italiafile

Yesterday was the coldest day in many parts of Italy for 50 years. Up in the Veneto it plunged to -35 degrees, which frankly is a bit much in March. Here in Naples Vesuvio is still snow capped which is rare when Spring is around the corner. We are assured it will arrive next week, and not a moment too soon.
I'm reading a book written in 1886 by a couple of Etonians who describe daily life in Naples at that time. Virtually every page tells the reader that the Neapolitan is lazy, indolent, workshy as well as highly supertitious, an inveterate gambler and a cheat. I wonder when this theory first arose. Keeping it current is certainly one of the main aims of the Northern League who loathe the south, and in particular Naples.

There is a folly of a castle halfway up the hill to Vomero. It looks like something lifted up from the wilds of Scotland and plonked down in between some 19th century villas and very 20th century apartment blocks. It was in facvt built in the 1920's, designed by the British architect Lamont Young, and has been languishing, unloved, for many years. Now the comune is injecting 11 million euros into its restoration with the idea that it will become a centre of tourism. Admirable, but I have been here for 18 months now, and I can't work out how to find it, so far is it off the beaten track. The idea that tourists fresh off the train and boat will negotiate the public transport, and ramps to get their map of Naples is bizarre. Perhaps I'm just bitter. I saw this place the first time I came to Naples and vowed I would buy it if I won lottery.