—"Waiter, we’ve been waiting for 2,000 years! Is our table ready, yet?" Yes, finally! Vetutius Placidus’ thermopolium in Pompeii has been totally restored and opened last Sunday for a sneak preview for the 300 lucky persons who got their email reservations in the other day when the announcement was made. In ancient Rome, a thermopolium (from thermo=heat) was a restaurant, probably more like a fast-food place, a commercial establishment where you could buy hot food, either to eat on the premises or take with you. Typically, they had a small room with a masonry counter in front for the food. Some would have decorative frescoes or shrines to Mercury and Dionysus, the gods of commerce and wine, respectively. As far as I can tell, patrons didn’t get anything to eat at Placidus' grand reopening except for a small sweet pastry “inspired by ancient Roman cuisine." The establishment will re-reopen with expanded hours and, so they say, other menu items in a few weeks.

—The Italian Merchant Marine Academy opened in November of 2005 in Genoa. Before that time, many of the officers aboard Italian merchant vessels had received training elsewhere or, themselves, were foreigners. It does seem fitting that Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus, should have been chosen to fill this enormous gap in Italian maritime activity. Now, the Academy has opened a second campus in Torre del Greco, a suburb of Naples, an area that handles 40% of Italian merchant shipping. The academy is free to students, and the new facility near Naples seemed perfect since the area has always had a strong tradition of young men "shipping out." Strange thing, however—of the 20 students who will start courses in Torre del Greco in the autumn, none comes from Naples or, indeed, anywhere in the Campania region. Most are from Sicily, with a few from Puglia, Tuscany, Sardinia, and even Liguria (the regional capital of which is Genoa). But none from Naples.

—I'm not sure what the big deal is about discovering chunks of those Fascist marble statues (FMS)—overly-ripped goons of Art Deco Futurism who more or less all resemble the robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (except not as limber). Yet, the papers are fussing about the statues, apparently dumped into the Bourbon Tunnel as the Allies closed in on Naples in 1943 and Fascists swiftly morphed into anti-Fascists. The papers should really be fussing about the place they were found—the tunnel—because this means that work is progressing towards opening the thing to the public sooner or later, another bit of underground Naples to add to the already impressive list of tunnels, caves and quarries of "the city beneath the city." An organization called Borbonica sotterranea is pushing ahead with the clearing and cleaning up of the ex-Bourbon military tunnel beneath Mt. Echia. The particular FMS that has the papers oohing-and- aahing seems to be what is left (photo, below) of the monument to Aurelio Padovani (1888-1926), an early Neapolitan Fascist trade unionist who participated in Mussolini's march on Rome in 1922.

— Most research in astronomy in the Campania region now goes on at the observatory in the Apennines near Castelgrande, east of Salerno. The smaller facility in Naples at Capodimonte is, however, more than just an historically important curiosity. It continues to provide local enthusiasts and schools with solid astronomy exhibits. The ability to do that has taken a big step forward next with the opening of a new planetarium with a state-of-the art digital projector (photo, below). The new facility seats 50 patrons, and the overhead dome is 7 meters (21 feet) in diameter. The planetarium was financed by the Campania Regional Council for Culture and the National Institute of Astrophysics.

—The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) has announced a plan to begin exploring the waters off the Campi Flegrei in the bay of Naples starting in April-May. From ICDP literature:

“The role of deep drilling at this area is...crucial. It could give a fundamental, precise insight into the shallow substructure, the geometry and character of the geothermal systems and their role in the unrest episodes...as well as to explain magma chemistry and the mechanisms of magma-water interaction...Since Campi Flegrei is a typical example of collapse caldera, the inference about its substructure, thermal state, magma chamber and geothermal system will allow a considerable scientific step towards the understanding of one of the most peculiar and potentially catastrophic volcanic areas of the World.”

Drilling will employ the most modern drilling equipment, the Innovarig, designed by GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany and built by Herrenknecht Vertical and H. Angers’ Sons. The first work will be off the premises of the old steel mill in Bagnoli and will bore down to 500 meters. Later exploration will branch out onto the center of the Gulf of Pozzuoli and reach a depth of 4 km.

—Mauro Dimitri, head of the World Federation of Urology, has announced the creation of the "super-tomato," officially called the "Maxantia" (pending registration of the name). It is the work of the Biomolecular Institute at the Naples National Research Center. The announcement stresses that the Manxtia is not a genetically modified product, but rather a blend of two existing varieties: the San Marzano, well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties, and the Black Tomato, a purple fruit high in anti-oxidants. According to Dmitri, the Maxantia "...has nutritional characteristics ideally suited for preventing disease...[and has]...anti-oxidant activity superior to all other tomato hybrids...[making it]...suitable for defending against prostate cancer and reducing the risks of many other diseases in which oxidative stress and...free radicals play a role. These include cardiovascular disease, arthritis, Parkinson's Disease and osteoporosis..." Campania regional authorities are now encouraging local pizza makers to use the Maxantia as an alternative to regular tomatoes.

—A recent BBC on-line item about Naples has caught the eye of local journalists. It starts:

"Welcome to Naples, a crime-free utopia of moral and ethical values. Sound unlikely? One fledgling online community is hoping to channel their city's ancient roots to create just that. The people of Partenope City - named after Naples' historical name - only cross at pedestrian crossings, park their cars without blocking people in and never, ever, jump a red light. These are just some of the values the site's founder, 35-year-old Claudio Agrelli, believes have been forgotten in the 'real' city."

The BBC is excited about the project called Città di Parthenope, an on-line community of about 3,000 Neapolitans who use their website to instill civic pride and civilized behavior. If you join (it's free) you can start a blog, sign and circulate petitions, list what works, what doesn't, complain, praise, AND you even get a classy ID card! The organization was started about a year ago.

—In 1997, the European Union met in Oviedo [Spain] to draw up a Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. The convention recognized the "living will", a declaration whereby you may specify what medical measures should be taken (or not taken) in extreme end-of-life situations where you are not able to express your own wishes. (In the words of the convention: "The previously expressed wishes relating to a medical intervention by a patient who is not, at the time of the intervention, in a state to express his or her wishes shall be taken into account.") Italy did not sign the treaty, and the whole issue of the testamento biologico, as it is called in Italian, is still contentious. Nevertheless, a few places in Italy have set up the appropriate bureaucracy where you can register your "living will". In Naples, there are now two such places: the first was the district of Quarto, and now Ottaviano has been added to the list.

—In 2005 the European Union banned asbestos from all new construction and started programs to find safe alternatives. In Naples, a paper has surfaced (apparently drawn up last March) that lists 400 buildings in the Campania region still contaminated by asbestos. Twenty-four of the sites are in the city of Naples, itself. Some don't surprise me, such as older garages used by the city for their busses and trams. Some, however—well, the main police station downtown and the Prefecture at Piazza Plebiscito. This gives me second thoughts about having a coffee at the delightful Gambrinus bar, right around the corner in the same building! Sugar? No, I'm trying cut down, but I will have some chrysotile fibers, thank you.