Napoli = amazing

I remember at the beginning of the year, a group of us went to dinner at the St. James Church. There was a speaker from the American Embassy, who was a bit of a mongoose, telling us that Florence was NOT a Renaissance Disneyland, so we had to watch our backs. But compared to much of Italy, Florence is a theme park. Florence's historic center is geared towards tourists, and I never get the sense of local culture when I am here. The historic district of Naples, on the other hand, feels really lived in. There are groups of people interacting on the streets they live on, sassy little children harrassing everyone in their charming Neopolitan dialect, the most delicious and extremely cheap food, friendly and helpful locals, and quite a bit of vandalism and garbage. So so lively! We went into beautiful cathedrals that were completely empty, and ate the best pizza in the world (honestly) at a place called Pizzeria Di Matteo.

The contemporary local art in Naples is mainly paper mache (cartapesta in Italian) and ceramics. We found one artist shop where they used classic Neopolitan folklore to create highly detailed modern-looking characters, like Pulcinella, who is similar to Arlecchino of Venice. The cartapesta sculpture above was just out on the street. It was a nice change from the marble and bronze pieces we always see.