Blog 5: Trip to Naples, Italy

Sculpture outside the subway in Naples

 Organized crime, trash-laiden streets, and pizza are just a few things that come to mind when the city of Naples is mentioned. We arrived in Naples hoping to dispel the images of crime organized by the Camorra and 'trashy' (literally) reputation that the city has, but, unfortunately, these stereotypes were only reinforced at a much greater level.

As we pulled into the train station in Napoli, I was struck by the skyline of the gateway to the South. With skyscrapers filling the landscape and mirroring modernity, I expected to be entering a progressive, economically stable city. However, as we exited the train station and made our walk to the Hostel of the Sun, these ideas quickly changed. While there were modern skyscrapers molding the landscape of Naples, our tour guide, Alex, was quick to inform me that these buildings remain virtually empty and simply serve as an image of opposition to progress.

Graffiti directed at the authorities in Naples 

Graffiti covering an ancient fountain in Naples

The skyscrapers are not the only modern image that stuck me as we toured the city of Naples. As we boarded the subway, I was immediately struck by the artwork that lined the immaculately clean subway walls. The subway in Naples was an artwork itself with its easy to navigate halls and sleek turnstiles. Naples' subway system juxtaposed against a blue sky and grit filled streets was an astonishing image. For me, this image once again symbolizes the resistance of the Napoleons to conform with modern day society coupled with the lack of government funding to help clean the trash off the streets. Looking at the subway systems in Naples also poses a question: How is the government able to provide enough money for elaborate artwork to be placed into the subway systems but they are not able to fund enough trash crews to clean the streets of Naples? While the subway system in Rome is not necessarily the cleanest or best designed, the streets of Rome are certainly not overflowing with trash.

Imagery is not the only thing that appealed to my sight during my visit to Naples, I was also struck by the elaborate graffiti lining the outside walls of virtually all of the buildings in the city center. While Rome has an extensive amount of graffiti covering many of its surfaces as well, the graffiti in Naples was must more extensive and detailed. For me, the detailed graffiti on the streets of Naples symbolizes the acceptance of the street art. Instead of mindless tagging, much of the graffiti on the buildings were detailed drawings that must have taken hours to create. The graffiti on the walls of Naples in many ways parallels this image, “This sorry-looking vespa leaning against the wall. It has not been abandoned. The neglect is a subtle form of camouflage,” (Severgnini 164). There is so much graffiti lining the walls of Naples, it becomes a unique sort of camouflage. As I wandered through Naples, the graffiti and trash almost seemed to disappear; simply becoming part of the landscape of the metropolis.

Traveling further South in Italy to Naples was an enlightening experience. The following passage discussing the similarities of personalities of all Italians: “The warmth, the vivaciousness, the importance they all put on human relationships, whether in business or day-to-day dealings, all these are common throughout the peninsula South of the Alps,” (Richards 107). While visiting Naples, I found that while some personality traits of Napoleons were shared with those of the Romans, there was an apparent dissonance between the North and the South. As we walked throughout Naples, it seemed that many of the Napoleons were much more aggressive than the Italians residing in Rome. This aggression was evidenced as motorcycles zoomed past pedestrians without slowing down or waiting for anyone to move out of their way. Resulting from this aggression, as I walked through Naples I continually felt a sense of fear looming as a I turned down each narrow street. Unfortunately, on our last day in Naples, a person in our group was robbed by a male Napolean driving aggressively on a motorcycle. Although we were in broad daylight and walking down a busting street, the mugging still occurred, reinforcing all of the negative thoughts we had previously heard about the South of Italy. Now, as I walk through Rome, I am constantly scared whenever a motorcycle drives by me on the street.

While I am aware that this robbery was an isolated incident that could have occurred in any city throughout the world, it shed a negative light on Napels in my mind. In my opinion, the city of Naples a lot of developing to do. The city has traces of progress laced throughout its streets, but it seems very backwards in the way the city functions. Sadly, the stereotypes surrounding Naples are continually being reinforced. In order for good information to be spread throughout the world about Naples as a city, the power needs to be taken from the Camorra and given to the people of the city.