Holidaymakers on a beach near Naples have appalled Italy by sunbathing, fishing and playing football just metres from the corpse of a drowned pensioner.
The fully dressed body washed ashore in front of hundreds of onlookers who chose to ignore it rather than interrupt their sunny bank holiday Monday.
A sheet was thrown over the 69-year-old local man, named only as Ciro, as families resumed paddling and picnicking, sometimes pointing and laughing at the waves lapping at his shoes. In a dark suit and blue shirt, the corpse had no identity documents and it took police several hours to trace his widow to the nearby Bagnoli quarter of Naples.
No marks were found on the body, and police said suicide or an accident was the most likely explanation, although foul play was not ruled out. Police removed the body after two hours.
The Catholic church and social commentators said that there was no excuse for the Neapolitans’ lack of reaction.
“Not even death can make us reflect. But what society is this? What sort of society are we building?” said the archbishop of the city, Cardinal Michele Giordano.
“To fish or swim a few metres from a body without life is like an alarm bell ringing in our conscience. The true enemy of our time is indifference, of closing our eyes to each other, even those who suffer and ask help.”
National newspapers yesterday published photographs of the bathers and articles condemning them.
Similar incidents happened in Trieste in 1997 and Genoa in 1999, but southern Italians had a reputation for humanity and compassion.
“Times are changing. Once Neapolitans would have wept tears for the dead; would have waited in prayer for the ambulance. But these Neapolitans no longer exist,” said the Corriere della Sera newspaper. “Today Naples is a city without identity that desperately gropes for new values.” Rory Carroll May 2, 2001 The Guardian
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