Looking for that street in Naples …………….

Now, when we are in Naples there is always one street we go back to.

It doesn’t matter much that what is sold in the small shops that stretch along both sides, are a mix of bad taste and questionable quality, we always return.

And we return because it is just a fun place, full of figures of all sizes and subjects.

Many have a religious flavor while others play to the superstitious side of many Neapolitans and include those little red chilies which are believed to protect your car and house from all sorts of nasty things.

Now ideally, they should be fresh, but that can be a faff and so the street specializes in little wooden and plastic ones.

Simone and Rosa who are from Naples have a collection of them in their house in Varese, while Tina carries one pair on her key ring and another bunch in the car.

But on our street these jostles with large figures of the saints, smaller ones of footballers, and film stars and nestle beside rows of politicians including one of President Trump.

All these crowd in next to cabinets of nativity figures and wooden painted panels, ranging from scenes of Naples to risqué ones of fat men and slim young women.

And while I never tire of the shops I am always drawn to those other shops, the ones that sell a bewildering variety of cakes, and biscuits with fillings that cover the full sweep of tastes and look as good as they taste.

Having navigated that street, the challenge becomes one of getting back to the station.

And that very quickly means plunging down those narrow streets where the buildings soar to the sky and seem to challenge the law of gravity.

And just when you think the street can’t get any narrower, it does.  If you are lucky it will eventually open out into a small piazza or lead onto a main road, but not always.

Added to this, some of residents do throw their dirty water off the balcony, but do at least offer up a warning shout, which in my experience comes moments after the water is in free fall.

To be fair it only happened to us once, and it was no more sinister than a bowl of water left over from washing the pots.

I don’t suppose it is that common, given that many people still spend great chunks of the day on the street, and in the very warm weather might set up a table, prepare vegetables, eat a meal or just get on with “doing things” while snatching conversations with neighbours and passerby in a seamless continuity of street life that goes back generations.

Look at the old photographs from the early 20th century, and the same pattern is there, with women working at a rickety wooden table, to children having their hair cut and od men fiercely debating the issues of the day.

And that is the city I have come to love.

Location; Naples

Pictures; street scenes, Naples, 2019 from the collection of Balzano