May, 2022
Non-stop Naples
Coming from small Italian towns and villages, Naples was a shock. At first glance, it comes across as gritty, dirty, crowded and noisy. But there’s a layer of unpretentious vitality that rises to the surface if you give it a chance. Naples is a young, frenetic city that is all about food, street music, graffiti and vehicles honking their way through pedestrian streets.
Part of Naples charm is definitely the street music. First we stumbled across this energetic troupe tucked into a doorway in a narrow little street
Within a short distance, that narrow street opened onto the Piazzetta Nilo where we found this little ensemble.
And this guy, perched on the edge of a planter.
Then there was this fellow singing all by himself in front of a graffiti backdrop. He made the most amazing sounds with his mouth, mixed in with the singing.
It seems like virtually every vertical surface in Naples is covered in graffiti.
If you ever go to Naples, go to Zinzi and have one of Gennaro’s sandwiches. This is a man with immense pride in his ingredients, handling the bread, tomatoes drizzled with olive oil, prosciutto crudo and his darling buffalo mozzarella with love and respect. After he asked us where we were from, I returned the question. Turns out he’s not Italian, he’s Neapolitan.
Apparently not worth clearing tables for customers…
Street-side bar
After Gennaro’s lunch, we went on the underground city tour. Forty metres underground are caves and tunnels originally dug out by the 4th century BC Greeks as an underground quarry where they carved out the tufa stone blocks to build Naples’ first city walls and temples.
Then, around the turn of BC to AD, the Romans came along and connected the Greeks’ quarry caves with narrow tunnels and a 400 km long aqueduct, creating underground cisterns from the caves and wells throughout the city. The aqueduct was shut down in 1884 due to a cholera epidemic; the cisterns and tunnels were abandoned and the wells became unofficial (and illegal) garbage bins. WWII brought life to the underground again when Neapolitans used them as air-raid shelters.
Well access from a piazza at street level
There’s even the leftovers of a Greek-Roman theatre where in its heyday, Nero performed. He loved the sound of his own voice and the adulation of the spectators so much that when an earthquake shook the area during one of his performances, he wouldn’t let the crowd leave for cover, telling them that what they felt was the thunderous applause from the gods who were also watching his show. Over time, after the theatre was abandoned, people built houses in the stands. Here is one of the corridors under the theatre below and a view into a house above.
The beautiful Galleria Umberto I
Last night in Italy… I’ll miss our aperitivo habit…
No more seats, so why not perch across the street?
Saturday night in Naples is rocking. We went to Stanley Tucci’s favourite pizza place. And when we were ready to leave, there were no taxis to be found. Literally. The restaurant tried to call us a cab and came back with “Sorry. No taxis. Try later.” Everyone is out partying Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. We learned our lesson and walked to dinner Sunday night… And this made a perfect close to our time in Naples.