Fireworks over the Bay of Naples
This summer has been a terrible one for the firework makers of southern Italy. In a few months there have been explosions in three factories – two of them lethal.
You might think it’s a brutal cost for such fleeting wonder, but here, on the edge of the Bay of Naples, life is never steady or predictable, and the instability and flamboyance of the firework suits it well.
The Villa Comunale in Naples
It was months before I noticed him. I drove past him every day … and yet I never looked left. There were two reasons – the first was fear, new-to-the-road fear, and the second was the light of the early sun on the sea.
The fear of the drive into Naples has almost gone, and with it the bolts of shock that thumped through my heart each time I joined the traffic into the city. Now, my spasmed eyeballs have relaxed and there’s time to enjoy the view.
Bees swarming at the ‘Sagra delle antiche taverne’
‘Sagre‘, and this was our first, are the right-in-the-thick-of-it festival celebrations that usually revolve around food.
Originally the meaning was linked to churches and the Latin word sacrum – holy. Now they are still about expectation and celebration, but often with a local speciality centre stage rather than the church.
The Phraser 