Naples The southern Italian region of Campania is facing a crisis with tons of uncollected rubbish accumulating across the area. The situation could not have happened at a worse time with the summer tourist season about to take off.
Holidaymakers are unsure whether to journey to the region, that includes Mount Vesuvius following newspaper headlines such as "Rat Invasion", "Cholera Danger" and "Garbage Emergency in Naples".
Will they be met by the pleasant aroma of lemon trees or the stench of rotting fruit on the roadside?
A spokesman for Naples' hotel association, Federalberghi, says the situation is not as bad as the media paint it.
"There's no reason for holidaymakers to avoid the region this summer."
According to the hotel association, the problem is affecting neither Naples' historic centre nor popular tourist destinations like the Amalfi Coastline.
"It's exclusively affecting the suburbs and small towns inland," says Ezi Aliberti, spokesman for Naples' municipal authority.
The crisis has been building up for months and is caused by a shortage of incinerators and rubbish dumps.
Tourist hotspots such as Positano, Capri and other coastal towns have been kept free of rubbish in a bid to maintain the tourist trade.
But there have been hotel room cancellations despite those efforts.
"We blame that on misleading information in the media. They only publish photos of Naples on the few days when the rubbish has not been picked up," according to the hotel association.
"The newspapers have even been talking about cholera and typhoid that's simply an exaggeration."
