well, in my case, put on about 3kg of weight!! I was lucky enough to have to travel to Naples in April (2023) for work and decided to take an extra couple of days to explore the city and indulge in some street photography. The day I arrived was the Naples versus AC Milan Champions League game at home and the city was full of people making their way to the stadium…and to the hotel next to ours, where the AC Milan team were staying!! There was much taunting (hence the coffin adorned in AC Milan colours) and a considerable Police presence. But unlike the UK, there was no trouble; just genuine fans supporting their club. Sadly, Naples drew the match and lost on aggregate…but they had bigger fish to fry, with the (almost) guaranteed win of “Serie A”, the Italian Premier League. I have never seen so many banners, flags, bunting etc. in my life – all in the blue and white colours of the Naples team, adorning every street and apartment in the city. Never mind the posters of Maradona, revered as the second patron saint of the city. The atmosphere was electric – you could already sense what a party there was going to be at the end of the football season! It was wonderful to wander around just soaking up the atmosphere.

I spent most of my time in the Spanish Quarter, bimbling up and down the narrow streets, dodging mopeds and trying to not look like a tourist! So many great shots to be had. And people were so friendly – I had lots of chats with random strangers…with an impressive level of English…and never once felt concerned about being on my own. I also took the metro to Garibaldi station, which is a photographer’s dream, with the striking architecture and orange panelling, casting amazing shadows onto the concourse below. You can see some of my shots here. I must admit though I gave up trying to negotiate my way around the Old Town, as the streets were so full of tourists….and scurried back to the relative calm of the Spanish Quarter. It’s probably embarrassing to admit that I didn’t step foot in a single museum, art gallery or theatre (nothing cultural basically!), but I still feel that I got a sense of the city and its people. I did, however, step into several cake shops and attempted to sample every chocolate cake/dessert the city had to offer – hence the extra “baggage” I brought home with me!!

I hope that I managed to capture something of the vibrant, chaotic, colourful, animated and truly beguiling city of Napoli…

Ci vediamo la prossima volta!

(Click on an image to see a larger version)

To see more images from Naples click here.