Culture And Media
Italy: Rubbish crisis shuts down top Naples restaurant
Naples, 10 March (AKI) - A restaurant in the southern Italian city of Naples that has hosted personalities such as former US president Bill Clinton, Italian filmstar Sofia Loren and King Juan Carlos of Spain, is being forced to close its doors due to the city's long-running rubbish crisis.
The famed Caruso restaurant closed indefinitely on Sunday because of the low tourist numbers in Naples following the port city's rubbish crisis, according to a report on the Italian daily La Stampa.
"In the last few months we have not been able to exceed an average of 10 customers at the restaurant," said Maria Claudia Cardinale, the director of the Vesuvio restaurant where Caruso is located.
"For a restaurant that sits 90 people, 160 when we open up the terrace, you will understand that we have not been able to sustain the costs [of running the restaurant]," she said.
The Caruso restaurant, located on the ninth floor of the Grand Hotel Vesuvio, has breathtaking views of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius.
It was named after the legendary opera singer Enrico Caruso who took a suite at the hotel after a career as the leading tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
La Stampa reported said that some 4,000 tonnes of garbage remained to be collected in Naples. The government is half-way through a four-month deadline to resolve the crisis. Naples' city centre had been largely cleared.
The refuse crisis has been a recurring issue in the southern port city. Overloaded treatment centres have reached the tipping point several times since 1994, and the problem is made worse by the local Mafia known as the Camorra.
Criminal investigators say the Camorra pay truckers to haul industrial waste from factories in northern Italy for fees that undercut those of the legal trade. They bring the waste to illegal dumps in the Naples region made by blasting holes in mountainsides.
This latest crisis began in late December when the landfill sites were saturated. Reports say that some 350,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish had accumulated in the Naples area by the end of January.
Antonio Bassolino, governor of the region of Campania, where Naples is located, is due to stand trial in May on charges of defrauding the state and abuse of office in connection with his management of the refuse crisis.
Pictures of streets in Naples overflowing with garbage, street protests and rubbish bins set alight as well as blocked roads have filled the pages of the Italian and foreign media.
In the meantime, Naples' tourism industry has suffered and even a restaurant where the likes of Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart and Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida have dined, is now forced to close.
"For now though we will not let any of our staff go," the restaurant manager was quoted as saying in La Stampa. "But if things continue like this, I really don't know what we will do."
The famed Caruso restaurant closed indefinitely on Sunday because of the low tourist numbers in Naples following the port city's rubbish crisis, according to a report on the Italian daily La Stampa.
"In the last few months we have not been able to exceed an average of 10 customers at the restaurant," said Maria Claudia Cardinale, the director of the Vesuvio restaurant where Caruso is located.
"For a restaurant that sits 90 people, 160 when we open up the terrace, you will understand that we have not been able to sustain the costs [of running the restaurant]," she said.
The Caruso restaurant, located on the ninth floor of the Grand Hotel Vesuvio, has breathtaking views of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius.
It was named after the legendary opera singer Enrico Caruso who took a suite at the hotel after a career as the leading tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
La Stampa reported said that some 4,000 tonnes of garbage remained to be collected in Naples. The government is half-way through a four-month deadline to resolve the crisis. Naples' city centre had been largely cleared.
The refuse crisis has been a recurring issue in the southern port city. Overloaded treatment centres have reached the tipping point several times since 1994, and the problem is made worse by the local Mafia known as the Camorra.
Criminal investigators say the Camorra pay truckers to haul industrial waste from factories in northern Italy for fees that undercut those of the legal trade. They bring the waste to illegal dumps in the Naples region made by blasting holes in mountainsides.
This latest crisis began in late December when the landfill sites were saturated. Reports say that some 350,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish had accumulated in the Naples area by the end of January.
Antonio Bassolino, governor of the region of Campania, where Naples is located, is due to stand trial in May on charges of defrauding the state and abuse of office in connection with his management of the refuse crisis.
Pictures of streets in Naples overflowing with garbage, street protests and rubbish bins set alight as well as blocked roads have filled the pages of the Italian and foreign media.
In the meantime, Naples' tourism industry has suffered and even a restaurant where the likes of Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart and Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida have dined, is now forced to close.
"For now though we will not let any of our staff go," the restaurant manager was quoted as saying in La Stampa. "But if things continue like this, I really don't know what we will do."
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