Naples to Rome, finally

Rome, Maryelen B&B, July 9, 2008, 8:38 AM

On the second leg of our journey, we shared a compartment with three young female travelers and one middle-aged man. Two of the girls were from Perth who were coming up from the Amalfi coast and were heading to Spain. The other young girl, Anna Maria, was returning to Rome where she worked in some kind of language instruction. She spoke fairly good English, but she understood everything we said.

Anna Maria was with her dog, Andiamo, who was sprawled out an sleeping under my mom’s seat the whole 2 hour train ride. At first, I thought he was a stray, but early in the trip, I understood he was hers. He didn’t flinch when I opened my left over pizza from the night before. I’m beginning to think Ray is the most spoiled dog on the planet. Maybe he needs to live in a train station and be fed scraps for a while to really appreciate how good he has it. ;)

Anna explained to us why Mt. Vesuvius was so filthy. An Italian economic recession and rampant corruption aside, Naples blocked the building of a municipal trash incinerator for environmental reasons. The result was private trash companies bid for the garbage contract, the lowest bidder coming in at twenty cents per kilo. When he discovered he couldn’t do it for that price, he just stopped collecting. No trash has moved for six months and the environmental hazard is now of another kind; stray dogs, feral cats, rats are everywhere and there is no end in sight. She told us of a demonstration against Berlusconi to be held in Piazza Navona later tonight. I would LOVE to get photos of that!