure why they would necessarily want
to, except to get some advice on lottery
numbers. As it turns out, the pope was really
talking about a cousin and not an aunt in
Castellammare. Her name was Iride Montenegro;
she was the daughter of the pope's aunt (his
father's sister), thus she was a first cousin.
She wound up in Castellammare because she
married an engineer employed at the large
shipyards there. Iride passed away in the
1990s, and her husband a few years later. They
are both interred near Montecatini (in
Tuscany). They had no children. I think that
means that the new pope has no nieces or
nephews in Castellammare, but then I am not
infallible on such matters.
(Apr
7)
Oooops! The plan was
simple: (1) find one of those Automatic
Teller Machines located in front of a bank;
(2) plant an explosive charge on the front;
(3) detonate same; (4) collect all those nice
euro bank-notes that come fluttering down all
around you on the street; (5) run. Numbers 1,
2, 3, and 5 worked really well. Number 4 had a
glitch, however; the explosion blew all the
money into the bank and beyond the
reach of this gang that couldn't shoot
straight. The cash thus lay on the floor of a
local Naples bank the other night till
employees arrived to pick it up the next
morning. Police are rounding up the usual
suspects just so they can laugh in their
faces.
(Apr 8)
This year's edition of the America's Cup regatta in
Naples is due to start in a few days. (Notes
on last year are here.)
Almost everyone I know is unhappy about it,
especially those who have to drive to work in
downtown Naples in the morning. Last year,
weather was a problem for sailing, but the new
seaside
pedestrian and bicycle zone (converted
from a busy street for car traffic, via
Francesco Caracciolo on map) was fine. Car
traffic flowed into and out of the city along
the alternate route, the parallel road above
the park (Riviera di Chiaia on map). This
year, the collapse of a single building just
off the upper left corner of the map has
changed all that (see the first
item, above). That collapse closed
Riviera di Chiaia, and traffic was rerouted
back to the sea-side road (so much for
pedestrians and bikes). Then, preparations for
the regatta started about 10 days ago, at
which time that sea-side was closed,
and all traffic coming into the city from the
west was rerouted onto Corso Vittorio Emanuele
(well above the area shown on map), a great
east-west road in the 1850s, when it was
built, but now totally inadequate to handle
the traffic. (Information on that street is in
this entry.) It is
also the street I live on, so I am
particularly unhappy. The city hall was
besieged by demonstrators the other day, all
with the same general gripe: Who needs a
damned boat race?! The mayor encourages
citizens to suck it up and carry on for the
good of the sporting and cultural life of our
fair city. You just can't give up because none
of the roads work! And, anyway, it'll
all be over soon and things will be back to
normal --whatever that is.
Competitors at Mergellina harbor
before the race
(Sunday, April 14) The sailors can't complain
about the weather this year. It was 23 degrees
C. (73 F.) and sunny with a good breeze over
the Bay of Naples for the first full day of
the America's Cup. A great day for sailing.
Friend Larry Ray (conossieur of Naples and
sailing fan with his own
entries on this website writes from
Gulfport, Mississippi):-
Traffic nightmare in Napoli for a couple of weeks with the big race going on. Being an old retired sailor I watched it last year with the digital real-time overlay of the course lines and live video and audio from the boats. This technology has made a normally yawn-producing regatta out offshore with the Committee Boat, mark boats anchored and boats tacking and rounding marks, something with lots of speed and action.
These composite hull cats with the aeronautical fixed sails that actually produce lift, vertical instead of horizontal like an airplane, move at incredible speeds. And it is all done right on the edge of that new max speed "close to the wind" meaning the boat can flip right over if the skipper holds it at or past the edge too long without "falling off" the wind. These sailors are all flat-bellied pros that have been racing since their yacht clubs started them in summer junior sailing programs at age nine or so.
Will the America's Cup concentration of attention allow any work to continue on the stabilization of the gumbo mud there in the area where the end of the palazzo sheared off?"...[See top of this page]..."Linea 6 is cursed as is everything in its long delayed path!
What can I say, Larry? The city is otherwise at a standstill, but send me a few "real-time overlays"; with all that new technology, even I could have a flat belly.
- (Monday, April
22) "Take two of
these t-shirts and call me in the
morning." Well, the regatta is over. It was
a splendid week for sailing...sunny and
windy. The papers are ecstatic about how
well Naples handled the affair. Drivers in
traffic jams are less enthusiastic. I'm
still not sure who won although I studied
the results for, oh, 30 or 40 seconds. "Win"
means move on to the next stage on the
sea-road to the finals in San Francisco.
Maybe I don't care. The event was marred by
two doctors who were part of an ambulance
squad set up in the sailing village at
seaside to handle emergencies. They were
busted for pilfering America's Cup shirts,
jackets, caps, and assorted souvenir-type
paraphernalia from an equipment container
belonging to one of the racing teams. They
said they found the duffel bags full of
stuff just lying around, abandoned and were
on their, uh, way...yes...to turn them
in...no...wait ... to give the items ...to
...uh...yes... give them to ... the
poor children in their hospital's
...leukemia ward.... OK,
officer. You need a nice pair of America's
Cup sun-glasses?
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