Tensions threatened to explode in the Naples suburb of Pianura on Thursday as authorities struggled to find a temporary solution to the area's umpteenth trash crisis.
Escorted by police, officials tasked with resolving the rubbish emergency forced their way past angry locals and into a closed refuse dump which is now expected to be prepared for re-opening.
With an estimated 100,000 tons of trash lying in the streets of Naples and the surrounding area, the European Union has warned it could act against Italy unless it resolved the problems quickly.
The situation ''worries the Commission and it will monitor events closely in the coming weeks,'' a spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas on Thursday.
The special commissioner appointed by the government to deal with the Campania trash crisis decided to ease the situation by taking the refuse to the Pianura site, making the old trash dump the focal point of the current emergency.
Local people, who want the site to stay closed, have mobilised to challenge the decision. About 100 protestors guarded the main entrance to the site during the night in a bid to stop authorities entering it.
On Thursday more demonstrators blocked local roads and rail lines.
Meanwhile, in the rest of Naples, residents exasperated by the continued presence of smelly bags of rubbish outside their homes set fire to overflowing bins again on Wednesday night.
This action - which forced fire-fighters to make 75 separate outings during the night - only worsened the health risk as the burning trash released poisonous dioxins into the air.
The latest emergency comes after two refuse storage sites in the Campania region were closed over the New Year because they were saturated.
Authorities, who face public protests every time they select new sites, have been unable to find replacement landfills and treatment plants.
A failure to organise recycling schemes, coupled with the problems finding new destinations for the Campania region's rubbish, has meant the area has faced recurrent trash emergencies over the last decade.
Centre-right politicians lambasted the regional and national government on Thursday for failing to find a solution.
''The latest warning from the EU to the government sets the seal on its failure over the last two years,'' said Antonio Martusciello of Forza Italia, adding that two billion euros had been spent in recent years in a bid to resolve trash disposal problems.
''The issue of rubbish in Campania must be treated as a national issue because, on top of the drama it creates for the local population, it also seriously damages the country's image,'' said Roberto Della Seta of the centre-left Democratic Party.
