NAPLES ? A MISUNDERSTOOD, UNDERAPPRECIATED JEWEL
The largest city of Campania, capital of the province and the region, Naples is the third most populated city in Italy (after Rome and Milan), with over a million inhabitants, and is the most important industrial center and trading port for the South. A point of embarkation for emigrants in the past, Naples now has a large traffic of merchandise (petroleum, carbon, cereals) and passengers. It is the largest Italian port, with a noteworthy nexus of railway and highways and a large international airport.
In the vast urban area one can distinguish many different neighborhoods:
the old center, characterized by buildings closely crowded together,
is bordered on the west by the new administrative district and on the
east by the business district, into which flows almost all the road
and rail traffic. Other neighborhoods, with narrow climbing streets,
rise around the base of the San Martino and
Capodimonte hills. These neighborhoods
have experienced intense development, typically of the simpler kind,
in contrast to that of the residential neighborhoods that stretch out
comfortably along the Vomero and Posillipo hills.
By ROBERT A. MASULLO
Imagine a history-filled city of enormous natural beauty; one packed with great architectural structures, many filled with incomparable works of art; a city that has the world's greatest musical heritage, as well as a theatrical tradition, literature and even a language of its own, plus a cuisine loved the world over; a city that has wonderful weather in summer and winter, is located on one of the most spectacular bays on the planet, and has magnificent mountains on its outskirts.
Wouldn't a country fortunate enough to contain such a city be proud of it? Pamper it? Promote it? Encourage foreigners to visit it?
You might think so.
But such is not the case for Naples, Italy's third largest city, and in many ways its most important cultural treasure (and I say that mindful of how rich all of Italy is in cultural treasures).
Pick up almost any English-language guidebook about Italy and read its acknowlegment of Naples' attractions. Inevitably, these will be followed by warnings about its dangers, dirtiness and disarray. The same is echoed by travel agents and, alas, residents of other parts of Italy.
Northern Italians speak of Naples as if it were a third-world hardship
outpost. Even Italians from other parts of the south rarely refer to
it kindly. I can recall being sternly warned about going there by acquaintances
in Calabria and Sicily.
Nevertheless, German, French, British and Scandinavian tourists do not seem to be afraid of Naples. They love the unique warmth of its people and its singular physical characteristics. They regularly fill Naples' hotels and provide the backbone of its tourist trade.
Americans, however, are conspicuous by their absence. If they see
Naples at all, it usually is on a breeze-through to
Capri, Sorrento
and the Amalfi coast.
Tragically, even Italian Americans rarely visit it ? and as many as
a third of them have ancestral roots in or near the city. What is going
on? Is Naples all that bad? I decided to find out for myself. After
numerous trips to Italy, none of which included a visit to Naples,I
decided to spend a week there on my last trip. It turned out to be the
best week I have spent in Italy and my only regret is that it wasn't
a month or more. What I found is a city that knows its own worth but
is little concerned with what others think of it. Its people were the
most delightful I've found anywhere I've traveled, although they were
hardly the stereotypical
opera-singing, happy-go-lucky paesani depicted in TV commercials. Years
ago Pete Hamill, in an article explaining New York to non-New Yorkers,
advised visitors to "accept the city on its own terms.‘ Those who faulted
it for not being like Des Moines or Peoria, he suggested, would never
appreciate its wonders.
The same is true for Naples. Like New York, Naples is highly idiosyncratic.
There is no other place remotely like it, including Rome, Milan and
Florence.
Among Italian cities, only Venice is more distinctive. But Venice has
relatively few people living in it. Tragically, it has become almost
exclusively a tourist attraction, much like Disneyland. Naples, on the
other hand, is a thriving, pulsating metropolis of more than a million
people. It welcomes tourists, but doesn't really need them. Its size
means it has the problems of any big city, some of them exacerbated
by its age, and yes, that does include street crime. But Naples' virtues,
I found, strongly outweigh its negatives. The negatives have been exaggerated
out of all proportion. Take the street crime, for example. The guidebooks
would have you belive the only safe way to walk through Naples' streets
is with an armed bodyguard.
Nonsense. Naples has its share of muggers, but no more than Paris, London
or New York. Walking around Naples you are as safe as you are in any
major city in the United States or western Europe. In fact, you are
safer, for Neapolitan street criminals confine their activities almost
entirely to stealing.
Maimings and killings, so common in large American cities, are virtually
unheard of in Naples.
Neapolitan streets, however, are generally narrow and crowded with
automobile and pedestrian traffic. At first sight this might seem overwhelming
to most Americans. But if you let yourself get into the city's rhythm,
you soon find Neapolitan streets fascinating. What at first seems crazy,
reveals itself to have its own order. Drivers, you'll begin to notice,
are exceedingly tolerant of people crossing mid-block or of other drivers
making unusual movements. In this respect, Naples is like midtown Manhattan,
only more so.
But this is something to be enjoyed, not feared. I rented a car in Naples
… a mistake. The car spent most of the time in a garage. I found it
easier to get around the city on foot; if the distance was too far to
walk I took a bus, taxi or a funiculare (a unique train that goes up
and down the city's hills), all of which are cheap, dependable and,
most importantly, don't have to be parked.Nevertheless, my rental car
provided me with the first of many uniquely Neapolitan experiences.
Driving from the Hertz office to my hotel, I got caught up in a traffic
snafu that put me in a lane I wasn't supposed to be in.
Before I realized what I had done I was confronting a police barrier
and a policeman. "Oh, oh,‘ I thought. "I'm going to get a ticket before
I even get to my hotel.‘But no. The policeman sensed my predicament
and said, "Un momento,‘ and moved the barrier so I could make a U-turn
and get back in the traffic flow.
"You're in Napoli, amico,‘ an Italian friend who accompanied me and
my wife told me. Although our amica now lives in Perugia, she grew up
near Naples and was quite proud of its human warmth. While driving around
that first day I found a radio station that played delightful Neapolitan
music. This was a pleasant experience as most Italian stations play
international rock, much of it non-Italian, and all of it as
cacophonous as that played on the worst American stations. I tuned in
the station again at the hotel. Calling itself "Studio Napoli, after
every third or fourth song it played an identification jingle that contained
the line: "solo musica napolitana‘ ("only Neapolitan music‘).
What other city, I thought, has a musical tradition so vibrant that
one of its radio stations could play nothing but the music of the city?
I couldn't think of one. And Studio Napoli did not rely on a steady
diet of " 'O sole
mio‘ or other tunes of that ilk; it played contemporary songs with modern
beats, whose lyrics were, nevertheless, in the ancient, beautiful and
often haunting Neapolitan tongue. In a bookstore I picked up an Italian-Neapolitan
dictionary. At last, I thought, I would be able to find out the meanings
of words I heard my second-generation parents (whose own parents came
from Naples' outskirts) speak but which they were unable to translate
and of which teachers of Italian always expressed ignorance.
It should be noted that while Neapolitans are able to speak the language of their city (and it never ceased to amaze me that a city could have a language of its own) they more often speak Italian. Italian is what is used on Neapolitan airwaves, in its newspapers and in most daily transactions. When I showed the dictionary to a hotel clerk, he laughed, and in perfect Italian said to me: "First, learn Italian; then work on your Neapolitan.‘ A put-down, but a gentle, typically Neapolitan one.
Tourist attractions? Naples has plenty. With Greek, Roman, French, Spanish and assorted other rulers over more than 2,000 years, its attractions are unbelievably diverse. Some top Neapolitan ones are the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, the world's finest archaeological museum; the Duomo of San Gennaro, where the blood of the city's patron saint mysteriously liquifies three times a year; the Certosa of San Martino, whose elevated perch offers a magnificent view of the city and whose chambers contain exquisite examples of Neapolitan presepi (Christmas nativity scenes); and the magnificent Capodimonte, a royal palace turned into a hilltop art museum.
I don't, however, want to rehash information that is readily available
in guidebooks, even ones by the most anti-Neapolitan writers. Suffice
it to say, if you visit Naples you won't lack for interesting and beautiful
places to visit. My point is, simply, don't be afraid of Naples. Discount
the negative talk.
It is, in my opinion, all the product of envy, and similar in many ways
to the negativity that all Italic people experience (save that this
particular bigotry is shared, sadly, by many Italics). See Naples for
yourself and do so with an open mind. If you can do so with a friendly
Neapolitan at your side, as I did, you will appreciate it even more.
But no matter how you do it, don't miss this incredible city.
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