Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It couldn't go on and in 1992 the Mani
pulite (Clean Hands) campaign kicked into
gear. What had started as an investigation into
bribery at a retirement home in Milan quickly
grew into a nationwide crusade against corrup-
tion. Industry bosses and politicians were in-
vestigated, with some imprisoned, and former
prime minister Bettino Craxi fled Italy to avoid
Although much has happened since it was
written, Paul Ginsborg's A History of Contem-
porary Italy: Society & Politics 1943-1988 re-
mains one of the single most readable and in-
sightful topics on postwar Italy.
prosecution.
In Naples, the city voted its approval by electing as mayor former Communist Antonio
Bassolino, whose promises to kick-start the city and fight corruption was music to weary
Neapolitan ears. In the seven years that followed, a burst of urban regeneration gave
Naples a refreshing sense of hope and pride. A-list artists were commissioned to deck out
the city's new metro stations, world leaders flew in for the 1994 G7 summit, and arts fest-
ival Maggio dei Monumenti spiced up the city's calendar.
Despite winning a second term in 1997, Bassolino couldn't keep up the impressive mo-
mentum and in 2000 he was elected president of the Campania region, a move many con-
sidered a political fudge to oust him from the day-to-day running of the city.
Into his shoes stepped Rosa Russo Jervolino, a former interior minister and Naples'
first female mayor. Elected on a centre-left ticket firstly in 2001, and then for a second
term in May 2006, her time in office was not spared of controversy. In April 2002 political
chaos ensued after eight policemen were arrested on charges of torturing antiglobalisation
protestors arrested at a 2001 government conference. Even more damaging were the waste
disposal crises of 2003, 2006 and 2008, which saw images of rubbish-choked streets
beamed across the world - a PR disaster for both the city and its administrators.
TIMELINE
8th century BC
Greeks establish a colony at Cuma in the Campi Flegrei. The area becomes the most
important Greek settlement on the Italian mainland and a strategic part of Magna Grae-
cia.
680 BC
The Cuman Greeks establish Parthenope on the island of Megaris, naming it in honour
of a suicidal siren whose song fails to seduce the cunning Ulysses.
 
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