First impressions stick in the mind like chewing-gum.  It doesn’t matter how the impression is made – through direct experience or second-hand – the more startling the impression the more sticky the fix.

In August we moved to the south of Italy, just outside the historic city of Naples with its reputation for crime, corruption, trouble with rubbish, and the small matter of the Camorra.

The pre-departure reading had been interesting in a disturbing kind of way but what really stuck was a brief headline deposited in the spring in amongst London’s daily serving of global news – Naples was about to start the DNA testing of dog mess.