I just got back today from a 5 day tour of the bay of naples area, in Italy. I had been to Rome before, but the contrasts between the north and south of the country makes it seem like you have crossed a border. No problems getting on the plane, landing, and getting off, but problems started arising after this. It seems the Italian public transportation system is designed so that only Italian people who live in the area can use it with confidence. I started by entering a bathroom in the train station(one of the few in Italy where I did not have to pay to get in). As I entered i saw people looking over the tops of cubicles as if hiding something inside, people walking with hands in pockets suspiciously. In my opinion, none of the toilets in the largest train station of Naples were better than a hole in the ground, as th running water was not working in most cases. To move around the Pompeii/sorrento area, we used 1960’s trains, fully covered in graffitti(which seems to be the norm)and which obviously lacked air conditioning and any other “luxury”.We were all lost in a country where as far as the toursits concluded, everything was crap and nothing worked, excluding roman architecture, prosciutto pizza, and booze. Today, as I got on different trains to get from sorrento to fiumicino airport in rome, the voice of people offering small boxes of biscuits and cheap water reminded me of journeys through ecuador, a third world country.(WHich seems strange in one of the countries that has been in the EU the longest) And then I realised. The views of Naple’s streets from the train reminded me of third world countries, and so did the houses, cars, and shops.(notice I exclude clothing, as Italians take great pride in wearing impecable clothes) With such cultural and economic contrasts in the 15Eu countries, was it a good idea to extend 10 more countries and start the money flow towards the east?