Had our Italian friends round last night for dinner - they are from Turin and are pretty shocked about what seemed to be the state of affairs in Naples. The Camorra are apparently running riot and there are daily gunfights/ murders. Our friends are in the Italian army and there are whispers that the more ineffective the civil authorities are - the more the army are starting to plug the holes.

Anyone been recently - seen any violence? We are considering a trip in September.

We were in Naples briefly in June. We did notice the garbage problem, but we didn't notice/see an uptick in violence... on the contrary, we were pleasantly surprised by the increased police presence in the Napoli Centrale train station as compared to our last visit in May 2005. I'd think the frequency of pickpocketing tourists (and other petty crime) at the station at least has actually gone down.

Here's a little video showing some of the current trash situation in Naples. There were pictures on TV the other day far worse than these however.

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/..._In_Trash.html

Sorry. I'm not sure you can bypass the commercial first.

Wow. That is really bad. They don't deserve to have tourists! Can you imagine the RATS?!

"They don't deserve to have tourists!" I hope you understand that the average Neopolitan who depends on tourism for his/her livelihood has absolutely no control over the garbage problem. We're talking about the Camorra here, not a garbage collectors' strike.

what exactly is the issue? does anyone know? is it a garbage strike? or is the city government falling apart? i've never really wanted to go to naples very muvh, but i hate to see a city fall apart like this

Interesting op-ed piece about the garbage crisis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/op...naples+garbage

I was in Napoli on 28-29 December, and visited Pozzuoli, Procida and Ercolano. It was chaotic and squalid as usual, but also fascinating and beautiful. There were some piles of rubbish, but it wasn't a serious problem. I've been there dozens of times over the years and never seen anyone murdered, or a gunfight. The Camorra are a serious problem, but do not really come into contact with tourists.

But Geoff Hammer, are you aware that in most of Naples NO TRASH has been removed since you were there! It just keeps piling up. You were there when it started. It now has over three weeks of additional build up. It must be unbelievable by now.

A little increase in violence would stop us passing through Naples. An all out war clearly would. I asked the question because of our friends approach - they are totally ashamed of Italian politics and organised crime - as officers in the army they honestly see a time when the army could move in to start to control civil life.

BTW since someone raised the rubbish in Naples - I googled and could not believe this - We are in love with Sardinia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7185068.stm

if that carries on I think we will join the Italian army.