LOVE OUR VIRUSES, SAYS NAPLES

The new chief of the Naples tourist board has urged visitors to embrace Europe’s dirtiest city and see the rubbish as part of its charm. Claudio Velardi made his appeal as Neapolitans were rioting over the 4,000 tonnes of rotting refuse lying in the city streets. He insisted that Naples has never been a clean city and has always been “a hotbed of viral diseases”.

DEAD SEA SCROLL ON SHOW

The best-preserved and most complete of the Dead Sea Scrolls goes on display in Jerusalem this month for the first time in four decades. Two significant sections of the Great Isaiah Scroll – featuring the unlikely prophecy “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares” (Isaiah 2:4) – will be on show at the Israel Museum until August 30.

TOURIST TRAPP

The former home of the von Trapp family, made famous by The Sound of Music, is being remodelled as a hotel. The Villa Trapp, on the outskirts of Salzburg, once housed the family that gained global fame in the 1965 film starring Julie Andrews. The city’s tourism officials said that the park surrounding the villa will also be open to the public.

ETNA AWAKES

A rain of ash and “significant gas emissions” has heralded the awakening of Mount Etna, with vulcanologists reporting “significant seismic activity” on the Sicilian volcano. Meanwhile, its little sister, Stromboli – already one of Europe’s most active volcanoes – has entered a new phase of heightened activity, prompting the cancellation of tours to the crater.

WIN A JOB IN OZ

A job in a beach resort in Western Australia is the top prize in a new competition set up by Tourism Australia to entice backpackers into taking working holidays down under. Poor working conditions and low wages have deterred travellers in recent years, and the promotion comes as a number of fruit farmers in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria stand accused of underpaying seasonal labourers. First prize in the competition includes return flights from London to Perth, a four-week work placement at the Cable Beach Club Resort – and, crucially for job-seekers in Oz, training for a Responsible Service of Alcohol Certificate. Enter at www.myspace.com/workinoz.

HAIRY BABIES

A dozen baby mountain gorillas are to be named at this year’s Kwita Izina ceremony in the Virunga National Park, Rwanda, on June 21. The ritual takes its name from the Banyarwanda word meaning “giving a name”. Since the launch of the ceremony in 2003, 65 baby gorillas have been named, joining a community that numbers less than 750 of the species living in the wild. If you’d like to attend the ceremony, contact Volcanoes Safaris (0870 870 8480, www.volcanoessafaris.com).

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