Italy Fermata 05: Napoli
the recipe for crossing a street in Napoli
Ingredients:
strap of bravery,
safety chain of confidence,
helmet of disregard of your personal life,
harness of abundant faith
Pre-instructions:
Don’t bother looking both ways (there is aways something coming)
Don’t wait for a gap (it won’t appear).
Don’t wait patiently at the start of a crossing (no one cares).
Steps:
1. Imagine you are doing a bungee jump
2. Leap off the sidewalk into the valley of vehicles
If you took the energy of Kathmandu, the people of Sarajevo, the coastal landscape of Cape Town - and told your favourite AI tool to create a city with the combination of those three - it would give you Napoli (I use these three cities that I know, as one should use AI responsibly: feed it only what you know to ask for something you don’t). Napoli is uncanny Italy. Extremes are packaged tightly as people in its Spanish Quarter (where you can find a takeaway Aperol Sprits for a single euro) - touristy while unapologetically local, sprawling while claustrophobic, friendly yet intimidating. Funeral parlour, fried pizza shop, religious (and sport) icon figurine stand - they all share the same front door. It is a different country to North Italy. Something else is worshipped.
Even the food tastes different. Is it the water? The air? Maybe it is the residue of the volcanic ash in the soil that has found its way into the flour used for the pizza dough. It is lighter, airier (and also cheaper). Maybe it is the soul with which it is made. You can taste it (even in the fried pizzas). And if you want all of this soul in a spoonful - head to a market in Chiaia, at the back, behind the fisheries, the underwear, and the fresh fruit stalls. You will find @cibicotti_nonnaanna. The food there tastes as if it was cooked by a southern European grandma. By the size of the portions, it is also dished by one too.
