napoli crapoli

"The city of Naples is resplendent with her crystal clear waters, the Isle of Capri winking from across the bay, the sparkling..." I lower the little pocket guide book I'm reading and stare dubiously across the Piazza, past the by now infamous piles of rubbish and across to the brown waters of the bay, crowded with people and cruise ships. Due to a mixture of problems involving the government and the Camorra (the local mafia) Naples has been steadily drowning in rubbish since 2004. The problem escalated recently and the EU stepped in, but the city is still overrun with waste which the citizens have been known to burn on the streets. Naples is chaos, crime, grime, and a few (ugly) monuments here and there.

If you wrench your mindset around to that of a wide‑eyed, excited, open minded traveller, who doesn't hail from one of the world's cleanest cities, you can detect an undercurrent of excitement beating steadily beneath the dirty, smelly, winding streets. One night I met up with Stu (college Stu for those in the know) and we watched Italy beat France in the soccer, with terrifyingly loud fireworks going off a few metres away every time Italy scored a goal. One firework in particular was reminiscent of WWII, but all it did was make noise ‑ no pretty lights! It's almost as though Naples takes for granted that its beauty has been touted for centuries (the guide books quote Goethe, Napoleon and the likes ‑ anybody who visited more than 50 years ago) and feels it's done its job; pretty is so passè.

However ugly the city may be, it charmed me in a strange, I'll probably never bother to return but I'm glad I came, sort of way. After all, Napoli brought us pizza, it's the gateway to Pompei, Erculano and various other sites of archaeological importance, it has some of the best museums in the world and the traffic is crazy enough that it's a tourist attraction in itself (best seen from the safety of your hotel balcony). Cars whizz in behind ambulances to get a free ride through the traffic, motorcycles zip along the footpaths, horns beep at each constantly, the modern music of an ancient town.

Food, ruins, friendly waiters and fireworks aside, the city left me underwhelmed. Arriving in the wide, clean(er), marble streets of Rome after three days fruitlessly searching for anything beautiful in Naples was a true relief.