Life and Death in the
the Shadow of Vesuvius
Boscoreale seen by the
Seagulls, on the Road
“If the landscape of human emotionwere to exist in country,it would be in Italy.”
This little dream chapter should be dedicated to my second hometown, commonly known as “Path of The Gods” Italia, but I will split my story in 2 parts because truth is that my family and I ended up renting the apartment up here in the mountains, to save our life, back in 2010 and escape what I used to call “The invisible Killer”. It would be easier to tell you only about Agerola City cutting out the truth about how we all got here, but I can’t especially because everytime I look at the ocean from the Belvedere outlook, I can’t help but recollect the nightmares Boscoreale, my town, went throught. The invisible Killer was a bodiless, faceless and nameless “IT”, “IT” was the strong and unpleasant smell of rotting trash carried by the fall breeze in my town. We all know that Naples and surrounding areas have suffered garbage crises for years, the result of corruption, poor management and infiltration by the local mob. It only takes a good history book about Naples and the South to find out the truth, the dynamics and the responsible of such a mess in the city since 1994, but anyway, things got worse around here all of a sudden in October 2010. The Ex – Italian Prime Minister along with some other political leaders, approved the insane idea to cope with Italy’s ongoing trash woes dumping any sort of trash in a small disused landfills in our area (Cava Sari) first, and once filled, they proposed to add a second dump nearby (Cava Vitiello).
“Rebellion cannot existwithout a strange form of love.”
Boscoreale is a town about 15 miles from Naples and in the shadows of Mt. Vesuvius, we were living just feet away from a massive landfill built there in 2008. Originally this first dumpster was meant to be a temporary measure to rid the Campania region of 250,000 tons of uncollected trash. The dump’s location within Mt. Vesuvius National Park – a protected and fertile area famous for its fruit and wine production – was overlooked because of the dramatic nature of the emergency the region was facing.
Two years later, not only was the first dump fully functional, with no signs of shutting down, but the local government was trying to open up another dump nearby. Whole World knows that Landfills in the region have been often used by the local Mafia, the Camorra, for illegal dumping, and locals say health problems have worsened in those years. I lost one of my friends, Carmela, who died of leukemia. It was tough. People were slowly dying. I used to smell it coming, spreading throughout the streets, inside the houses, below the windows, I used to scream “dad!” telling him to shut down the doors as soon as possible.
Politics leader did not sell us the idea that they were doing something good.The first sign to see if your environment is healthy is to follow the change.Birds disappeared quickly, we only had seagulls, the air was changing the texture of things too.
We all thought, the smell was something that would be over in a week, but it wasn’t. I still remember, my fellow citizens defending our place like never before, sticking together against the police, the army and the government itself. “If this dump opens up, we would have to declare the Vesuvius National Park dead” – people used to say “Our land was and still is protected by clear laws to defend the nature here, for example, we can’t put up fences in this town to leave space for ferrets to go around freely, but then it makes no sense if the government can come here and cover up the place in trash.” It was a huge nonsense. Beside the fact that when you say Mount Vesuvius you are actually talking about UNESCO World Heritage.
This is the main reason why, I want you all to know that even if many people gave me hard time when I was young, and some others did not really believe in me when I started to build my dream in the music business, at the first opportunity I still mention my city, I bring it with me with its lights and shadows. You know, History can be so complex and pain can erase memories but the heart will always remember everything. I worked on a very important project with my partner Patrick J. Hamilton, a talented film director from Hollywood, California. We filmed a daily walk in Boscoreale, from dusk ‘til dawn, a city seen by the seagulls, on the road.
We wanted Boscoreale to shine out again,and we wanted to give to this little citythe record of being one of the very first citiesto be filmed in a cinematic 5Kshooting on Red Digital Cinema,
We wanted to instill hope in the heart of people as they often say “Boscoreale doesn’t offer nothing”. We tried to remind to the people that the true enemies are NOT those who take everything away from the people, but those who get the people used to “The Nothing”.
I’m a survivor, so it’s my call to protect my place,despite it all….after all, whatever happens.Boscoreale is my city. Always will be.
English 
Italian