Monday, January 21, 2008

Napologic

Yesterday, The Husband, La Bimba, and I were in the car on our way to Capodimonte to hang out in the sun. Because of the traffic on Via Roma, The Husband decided to go through the Sanità, a Neapolitan neighborhood like no other. People think the Quartieri Spagnoli is deep space Napoli, with its tight vicoli and videogame-speed motorino traffic. But the Sanità is a world apart, a neighborhood lost in time. It's hard to give words to the feeling one gets in the Sanità. You have to take a stroll or a drive through it. Anyay, yesterday was a sunny Sunday and the inhabitants of the Sanità were barbecuing in the square, hanging out the wash, standing around, sweeping their steps. A couple of motorinos driven by 10-year-olds whizzed past. The streets are steep, narrow, and wind up and over the city. Some apartments have amazing views of the Gulf of Naples and the trash-besieged city that curves around it. More than once, a car came toward us along an unmarked one-way street. Sometimes the other car backed up to let us pass, sometimes we hugged a crumbling wall to give way. At one point, The Husband asked a local, an older man who was holding back his young grandson, a cutie pie on a little trike, dying to cruise into oncoming traffic, "Is this a one-way street going up or going down?" The man replied, "It's one-way going up if you're going up and one-way going down if you're going down."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there! Not sure if you read my response to your first January post but yes, I do live in Morris Park! Are you and your family relocating to NYC?
Anyway, la Sanita' is one of my f avorite places in Naples. You are right that it is stuck in time. My husband always points out it is where Toto' was born and raised! I miss Naples very much and am upset about the garbage crisis. Are things any better?

Gil said...

Is la Sanita the area you walk through on the way up or down from Capodimonte? My wife and daughter walked to Capidimonte from our hotel. I took a cab there and we all walked down. Quite an interesting walk.

rompipalle said...

Silvia, we might be moving to NYC. Not sure yet. If we do, we'll look you up. Gil, on the way down.