Tags
It seems a smoky haze has been following me around-and I am not talking about jet lag! When I arrived in Napoli on July 11th, the air was grey and smoky. As we were driving from Capodichino airport, my cugino said ‘è il fumo da Vesuvio’. I looked over at the imposing volcano and the crater was engulfed in smoke! I immediately thought the worst and started to panic and wonder why the 3,000,000 people living in the area were not being evacuated! Then it was clarified…..the smoke from Vesuvio was from incendi, wildfires burning on the slopes of the volcano. The cause is thought to be intentional, although no one is really sure. I am not even going to discuss some of the ridiculous rumours I heard. The hot weather, dry soil and wind is not helping. This is really awful, although looking on the bright side, it is less awful than a volcanic eruption in an area with a population of 3,000,000.
July 11th tweet from 3B Meteo comparing photo of 1944 Vesuvio eruption and today’s fires!
A month later, the air in Napoli was still an atmospheric gray zone. The day I flew home was also slightly windy. This caused my flight to be delayed and my connecting flight in Munich left without me. Mannaggia! I was not impressed.
A day late, I finally arrived home, and was surprised to find the air conditions to be the same smoky haze I left in Napoli! Was this gray blanket of fog following me? To top it all off, the mountains were missing from the landscape! It had been this way for 2 weeks due to over 150 wildfires burning in the interior of British Columbia. The air was so smoky and gray the mountains were not visible.
Yesterday I was at Granville Island. If you are not familiar with it, this photo may look normal. There is something missing…..some very large mountains in the background!
Today the mountains were slightly visible. Luckily it is just starting to rain now, so that will improve our air quality, and hopefully help to put out the fires. Speriamo che piove anche a Napoli!
I wrote about my internet issues and difficulty keeping up with blogging in my last post Chiuso per Ferie. Now that I am home, I will be catching up on reading and soon I will be publishing posts from my travels.
A presto, Cristina
Un po' di pepe 
Wildfire season! We have been engulfed in the smoky haze as well living in NW Oregon and vacationing in Port Townsend, WA. Wildfires from Canada…just dreaming of that blue sky once again…
The mountains were somewhat visible yesterday and it is raining now, so things are getting better😎. I hope it rains soon in Napoli too!
A friend told me recently that in Calabria there were actually a couple of firemen who were caught starting fires so they could then have the “thrill” and the paid work to put them out…
Ciao Karen-well there are rumours that fires are being started by firefighters so they can make money, but i don’t know that they are actually true. The rest of the rumour is that they are dousing live cats in gasoline and lighting them on fire so they run and cause maximum damage. Kind of far-fetched! Where i live there are always fires in the summer if it is hot and has not rained, so I know these fires are possible with no human intervention. i hope i am right. Cristina
I heard the cat rumor, too. As for the firefighters, I heard that there was evidence, but as I haven’t actually seen the evidence, it’s still a rumor for me. Fires start pretty easily and in strange ways. I remember seeing a real video on a news program of how a tourist in a large RV, which for some reason was scraping the pavement, was actually starting fires from its sparks. One RV did an incredible amount of damage in a very short amount of time. The people either didn’t look in their rearview mirror or they didn’t care…
There is no evidence as far as I know. There are even rumours the mafia is responsible, to keep the bureaucrats busy so they don’t crack down on buildings without permits. It is so easy to start a fire with such dry soil and heat.
And every fire most likely has its own story, and there are a lot of them…
Now it looks clear and peaceful 🙂
We can see the mountains again!
That must have been quite a site… scary but impressive.
Frank, for a split second, I envisioned myself as one of those lava clad cadavers from Pompeii caught in motion! Mannaggia!