See Naples and Live – 17: Street of Shame

 

©Nigel Summerley

Naples has quite a bit of previous when it comes to problems with rubbish.

In the 1990s and 2000s refuse disposal (or non-disposal) in the city and the surrounding area developed into a full-blown crisis. 

The scale of the literally toxic involvement of the Camorra in the waste business is covered in Roberto Saviano's excellent book Gomorrah (see this blog An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Gomorrah - 13 Jan 2021).

In 2010 pictures of uncollected rubbish piling up in the streets of Naples made international news.

Today in the city centre things are much improved and there are plenty of well-labelled recycling bins.

But you can still occasionally turn a corner and see something like the picture above. This was grotesquely awful but at the same time so apparently carefully arranged that it could have been some sort of art installation. 

And it's quite remarkable for the diverse range of foul objects gathered together on one short stretch of pavement. If you look closely you may be able to spot some empty beer bottles stuffed inside a disused toilet basin.

Naples doesn't do things by halves...

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Roadmap To Hell

I thought the picture painted by Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah of corruption, crime and unspeakable awfulness in the Naples area was shocking (see this blog – An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Gomorrah, 13 January 2021). But much of the content of Roadmap To Hell by Barbie Latza Nadeau surpasses it as an account of the depths to which things have sunk there.

If you have a strong stomach, this is a forensic study of people-trafficking, sex slavery and brutal violence.

Latza Nadeau, like Saviano, writes about the Land of Fires, the area to the east of Naples ravaged by illegal toxic waste disposal and subsequent illnesses among the population.

But much of her book centres on Castel Volturno, the seaside town to the west, which is the "hell" of the title.

The degradation and misery which African women have been led to here is beyond wicked.

As with the stories in Gomorrah, it seems that all this is an open secret but few in authority want – or dare – do anything about it. The heroism of the women who buck the corrupt system – and particularly the nuns of the Casa Ruth refuge for former sex slaves at Caserta – is all the more awe-inspiring for being carried out in the face of such monumental evil.

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Gomorrah

 

One of the highlights of last year's trip in the wake of Odysseus was a visit to the entrance to the Underworld – at Lake Avernus (see this blog, An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 10: 8-14 September 2020).

But the entrance to another underworld was only a few miles away to the west... Naples, home of the Comorra, the Neapolitan mafia.

The corruption, cruelty and misery associated with the city's criminal shadow world was documented by the journalist Roberto Saviano, putting his own life at continual risk.

I have since read his shocking book Gomorrah... the exposé that meant he subsequently had to live under 24-hour security protection.

Take in his book, watch the documentary about his life on the run (on Netflix) and then decide if you would want to visit Naples. I certainly can't wait to return to this most vibrant of cities... but I will now see it in a new light – and a new darkness.