Prior to our arrival in Naples I had no preconceived notions about the city or people. By reputation, Naples is notorious for theft and robbery and they are known to usually target tourists but I had heard similar things about Rome. Honestly, I was really just looking forward to experiencing my first authentic Neapolitan pizza, and exploring the unique culture and atmosphere of Naples with everyone from my program.
When we first walked out onto the streets of Naples from the train station, I immediately noticed the differences in architecture from Rome’s. Rome is a deeply historical city in which the Roman’s take pride in their many ancient sites and buildings. Particularly, how it coincides with the ancient Roman culture. You can’t walk down a street in Rome without being aware of the beautiful decorated fountains, many of which were designed by celebrated Renaissance sculptors. And then there several historically significant churches in which many were constructed between the 7th – 13th centuries. However, Rome is primarily known for their famous sites & monuments including the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and many more.
Naples, though also historically rich, is noticeably more modern in their architecture and skyline. Our tour guide, Alex Valentino, who is a native Neapolitan as well as an architect and activist, brought all of us too many of Naples more famous sites and attractions including: the historic centre or Centro Storico where you’ll find Piazza Garibaldi, the city's main walking path in front of the station. Also nearby is Piazza Plebiscito where many beautiful, ancient churches can viewed, including the Sansvero Chapel, a church built in 1590 and adorned with ornate religious decorations. We also visited Naples’ Royal Palace and the Galleria Umberto.
Not only are the Neapolitans more modern in their architectural designs but the native Neapolitans also dress in more urban/ pop culturally influenced clothes. The stores seem to focus their advertisements to a certain demographic: young adults between the ages of 15 – 30. The clothes draped on many of the mannequins were “thuggish”, and shall I say, even, “ghetto”. The mannequin’s usually bore stupidly contorted facial expressions with pursed lips and raised eyebrows which, I’m guessing, were specifically designed to appeal to that age bracket of Neapolitan thugs and gangsters. Even the female mannequins were designed with equally stupid expressions and dressed with “skanky” frocks like higher than thigh high mini-skirts, fish net stalking, belly bearing shirts, puffy metallic jackets, and studded ankle boots. Therefore, the apparel outfitters were definitely aiming for the Neapolitan urban scene, and, from what I observed from the natives, their advertising campaign was successful J
The urban scene that seems to drive Napoli is vastly different from the high end labels that are well known and very popular in Rome. Wealthy Romans, specifically Roman women, are easily noticeable because they like to wear fur coats and other expensive apparel. They also drape themselves with lots of jewellery and dowse themselves in expensive perfume. I’ve noticed this type of Roman on several occasions walking along the Piazza de Spagna (where the Spanish steps are located). That specific area caters to all the famous fashion and jewellery houses including Valentino, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Chanel, Prada, Cartier, Hermes, Swarovski, Louis Vuitton, and many more. Rome, in my opinion, is geared more toward the working professionals and the wealthy because it’s a richer city. There are certain areas of Rome that have more urban influenced clothing shops, markets, and apparel stores but they usually exist on the outskirts of the major metropolitan area. The outskirts of Rome, places like Piazza Vittorio, are where the communities of minorities are commonly located. I think it’s a safe assessment to make that the reason for the change in location for both the kinds and clothing and the prices are based purely on the demographics of people: the wealthy vs. the working class, and the Italians vs. the minorities. Therefore, unlike Rome who sweeps these social-economic roles “underneath the rug” by establishing perimeters around the downtown area that keeps all the ethnically diverse people on the outskirts and in their own communities, Naples doesn’t seem to run their city on the same system. There are slight differences between the Napoli downtown area and the “projects” but not much. Diversity is all around, there isn’t a noticeable class distinction between the two areas and it seems to suit them well. However, this does attribute to a more dangerous atmosphere than Rome, and, like I stated earlier, is probably a major contributor for their notorious reputation of theft and robbery. It’s not a rarity to be pick-pocketed or robbed in Rome but it definitely seems to be more common in Naples and even happened to a girl in our program on our last day there.
Naples struggles many stereotypes that are plaguing their reputation. For instance, the streets are dirty with noticeable grime around some of the buildings and sidewalks. However, considering the sheer size of Naples, and also being an incredibly busy port city, it’s is somewhat understandable the difficulty in maintaining the overall cleanliness of the city. But, it appears as if the streets are full of trash that the trash workers are failing to collect due to the strikes. It has been an on-going issue in Naples that the sanitation workers would refuse to collect trash while negotiating for better wages, hence the strike. Although it is known that these strikes primarily affected suburban areas – tourist centres are now experiencing the consequences. Another stereotype is that Naples is a “crime centre”, and from what the people in my program experienced based on our visit, this would be true. It is universally known that Naples has a larger problem with organized crime. The city has entities that are controlled by the Italian mafia, but those aren’t something you’d ever notice as a tourist. However, there is a high risk of purse snatching and jewellery theft in the city. And, as I stated earlier, a girl from my program experienced this first-hand…unfortunately.
So, although Naples and Rome are two equally important, culturally and historically rich cities in Italy, perhaps Naples is just personified as a grittier and more dangerous location because their isn’t such a noticeable social-economic divide that separates the have’s from the have’s not’s. They are all inhabiting the same area and they are all sustaining themselves the best way they know how, to whatever means necessary.
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