Ugh!

Naples is one of the few large cities in Italy that I have not visited, although I did catch the ferry there for our trip to Sicily in 2005.  And now I suspect I never will visit.  On top of its reputation for huge piles of garbage lining residential streets, it is now infested with red cockroaches three inches in length.  One of the issues in Naples, despite lots of denial, is the overriding Mafia influence, and very often the cause of the garbage crisis which has been going on in Naples for decades.  The Mafia does exist and instead of romanticizing it as we so often do in film we need to see it for what it is: a vicious  organization of vicious men, who make the lives of those it crosses miserable in the extreme.  I'm tired  of listening to Sopranos and Godfather worshippers; try living with three inch cockroaches infesting your streets and homes and you'll know what the Mafia is really about!