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.

Another rag-tag marching band has been making its way through the narrow streets of Naples lately. They’re not playing Burt Bacharach this time, but according to Angelo, ‘It’s the same melody every Easter.’

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that Easter is a bigger deal in the southern United States than up north? When I lived in Virginia, Easter was a big hoop-de-doo. (And don’t go telling me that Virginia ain’t south enough to be south: I once saw a playground fight over the Civil War, no lie!) Once we moved up north, the holiday was all about the Easter bunny.

Guess I’ve got all things southern on my brain today because I transcribed a couple files in which folks had thick southern twangs and said things like, ‘he up and came at me,’ ‘I done hollered at him,’ and, when asked to describe the weather conditions, the word ‘pretty’ was pronounced, ‘purty.’ Plus, we ate polenta for the first time since I’ve been here (it’s a northern Italian dish) and it reminded me of grits - yum!

There’s no Easter bunny here in Naples, Italy, but I have seen a lot of chocolate for sale. Italians don’t eat devilled eggs, so I plan to make some for Angelo and his family. Speaking of eggs, this hen must have one hell of a publicist, because she managed to make news simply for laying green eggs. Um, yeah, some chickens lay green eggs. That’s considered newsworthy? My step-daughter had a flock of hens that laid green eggs years ago. One of her hens ate a purple crayon right around Easter time one year. Now those were some newsworthy eggs!

And lastly, here’s a link to Rev. Jesse Jackson reading ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ on SNL. I’m posting it as my first-ever Flashback Friday contribution. Enjoy!