Funiculì, Funiculà: A Legendary Chorus for Transit!

by Tony Chavira

I know that most people would listen to this song and see in their mind's eye visions of fat, bumbling chefs tripping and spilling pasta all over a a big Italian family during a rowdy wedding, but "Funiculi, Funiculà" was actually commissioned first as a poem and then as a song in 1880 to commemorate the grand opening of the funicular railway that climbed up the side of Mount Vesuvius (which was actually destroyed when it erupted in 1944).  The song definitely outlasted the railway's opening events, and it's so catchy that English and German visitors all immediately jumped to the conclusion that the song was just a traditional Italian sorta song and passed it around the world.

I think we need more epic and awesome songs to celebrate cool transit development projects.  Think about how amazing it must've been for a giant choir to sing "Funiculì, Funiculà" right before the Mayor cut the red ribbon and let people onto the Mt. Vesuvius funicular railway for the first time... epic.  In fact, NewGeography has a convincing article today about why we should be getting excited about cable cars and their potential development today...

Today, cable cars are one of a family of technologies collectively called Cable Propelled Transit (CPT). New generations of CPT not only include cable cars, but aerial trams, gondolas and funiculars as well.

There's no reason 19th century Italians should be more amped about awesome mass transit than we are.  It's time to start driving past your city's Metro Office blastin' "Funiculì, Funiculà" to get them on the ball, I say.  Pump.  That.  Jam.

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