The Contrasts of Naples: a visual journey between street and underground
Naples. In spite of everything, it makes you love it. The good food, the warmth of its people, the climate and the beauty of the places win over even the most sceptical. A city of a thousand facets, like the mosaics of its metro. From the heights of the elegant Vomero or the restless Vesuvius you descend to the calm blue sea, then venture into the historic centre, where we find blue again — but this time the blue of the football team: present everywhere, from windows to tablecloths, from cardboard cut-outs to murals. Napoli is everywhere, in Naples. Blue is Naples. And yet Naples has a thousand colours. It is a lively, noisy city: many colours, many sounds, many scents, many flavours, many gestures and grimaces. Whoever visits Naples rediscovers the five senses, immerses themselves and cannot help but feel life. The people are alive, and with life have arisen traditions kept alive just as the past is. They are proud of them. And rightly so.
Even underground there are treasures. An unimaginable Naples: the historic value of the war shelters, still visible today, and the modernity of the metro, now recognised as one of the most beautiful in Europe. Naples is beautiful, from head to Vesuvius, above ground and below. This whole reportage was made with Olympus’s 25 mm f/1.2, equivalent to a 50 mm: I deliberately limited myself to a single, non-wide-angle lens, to capture images different from the usual Neapolitan postcards. I hope I succeeded. To find out more about my photographic approach you can read the about section. Enjoy your visit of Naples.
Underground Naples: Noi vivi, a war shelter
Naples has a long history, including one of war. Underground Naples is not so different from the tunnels of the Gaza Strip: today a source of tourism, yesterday a source of salvation.
It has been many things: as well as a war shelter, also an illegal dump, a judicial warehouse, a water-collection well, an escape route for kings… There is not a single underground Naples, but many different stories that tell what Naples is.
The VIPs of Naples: Totò, San Gennaro and Sofia Loren
Naples is also its personalities, who have given so much to culture and to the image of Italy in the world. In the streets you find plenty of art celebrating them, like Sofia Loren in a mural that exalts her Mediterranean beauty. There are faces that have made the city’s history and brand-new ones, like the league-winning footballers: and if you can’t have them in person, at least as cardboard cut-outs.
Naples and its port
Naples has one of the largest ports in Europe: a gateway of Europe onto the Mediterranean.
‘O Vesuvio
The tourists seem indifferent before Vesuvius. But those same unwitting tourists do not know they are sitting on the ashes of the volcano and of the Campi Flegrei. An indissoluble bond between the city and its volcanoes.
Neapolitan nativity scenes: between tradition and current affairs
A workshop for building nativity scenes and the inevitable Berlusconi: although from Brianza, he loved Neapolitan music and could not be missing from the traditional nativity scene.
The contrasts of the alleys: between art and decay
Naples is dotted with exceptional artistic wonders, often right next to poorly maintained buildings. It is part of the contrast that makes the city unique.
The districts of Naples: from the Quartieri Spagnoli to the Rione Sanità
Washing hung out in the most unthinkable places is a great classic of the city: the result of Neapolitan population density and the art of getting by, of carving out space even where there is none.
