Naples: Order in the midst of Chaos

You arrive perhaps on the 21st September one year and, when you get out of the taxi on Via dei Tribunali, you find yourself amongst so much chaos. A chaos of motorbikes, cars, people, etc, a chaos unlike anything you have ever seen before. Something very different.

The weeks go by, you are getting used to the place, you know people, people with whom you will share experiences that are good in some cases, bad in very few, and they will totally change your life. They are strangers at firsts, you will live with friends and at the end they will be family. It's such a shame that it all ends this way; in one way or another, you will be captivated by this city and its people. It makes you feel like you belong. You will become one with the aforementioned chaos and your life will depend on what initially scared you so.

Naples isn't the most beautiful city with respect to its monuments, for that we have Rome (highly advised for tourists. It's spectacular), but in its essence, its soul, this makes it stand out, such a personality that you will not find in the majority of your travels, this personality that demands your admiration, that entices you to enter its territory, until we are left completely hypnotised, enamoured and unable to move away from this place.

Sometimes, simple things can annoy you, such as how it seems that drivers are doing you a massive favour by letting you cross the street (you risk your life, literally speaking). It can be surprising to see no arguments when someone enters the wrong side of the street, and a person travelling on the correct side lets them go as if they've known them their whole life; a dialect so typical of this region...In the end, you are a tiny part of this organised chaos.

At the time, I feel like I left a part of myself there, in this wicked yet perfect city. As well as all of this, I left a group of people with whom I shared the best pizzas one could ever taste and the worst beer one could drink (Peroni). It was a pleasure to have been a stranger, a friend and family to all of these people.

"One can say, tell or paint whatever they want but here every expectation is exceeded. These shores, gulfs, coves... All those who lose their minds in Naples are forgiven! " Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1787)

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