My first “city near a volcano” – Napoli, Italy

My personal involvement with the Parthenopean city began in 1987 in Vancouver, British Colombia, at the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, an organization that includes many volcanologists. Giovanni Orsi and Lucia Civetta, volcanologists at the University of Naples, asked if I would be interested in spending two months lecturing on the topic of field work in volcanic fields during the following spring. I was ready for a change of scene from my work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and asked for a couple months of sabbatical leave. With piles of completed paperwork behind me, my wife Jody and I were ready to spend two months in the middle of one of Italy’s most colorful cities. The idea of living and working in a densely populated city that overlapped several young volcanic fields held special appeal for me.

Los Alamos, New Mexico, is a small, isolated town located on a forested plateau, and we lived on the edge of even that sparse community. The loudest noise at night was usually the comments of a coyote that might have bagged a rabbit or was simply lonesome. This background did not prepare us for our entry into the ancient and dynamic city of Naples. Giovanni Orsi met us at the airport and spirited us into town to our apartment on the Via Santa Maria de Neves. Our first impressions were of an extremely narrow passage rife with cars, motorcycles, scooters, and people. The streets seemed dirty, noisy, and confusing. All this chaos was apparently just a disguise to fool the taxman. Our newly remodeled apartment was quiet and elegant with views toward Vesuvius (at least from the bathroom) and the Vomero, a ridge that is the backdrop for Naples.