italiafile

I have been lax. I put it down to the non arrival of Spring, the end of courses and the onset of exam time. Anyway what news from Naples ... Tomorrow is the Naples marathon, half marathon and fun run. There's also a football match, and an ecological SUnday where all traffic is banned in the town centre for 5 hours. To police all of this there will be 350 Vigili. The capo says 'Im very worried'. And, frankly, Im not surprised. If its anything like last year, the Neapolitans only manage to live without their cars till about 10 am and then its a free for all. The slower marathon runners ended up weaving in and out of traffic as they finished the race.

It's also the first weekend of May of the Monuments. Now I know its not yet May, but there are six weekends of fun and larks and its physically impossible to have six weekends in a month of 31 days so there is a bit of artistic licence. Given that this is the major tourist event of the year, it's a shame that the final listings were only published on Thursday, hardly enough notice to get Thomas Cook to chuck together a brochure. Still, it means there are lots of buildings open to the general public, this year mainyl hospitals for some reason, oh, and cemeteries (the two are not necessarily related).