(1) Metro update. I don’t know how many optimistic articles I have read over the years about the new Naples metro system, the underground train lines, that the mayor of Naples has called “…the largest ongoing urban project in the nation…”. Well, it certainly is big, and it certainly is ongoing—with the latest date for opening major sections now set at about 2010, give or take (mostly give) a couple of years. (Fudge factories in Naples make fudge factors, not fudge.) The work to be done is considerable:

(a) Bring in line number 1 that currently ends at Piazza Dante into the stations at Piazza Toledo (now staggering towards completion) and Piazza Municipio (overcoming, here, archaeological problems—please hope they don’t find another Roman port—as well as geological ones—they’re mucking around down in the aquifer); then, run east to the university to via Duomo and, finally, the main train station and Piazza Garibaldi, now being planned/built (illustration, below) by Dominque Perrault, the French architect whose works include the new Mariinsky opera house in St, Petersburg, Russia.

(b) Finish the number 6 line that runs from Fuorigrotta (including a stop at the new university campus at Monte Sant’Angelo) to Mergellina (that section will open shortly) and on into Piazza Municipio and the passenger port, the true “main” station of the metro line. (The last section, from Mergellina to the port, involves difficult engineering and construction—not that the rest of the system is a piece of cake.)

(c) The last work to be done will be leading the line out from the main train station at Piazza Garibaldi up to the airport and beyond, where it will join the first station (now in operation), this completing the circle around the city of Naples. (I have not read any realistic projection of a completion date for this last stage, although plans for the airport station are approved.)

I notice that the plans for both Piazza Municipio and Piazza Garibaldi do show many streets for cars. The idea of turning the city into a pedestrian mall is so pie-in-the-sky that I conclude that urban planners are working with the organizers of this delightful event:

(2) The International Horse Jumping Competition at Piazza Plebiscito (photo, below), the third edition of which is currently underway. It’s beautiful to watch and is well attended. It’s a four-day affair. The entire square, the largest open square in Naples, is converted into a suitable venue by the abundant spreading of earth over the otherwise unsuitable and treacherous paving stones. Get a horse? Hay is not five dollars a gallon, so maybe it’s the way to go.

(3) At first, they thought it was the fault of recent rain, but apparently leaky plumbing has caused a considerable amount of water to burst into one of the most historical houses of worship in Naples, the church of Gesù Nuovo, located in the square of the same. Some damage—the extent as yet undetermined—has been done to works of two of the great names in Neapolitan (and Italian) Baroque art, Luca Giordano and Cosimo Fanzago.

(4) Finally, the long nightmare is over. No, not the problem with garbage pick-up, but rather something much more important than public health: I hear by the infernal racket of cheering fans outside on the streets that Naples has finally fought its way back up into the Football A-League. This, after a number of years in the B-League and almost the C-League (which is about as minor league as you can get without wrapping newspaper in tape to use as a ball to kick around in a parking lot).

photos:(l. to r.) Piazza Municipio at present; Piazza Municipio (projected); Piazza Garibaldi (projected); Horse jumping at Piazza Municipio.