Naples: Friday Food Is Pizza!

Today brings a special Friday Food: something I haven’t had in the house for more than five years, and don’t intend to reintroduce in the near future. But Naples is the birthplace of pizza, and to experience it there is something else. It also underlines just how dreadful supermarket pizza, and much restaurant pizza, really is.

And it’s not expensive either, despite true Neapolitan pizza being subject to the strictest quality laws. The highest of standards, and lowest of prices, come together in Naples’ Centro Storico at the Antica Pizzeria Da Michele on Via C. Sersale: a middling size pizza and bottle of beer will set you back just six Euro.

The Da Michele serves only the two true Neapolitan pizza varieties: Marinara, with a topping of tomato, garlic, and oregano (note, no cheese) and Margarita, topped by tomato and mozzarella. You need to tuck in the moment the pizza arrives at your table to experience just how different and enjoyable the real thing can be – anything from the supermarket is like a cross between gloop and cardboard by comparison.

At lunchtime, Da Michele not only gets full, but there is routinely a queue outside. This is when most tourists arrive, as they are visiting from out of town. Evenings are easier, but you should still get there well before 2000 hours. Alternatively, there is the nearby alternative of Pizzeria Trianon on Via P. Colletta, where the pizza is almost as good, and there are more varieties, but they mark up the drinks rather more aggressively, and put a 15% service charge on top.

The Trianon fills up later in the evening than Da Michele, which tells you something about the locals’ favourite. Both attract tourists of an evening, the Stateside ones taking photos of every part of pizza preparation, marvelling especially at the little ol’ oven, as if there is something unusual about it. That, too, tells much about many folks’ knowledge of this simplest of foods – or their lack of it.

Signallers – No Strike ‘Till Polling

Last month, I considered the potential effect on the upcoming General Election of two very different strike actions. That at British Airways (BA) continues, but yesterday, the threatened strike of Network Rail (NR) signallers came to a halt when NR obtained a court injunction against it.

And it is the signallers’ strike, as I argued previously, that could have been deeply damaging to Pa Broon and his clan as the Election loomed. So when union chief Bob “Scare” Crow emerged from court yesterday afternoon vowing a re-ballot of his members – and hopefully including all working signalling locations – there will have been more than relief at Labour HQ.

For starters, Crow is not backing Labour this time round, so putting one over on him will be all the more sweet for the loyal and disciplined, like Big Al and Baron Mandelson of Indeterminate Guacamole. More, the potential for losing the votes of disgruntled commuters, who often have very little choice but to travel by rail if they want to get in and out of city centres within a reasonable timeframe, has been seen off.

And, best of all, that re-ballot cannot be achieved in time to call any further action until after the General Election, if it is to be, as widely expected, in early May. But into this world a little rain must fall, and any rejoicing has to be tempered by the ruckus over National Insurance increases and an overnight opinion poll setback.

It’s not another Winter of Discontent, though.

Naples: Just The Ticket

There are, as I posted yesterday, gaps in the Naples Metro map: moreover, to get from A to B across the city can involve more than one rail transport network, the bus system, and one of four funiculars. So does that make one off journeys an expensive proposition?

Well, no it doesn’t, because the city not only has an integrated fare system for public transport, but it also uses the concept of time based ticketing for single journeys, which is also the rule in Rome, and further afield in Vienna, Prague, and Geneva. But not in London, as a discussion on Dave Hill’s Guardian blog underlined recently (Dave had done a weekend visit to Rome, thus setting off the topic).

And, given the occasionally glacial speed of progress along Naples’ traffic infested road network, the time allowed for that single journey is not the 60 minutes of Geneva, or the 75 of Prague, but a full 90 minutes. So you can (for instance) validate on the 3S at the Airport, change to another bus at Piazza Garibaldi, then continue by suburban train or funicular from the western side of the city centre.

Having this kind of ticketing makes up for the gaps in the Metro network, and will still be useful when that network gets completed, as not even the best urban rail system covers every part of its host city. That’s why the timed ticket concept could be useful not only in London, but in other parts of the UK. The latter, unfortunately, would be hard to implement, given the current structure of the bus industry outside London.

But that’s a subject for another day.

Yes Or No?

As I observed recently, Labour candidate David Williams has been getting himself into the local free sheet more than occasionally, suggesting that he’s gearing up for the General Election to be called. He is not alone: the Lib Dems have, in their routinely yellow “Focus” newsletter, introduced their new man Roy Wood to the punters.

Roy has spent his career teaching in a Wirral comprehensive, for which he deserves that community’s gratitude, and more than likely a medal of some sort. He is also a non flyer, and a vegan, which although praiseworthy from a carbon footprint point of view, may well cause the average Crewe voter to regard him as a being from another planet.

But the most encouraging news in the Lib Dem flyer is that the party is now apparently backing the revival of the Gateway scheme for redeveloping the station – on its existing site. Note my insertion of “apparently”: the Lib Dems were, as far as can be recalled, never anywhere in the vicinity of any of the meetings organised by CREAM, and one of their former councillors has gone on the record comprehensively rubbishing the Gateway proposals.

So are they on board or not? And is this a firm policy stance by Corporal Clegg’s Crewe and Nantwich platoon, or merely a device to garner votes, only to be discarded after the General Election? I’m trying to find out more, but in the meantime, feedback from anyone in the area would be more than welcome.

Naples: On The Buses

With construction of the city’s Metro system not yet complete, public transport provision in much of central Naples has to be shouldered by the humble bus. What is on offer here is demonstrated as soon as you head away from the airport, with one exception, which will become obvious.

Outside arrivals, there are two different – and differently priced – bus services ready to take you downtown. The more frequent Alibus service offers new vehicles with air conditioning, but also costs three Euro a trip, whereas the more ordinary 3S service will only set you back the usual 90 minute fare of 1,10. But the 3S runs older buses without aircon, and its timekeeping is in the imperfect category (the city’s traffic makes sure of that).

And on board, the environment is decidedly Spartan: moulded seats without padding, large standing area, and the driver almost completely shut away behind a partition more severe than anything in the UK. For starters, bus drivers in Naples handle no money: you buy your ticket from retailers around the city before travelling, then validate it on board.

However, the 3S has at least one good point: even though there aren’t many seats, you should have no problem getting one of them, as loadings aren’t so heavy for most of the day. This is not the case with anything moving along the coast between central Naples and Mergellina, where crush loads are routine throughout daylight hours. Once again, the rule for maximum loading seems to be that there aren’t any rules: folks pile on board until no more can be squeezed in.

Things may get better when the Metro works finish: not only should that provide a fast underground link between the city centre and Mergellina (thus relieving both buses and the Cumana suburban rail link), but the disruption to the road network may also cease.

Until then, you’re on the buses. Move right down inside now ...

That’ll Cost You, Sport – 12

As widely trailed, Ofcom has reported following its enquiry into competition in the TV industry. And Rupe’s troops at Sky are not happy bunnies: unless the inevitable appeal succeeds, they will have to lower the price charged to competitors for content from the Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels.

The pay TV market is dominated by Sky: the broadcaster has an estimated 85% of total subscribers. So, unless rival providers were to massively increase their share of that market, the downside to Rupe’s empire seems small – especially as HD channels are exempt from the Ofcom ruling, allowing Sky to claw back the costs of bringing new technology to the market.

But that doesn’t wash with the Murdoch empire: Rupe and Junior don’t like regulation – any regulation. The Murdochs prefer places where they can do as they please, and serve up what they want, typified by their rise in the US cable market with the slanted and wayward “journalism” of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). And, as the EU does regulation on a level Rupe doesn’t like, he and his media outlets are uniformly hostile to it.

However, help may be at hand for the Interfering Foreigner: Young Dave, who by the most fortunate of coincidences has won the backing of Rupe and Junior in the upcoming General Election campaign, has said that Ofcom, in its current form, will be abolished by a future Tory Government.

So that’s all fair and above board, then.

Naples: Traffic

For anyone who thought that the cacophony of car horns in The Italian Job (to underscore the idea that an exceptionally bad traffic jam has been created in the northern Italian city of Turin) was something exceptional, I can only conclude that they haven’t spent any time in the country.

That noise is one of the most persuasive reasons why you try and get a room at the back of the hotel if you’re stopping over in any Italian city. That or, as I found to my relief in Naples, you stop somewhere with recently installed double glazing.

Resorting to horn-sounding is the default choice of Italian motorists whenever anything interrupts their progress, be it another car driver picking up or dropping off a passenger, someone trying to access a particularly difficult parking space, not immediately moving at maximum speed when a light turns green, or stopping at a light before it’s shown a red for several seconds.

Given that all of these are in the category of stuff that happens, you’ll understand why there is so much racket from horns in any sizeable Piazza anywhere in Italy, whether it’s outside Stazione Termini in Rome, or Piazza Garibaldi in Naples (which has more traffic, and is therefore noisier).

But what of those that our Highway Code terms “road users on foot”? Ah well. That’s when it becomes proper fun. You see something that looks like a pedestrian crossing, but realise very rapidly that the rule is, not for the first time in Italy, that there are no rules. If you stand there expecting the traffic to stop, then you will tend to remain standing there.

You pick the gaps, see the vehicles moving a little more slowly, eyeball the driver, and out you walk (alternatively, if feeling squeamish about this, shadow a local, for whom it’s second nature). The traffic may not actually stop, but will slow down sufficiently for you to make your ground, but not for so long that everyone behind starts blasting their horns.

Which brings us back to The Italian Job: every time you successfully get across four or five lanes of traffic without incident, you recall the scene where Fred Emney nearly gets flattened by a Fiat 500 and exclaims “Blimey ... bloody Grand Prix”.

Bullying The Beeb – 2

Sometimes it needs a satirist to make a straightforward and all too obvious point. And last week, at the Broadcasting Press Guild awards, creator of The Thick Of It, Armando Iannucci, did just that when discussing the BBC and the attacks on it from Murdoch Junior recently.

In a speech covered by the Guardian, but missing from other “quality” papers’ websites (although the Independent managed a photo), Iannucci said of the Beeb: “My only wish is that whenever it is accused of something, even if it's something it hadn't done, I wish it wouldn't go to the first police station and hand itself in”.

And, as if that wasn’t a strong enough hint to DG Mark Thompson and the BBC Trust, he suggested that “Surely at the end of the day with all its skill and expertise and all the talent behind it and loyal following, it could find someone to articulately tell James Murdoch to f*** off”.

In other words, the BBC should display a little more cojones in its dealings with Murdoch the Interfering Foreigner, and cease beating itself up.

That’ll Cost You, Sport – 11

So it’s really happening: although you’d be pushed to find the news on its own website, Rupe’s supposedly flagship Times will, come June, charge for access to that site. As with charging for sport on Sky, the numbers may stack up even if as many as 95% of the current audience decide to get their web news elsewhere: sums of almost two million quid a month from the remaining users have been pitched.

But that assumes a regular subscription from all of the 5%. Anyone who had previously looked in occasionally – and I’d be in that category – might not consider the one pound “daily pass” or two quid “weekly pass” worth their while, not when the content of the Maily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent and Beeb was still free to view. But Murdoch and his loyal footsoldiers have determined that journalism has a value which can be recouped through making websites pay per view.

And there are those swallowing Rupe’s line. But the founder of the original Internet Newspaper, The Huffington Post, has already warned Murdoch that he doesn’t get the new media. In a speech delivered on 1st December last, titled “Journalism 2009: Desperate Metaphors, Desperate Revenue Models, And The Desperate Need For Better Journalism”, Arianna Huffington debunks the Murdoch demonisation of aggregators, noting that the HuffPo also provides its own original journalism and a raft of featured blogs.

Moreover, that original content is in turn quoted by other aggregators, linked to by yet more blogs, and discussed and disseminated by even more commenters. Shutting a newspaper, or group of newspapers, away behind a paywall also shuts them out of that process. That potentially vicious circle of neglect is exactly what Murdoch doesn’t get.

Not that you would see any of the supposedly leading Tory supporting blogs making the same point, though. The one post I saw earlier today on the subject of the Murdoch paywall looks to have been pulled – no names, no packdrill – and elsewhere all is quiet.

Why should that be?

Naples: Election Time

While we in the UK wait on Pa Broon to fire the starting gun for our own General Election, Italy has been holding nationwide Regional Elections, the voting finishing today. In Naples, the most obvious sign of the upcoming contest, and a significant contributor to the city’s street rubbish, has been the customary poster blitz.

And the rules governing poster advertising, to outsiders at least, seem to be that there aren’t any rules. Across the city, poster boards abound, each hoarding plastered with layer upon layer of them, apparently fifteen to twenty deep. No one party, or coalition – this election is dominated by coalitions built around the PdL (”People of Freedom”) of “Duce” Berlusconi and the PD (Democratic Party) of Pierluigi Bersani – enjoys a monopoly on their use.

Here’s how it works: one of the two main protagonists gets its posters up on as many boards as they can manage in a day. Those posters may remain on view for a whole day, maybe even two. Then the other coalition deploy their posters over the top of those of their opposition. This, too, remains on view for a short period before the process is repeated. Hence the poster boards creaking under the increasing weight as more layers are added.

And, as not all the posters stick – last Monday afternoon, under steady rain, would not have given good conditions for poster longevity – many end up on the ground, pulped underfoot and otherwise giving the overstretched refuse collectors another headache they could do without.

So what of the public enthusiasm for these elections? Well, the last regionals, back in 2005, yielded a turnout of 67.7% in Campania, the region around Naples. That’s better than the UK’s 2005 General Election, with its miserable 61.3%, and way ahead of any local election here. But corruption is supposed to be turning off the voters, and has been endemic around Naples for decades.

Go figure that one out.

The Other Adman Cometh

A party’s choice of advertising agency has been held to have some influence on UK General Elections for over 30 years – since Saatchi and Saatchi came on board to help Margaret Thatcher into 10 Downing Street back in 1979. And parties generally stick with one agency throughout any given campaign – well, until last week, at least.

That same Tory Party had been using agency Euro RSCG, under whose aegis the much derided and defaced (but not airbrushed, honest) posters of Young Dave were dreamed up. But now Cameron has turned to M&C Saatchi (no relation nowadays to S&S) in what is being seen as an admission that events are not turning out as expected.

So what? Well, the first effort from the new old boy shows that the base instinct for negative campaigning has won out for now: Pa Broon is the target in another round of predictable knocking copy, something I looked at recently. Not that negative campaigning is a less than legitimate weapon: all parties do it, and oppositions manage to run entire by-election campaigns on it.

But we are no longer in mid-term, and so turning a campaign negative so soon risks the predictable counter: folks will take on board the knocking copy, but will then ask what the negative campaigners are offering that is positive, different, and new. What, they may ask, of the Tory C-word – what happened to the positive projection of “Change”?

In other words, there is a real risk of mixing up the message merely to satisfy those who want to kick Brown. Someone seems to have forgotten what happened when the Super Soaraway Currant Bun laid into him over a handwritten letter to a dead soldier’s mother, and it backfired on them.

Naples: The Fringe Workers

It is early afternoon in Naples, with shoppers and early shift workers heading home. Into the basement Piazza Garibaldi station of the suburban Circumvesuviana railway system pour thousands of punters en route to suburbs along the Amalfi coast, a short ride away by graffiti-daubed electric train.

On the northernmost platform, a little girl of around four years old, with big dark eyes and dressed in pink, mingles with the crowds. But she is not travelling. She shuffles from one punter to the next, with her sad, appealing eyes looking up hopefully as she holds out her hand. This little girl is one of the youngest of the city’s all too numerous beggars.

In one respect, Naples is no different to any other southern European city: each has its own underclass. But here, there seem to be so many of them: the elderly woman in her usual spot outside Stazione Centrale, the man stepping out into the Mergellina traffic queue brandishing his plastic cup, and a host of itinerants slowly moving around the city with their belongings piled onto elderly prams and pushchairs.

At first, you wonder why the man running the station Tabachi where you buy bus tickets does business from behind a glass screen. Then, having taken ticket and change, you turn around to see an outstretched hand: another of the regulars working his patch. And then there are the more entertaining beggars.

Accordion players are a class of entertainer you will see on many street corners: on occasion, they will follow groups of likely looking tourists in an attempt to increase punter yield. But they are not nearly as determined or sophisticated as those musicians working the Cumana and Circumflegrea commuter trains that run out to the western suburbs.

Here, it is not unusual to be serenaded by a duo who have brought along a small amplifier for the vocalist, avoiding the stringent ticket inspection at Montesanto terminus simply by being on the train’s inbound working and staying put. Accommodating these extra passengers is an achievement in itself, given the lines’ routine daytime crush loading.

The dubious reward for those heading out to Bagnoli and Pianura is to be treated to a mix of easy listening with the accent on popular Italian standards: tourists will be reassured to know that they will hear Volare at regular intervals throughout their journey, along with the passage through the train of the chosen collecting vessel.

Which, of course, is why this disparate group is out there. Naples has well established and chronic unemployment, but its citizens still need to get by.

Naples: The Way In

There are few cities that generate as much bad press as Naples, and this in turn generated a curiosity that would only be satisfied by going there and finding out for myself. What would the world be like beyond the terminal building at Capodichino Airport?

Well, getting off the aircraft and into that building brought its own taster, as the ground staff had decided to strike. Fortunately, some of them were still prepared to bring steps up to the plane, and I had no checked baggage. For some of my 137 fellow passengers, it was shaping up to be a frustrating day.

So what of that bad press? Well, the warnings of choking traffic, few green spaces, streets strewn with rubbish, dreadfully maintained roads, incessant noise (if not from all that traffic, from the interminable construction projects intended to alleviate it), horribly overcrowded public transport, poverty, mass unemployment, and graffiti on a post industrial scale are all true, and in spades.

But to be repelled by all of this is to miss the point: all Naples’ flaws are also part of what makes it so fascinating. Here is a city that is in your face: there is no pretence otherwise. And there is a lesson for all: the joining of corrupt local government and organised crime into the public-private partnership from hell does not make for happy outcomes.

So it was that, after a slow and bumpy bus ride, I alighted at Piazza Garibaldi, an uninspiring, sprawling, filthy and cacophonous part of the city centre, ready for a very different city break experience.

Welcome to Naples.

Back – Nearly

Having flown in to Liverpool (wet and not at all mild) from Naples (sunny and getting warmer by the day) this afternoon, I have a raft of topics to bring to Zelo Street, but before then, another day out with the camera awaits tomorrow.

I’ve been subject to a total news blackout for the past four days, so there is also some catching up to do. No doubt the blog will be back up to speed before too long.

In the meantime, a variety of preparations await. Back properly very soon!

R’n’R

The time has come for a break from routine, so there will be less content appearing on Zelo Street for the next few days.

I should be back up to speed by next weekend, by which time we should have had this year’s Budget, and maybe the Election date will have been announced.

But the world will be, generally, the same shape as before. A sense of proportion is always useful.

Bullying The Beeb

At the beginning of the month, during a Newsnight interview, Tory education spokesman Michael Gove made an extraordinary threat to interviewer Kirsty Wark: pointing his finger, Gove warned “We’ll be watching”. The effect, coming from someone not possessing an attack dog reputation, was hardly overpowering, but the intent was clear. And this is not an isolated example.

I recently considered the shelving of a Panorama programme about Michael Ashcroft, which has been put down to legal threats. However, it appears that there was also considerable pressure on BBC DG Mark Thompson from senior figures in the Tory Party. The argument from the Tories is that transmission may be prejudicial in the run up to the General Election, but the counter is that this is an attempt to bully the Corporation, with the implicit threat of a Cameron Government taking revenge for what the Tories are increasingly trying to call bias.

It will surprise no-one that the attack from the Tories is coming at the same time that the Super Soaraway Currant Bun is laying in to the Beeb, with its recent broadside digging up a six year old Basil Brush Show (yes, before Cameron became leader), and trying to smear the Beeb with the footage of Young Dave tidying his hair, which was filmed by Rupe’s troops at Sky News (“first for breaking wind”).

Attempting to silence impartial reporting for political ends should, in any mature democracy, be off limits to all mainstream politicians, so perhaps Young Dave will come out and tell his cheerleaders to desist. Or perhaps not: after all, the Tories are desperate enough to get their hands on the levers of power for this kind of tactic to be declared legitimate, albeit perhaps only informally.

Expect lots more bullying of the Beeb in the next few weeks.

Health Of The Nation – 2

The crucial vote on health care reform approaches, and the Democrats are letting it be known that they “have the votes”. Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama has been rallying his troops, but the ugly side of the so-called Tea Party protests has seen a number of congressmen subjected to homophobic and racial abuse.

Those in the UK who might not have understood the concept of being “uninsured”, meanwhile, were given a brief insight into the consequences of losing insurance cover when a news bulletin showed a conversation between a pharmacist and a customer who was no longer covered. The cost of one prescription would now have to be paid in full.

The amount? Just 460 dollars, or in UK money, around 300 quid. Just think on when you stump up seven pounds an item. And don’t forget that, in the UK, we spend a lot less on health care than the USA, and get better outcomes. That is what it’s all about.

The Republican Wrong – Ultimate Parody

On Comedy Central’s Daily Show, satire is centre stage, dealt by host Jon Stewart. So politicians, slebs, and talking heads from other networks can expect to find themselves skewered during the half hour programme. So it was on Thursday last, but in spades: Stewart gave the full treatment to the increasingly eccentric Glenn Beck, “star” of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

The extended segment can be viewed in the UK on 4OD: here, not only does Stewart capture the ridiculously paranoid style of Beck, but Beck himself is shown in the background almost as a Big Brother figure, an idea that is genuinely scary. It is this idea that puts the piece in the standout category.

And, as a bonus, it’s very, very funny.

That’s Life, But Not As We Know It – 3

The war of words over who may or may not be standing in the constituency of Luton South may have started off as an extension of the row between the Maily Telegraph and Tory MP Nadine Dorries, but thanks to the generosity of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, former That’s Life presenter Esther Rantzen has been able to wade into the dispute via her column in the Daily Mail.

And La Rantzen kicks off with another revelation concerning Stephen Rhodes (né Tommy Keenan): she had met Rhodes two weeks ago, at his request, and he had inferred that he would be standing as an Independent in neighbouring Luton North. In the intervening period, Rhodes somehow either lost his bearings, or decided against the united Independent approach.

Moreover, Rantzen asserts that there is at least a whispering campaign in Luton South suggesting that she may withdraw from the contest, or even that she has already withdrawn. Who may be behind this is unclear, but she does note that, when Rhodes contacted the Maily Telegraph about Nadine Dorries – the episode that, it seems, was intended to stop the paper investigating her – he taped the conversation and this recording may have found its way to Dorries’ lawyer.

Unless she has changed her legal representative recently, Dorries’ lawyer is none other than Young Britons’ Foundation (YBF) CEO, and senior partner of Griffin Law, Donal Blaney. La Rantzen might usefully ask herself whether Rhodes was wired when the two of them met the other week, and what she may have let slip during the conversation.

There might just be more on this story yet.

First Strike

So British Airways’ cabin crew have gone on strike. Union members are demonstrating and picketing around Heathrow, but there are no scenes of angry passengers for the broadcast media to show, mainly because BA gave them notice of the upcoming disruption and they revised their plans accordingly. The flights that have been confirmed as running are indeed running.

What of the political fallout? Government ministers have made suitably disapproving noises, and there have been the usual pleas for wiser heads to prevail, but ultimately there is no power to coerce the strikers back to work. The main weapon deployed by opposition parties is that Unite, the union representing the strikers, pays money via its political fund to Labour, but those hoping for a voter backlash may be disappointed.

Why so? Well, BA strikes have been a regular feature of holiday periods, whatever the stripe of the governing party, for some years. And the number of swing voters likely to be swayed by this action may not even show up in the polls: most folks jetting off over Easter will be flying by charter or budget carrier, and they don’t carry the inherited baggage of BA’s staff perks, nor their woeful industrial relations record.

So if Young Dave and Corporal Clegg think they’re on a winner with this strike, they think wrong. But Pa Broon and his gang aren’t out of the woods yet: on the railways, there is the potential for a signallers’ strike, and that could be bad for the Government. More and more people travel by rail nowadays, including commuters for whom the rising cost of season tickets is not matched by any guarantee that they will even get a seat for their journey.

The potential for another wave of action to match that of early 1979 is limited, but the trains will not run if there is nobody to signal them. And if folks cannot get to work, and earn their crust, then they might just change their minds about who gets their vote.