NAPOLI

A city which has been greatly misunderstood during the years and my dedication to Naples is because it was the city and still is, the one that strikes me the most.  Naples like Venice is unique and incomparable.  Arriving in Naples is like eating ice cream for the very first time. Naples is a living city, it moves, it breathes, it feels and eats and drinks and sings…. Everything in Naples is on a grand scale, the piazzas, the monuments and the churches and there are more than 30 churches in this city and more than 200 shrines.  Here grandeur coexists with the cobbled alleyways, washing put out to dry dripping from the rusty balconies, women lowering buckets from the top floor windows and getting them filled with groceries or letters from the Postino who is called Salvatore, where the children play at being Maradona in Piazza del Plebiscito or where the goal posts are the doors of the magnificent Duomo where San Gennaro’s (Naples Patron Saint) remains are kept.  Naples is fascinating as it has no order and in this chaos there is an identity which has manifested itself into a philosophy, which is the Neapolitan’s way of life, getting on with it! 

Naples is rich in history with a melange of Medieval, Roman, Greek and Norman, there is just so much to see and do, a lifetime is required.  Cradled by mountains and Vesuvius which sits majestically in the distance, a short train ride and you find yourself in the Vomero and from here you are witness to the splendours of this beautiful city.  Just a walk through Piazza Garibaldi and through Porta Capua and you lose yourself in the inhabited alleyways which emerge onto beautiful piazzas, market stalls where voices mix with the chatter of the tourist and the commotion of the vespas. The whole city oozes colour and is a delight to all human senses.  Walk through the Quartiere Spagnolo and then find Palazzo Reale, Galleria Umberto, built exclusively of glass and cast iron, Castel Nuovo…… and apart from all this architectural splendours there are the archaeological remains below the city, Naples below Naples. 

Naples is a City that you will either love or hate and only extreme emotions are allowed.