Bella Napoli: Love It, Hate It, Maybe Both

I made it to Naples, and my guard is up. The American travelers I’m meeting around Italy have a sort of terrified fascination with this city. More than one person has told me, “We planned our trip around not going to Naples.”

I get it. Napoliphobia is understandable. This is the birthplace of organized crime. It’s gritty, it’s gross, it’s in your face. The city is an assault on all of the senses: piles of garbage, pungent odors, and a neverending racket of buzzing motors and hollering natives. The streets are an impenetrable maze. The graffiti manages to be profane in multiple languages. The traffic is mortally terrifying. And the people…well, actually, the people are wonderful. But their unbridled, full-bodied engagement with living can be jarring to a mild-mannered American.

And yet, even with all that’s stacked against it, after several visits Naples has really gotten under my skin. Frightened or not, you owe it to yourself to experience Naples. If you hate it, you hate it. The train station is that way. But if you give it a chance, you may learn to love it.

Naples is a world — and a worldview — unto itself. As you explore, keeping one hand on your wallet and the other on your camera, you’re immersed in Neapolitan life. Everyone is out, it seems, all of the time. People have animated conversations, waving their arms to illustrate a point…while talking on a cell phone. Babies balance on the handlebars of motorbikes. If you can tune out that knee-jerk sense of danger, this city has Europe’s undisputed best people-watching.

Here are few photos of my latest visit to Naples. But vivid as they may seem, nothing can capture the experience of being there.

 

In Naples, people live, love, eat, chat, and die in impossibly narrow lanes like this.

 

Colorful cottage industries spill out into grimy streets.

 

Walking between Naples’ gigantic, soot-covered buildings, occasionally you find an open doorway. Peeking into the courtyard, you get a glimpse at what, at one time, must have been an opulent place to live.

 

When I’m in Naples, I don’t worry about getting mugged…I worry about getting run over. Cars, trucks, and motor scooters assertively nudge their way between pedestrians. Often, the smallest motor scooters make the biggest noise. I watched an old-timer, comfortably resting on his rickety plastic chair, get beeped out of his seat by an impatient delivery truck who couldn’t quite squeeze by. After four days in the city, I was only clipped in the shoulder once by a side-view mirror. (It was just a brush-back pitch, really.) I consider this a pretty decent track record for four entire days in this city.

 

Strolling the streets of Naples late at night, modern-day tableaus like this one catch your eye.

 

Tucked between the glum buildings are stunning churches and grand squares, like this one.

 

Expressive stone lions welcome visitors to Naples’ Piazza Plebescito. This one has a goofy, welcoming grin.

 

 

Meanwhile, this lion seems to be saying, “You talkin’ to me?”