Una Notte a Napoli, Colla Luna e il Mare

TRASH. THEFT. MAFIA. BOISTEROUS CROWDS. ADULTish-CHILDREN. THE BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD. MOUNTAINS THAT BECOME THE SEA. A WHOLE LOTTA HEART.

I spent four terrified days in Napoli.

Stepping out of the train station, your first sites appear as big brown urban hills, un-grassy knolls covering the sidewalks, and you quickly realize this city has a trash problem. Every sidewalk, everywhere, piles of trash heaped as if Mr. Trashman's on permanent holiday - and he is. You ask, "Who's responsible for all this grime and inhumanty?!" It's the mafia.

You wouldn't have noticed, hadn't you been told of the Mafia's presence in Napoli. They'd like to keep it that way, and locals tell you not to be fooled. Like the legendary fart - silent and deadly.

Besides trash, and the mafia, you should actually worry about the theft in this town. Don't bring anything precious with you, at all. Don't carry credit cards. Hide things in your underwear. He'll get you, and you'll not notice his greasy fingers.

The people of Napoli are loud, rude, obnoxious and without reservations. For all this, they deserve credit. What you see is what you get, and believe them, they're not embarrassed. They have no time for tourists who just want a coffee. Speak Italian and they'll speak it back at you fast as they can.

The kids are hilarious. So young, and so full of gusto. You'd think they'd been walking around for decades, their arms wildly cutting the air as they recount who said this or that. Loud.

The pizza is legendary. The best in the world, and you get your own for only 3 Euros. I had several during my stay.

The landscape is wonderful, and close to several other places on the map: Amalfi, Salerno, Pompei, and Nocera (an important city in terms of my family). Off the coast you can see the island Capris.

In all, Napoli is memorable for its fat Italian heart. There's no place with a culture quite like it, and when you finally escape the fright of being there, you appreciate Napoli's uniqueness, and the fact that such a culture can survive a single day let alone thousands of years.

So, finally finished with teaching English to the Italian kids (an exhausting and rewarding job), I'm finally out on my own, meeting people and doing cool things. The video below shows a drunk moment of my first night in Napoli, where I couch surfed with a Polish guy, a Romanian Girl, and their 3 other guests who were all French and fantastic. (I apologize if the video is blurry, though it probably represents the way I saw the world at the time).