In keeping with the unintentional Piazza Plebiscito theme of the last couple posts, I thought I’d share a few more photos of it. Up until 1992, this grand cobblestone expanse was nothing more than a parking lot. Now it’s Naples’ largest public square. A couple of days ago, Walter Veltroni, of Italy’s democratic party gave a speech there.

I wonder if that phone call was as important as the above photo makes it look? I feel like I need to write a ‘Bourne Supremacy’ sequel to do it justice. Oh wait, someone has already written, like, five ‘Bourne Supremacy’ sequels. You’ll just have to make due with this picture, then. Check out the hands making a groovy W.V. sign on the side of the bus.

As you can see, it was well-attended. Notice the blue police wagon to the right? Wait … I think I cropped it out of these photos. Oh well, that van is always there, trust me. In an effort to combat Naples’ reputation for crime, the Spanish Quarter is swarming with cops. Not just one type of cop, either. At any given moment, you’ll see Municipale, Carabinieri, Vigili Urbana, Guardia di Finanza and more. (And I do mean more! If you want to know what those different kinds of cops are, I blogged about them in a post entitled Italian Cops: Who Loves a Man in a Uniform?.)

Snufflepuss, as I call my favorite Neapolitan street dog, was nonplussed as usual, as you can see in the photo below. Snuffelpuss is the poster pooch for meditation. Despite her smashed in snout and squinty eyes, she is well-versed in esoteric matters, and in a classic ‘beast meets west’ move, now spends her days quietly mastering her own yoga form. The name is nearly impossible for people to pronounce (and embarrassing to attempt since it sounds like a dog yawn.) This could explain why it’s yet to catch on with the human populace. It basically involves napping in the busiest place you can find. As you can see, Snuffelpuss has no problem finding her center at any given moment, and the normally pushy Neapolitans simply walk around her, no hassle.

I leave for the states next Saturday and have been scrambling around all week. The fun part is that I was able to quit my day-job (for a week, anyway) to work on a paying writing assignment instead. The bad part is that I’m too frazzled to do a genuine Flashback Friday post. I will, instead, leave you with the Prodigy video for ‘Firestarter’ and a link to a post entitled ‘English is my Bitch’ which chronicles the era in which I first heard that song. In case you’re wondering, I’ve lost touch with Serge, but I imagine he’s still a ‘keen instigator’ and always will be.

Here’s another photo of Naples’ largest square, the Piazza Plebiscito where Silvio Berlusconi will be speaking tonight. As you can see from this picture and the one I posted yesterday, the city of Naples is piled high with flaming garbage and even the pigeons are wearing gas masks. (They look kinda cute though, don’t they, those mask-clad pigeons?)

How will citizens be able to see Silvio tonight over all the debris? Oh, wait… That’s right. There aren’t bags of trash all over the city of Naples, despite what the media claims. After all, if it’s in the news, it must be 100% accurate, right? I almost forgot to use my eyes.

In case you’re wondering, I won’t be attending Berlusconi’s rally tonight. Frankly, unless that diminuitive megalomaniac is one of the Final 5 Cylons, I’d rather catch the Season Four Premier of Battlestar Galactica.

Speaking of tech, while the thought of reading a book on a computer monitor has never appealed to me, the Amazon Kindle sounds amazing. It’s a wireless reader that lets you store a bunch of tomes on a device that weighs less than your average paperback. The monitor is alleged to be as easy on the eyes as Johnny Depp.

I tell ya, as a bookworm and chronic diarist who has moved no fewer than 20 times in the past 20 years, I can attest to the heaviness of the printed word, not to mention bookshelves. The thought of being able to bring all my favorite books back to Italy without paying for extra baggage (it weighs a mere 13 ounces) is enough to make me swoon. Sigh …