r/italy • u/[deleted] • Nov 05 '17

What's Napoli really like?

We Americans have a stereotype that every Italian city is beautiful, historical, and relatively friendly. But the media I've seen or read that report on or take place in Napoli make it sound dirty, ugly, hostile. What is life in Napoli really like compared to other Italian cities? Does Napoli have a bad reputation among Italians?

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '17

I wouldn't live there for all the pizza in the world, but as a tourist you will be fine. Watch your belongings, pickpocketers and small scammers are a plague there. Also garbage is everywere as a result of lack of sense of community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moral_Basis_of_a_Backward_Society

-4

u/theclaptonfan Nov 05 '17 edited Nov 05 '17

I drove through all of Italy last December in 11 days hitting a lot of great places: Genoa, Milan, Cinque Terre, Rome, Pisa, Venice, Florence, San Marino, Bologna, Verona, Pompei, the island of Sardinia, and Naples.

I LOVED all of Italy except for Naples. It was a sea of tall concrete apartments. The city felt very dark and dirty. Traffic was insane, and our car was hit by a guy on a scooter trying to whiz around traffic. Cops were difficult and wanted to jail us, presumably because we were “foreigners”. In the end the cops accepted money which after a lot of confusion and questionable paperwork just seemed like a bribe.

That being said I love Italy and can’t wait to go back. I just won’t be visiting Naples.

TLDR: Don’t expect it to be like what Dean Martin describes when he sings of Napoli.

13

u/Arcadess Lazio Nov 06 '17

Cops were difficult and wanted to jail us, presumably because we were “foreigners”. In the end the cops accepted money which after a lot of confusion and questionable paperwork just seemed like a bribe.

Offering a bribe to an Italian cop is a sure way to be arrested. Don't post things like these or some stupid tourists may actually believe it and try to do that themselves.
They were probably fining you for something you didn't understand. Most fines in Italy aren't that expensive and won't go over 100€ if you pay them at the moment.

1

u/theclaptonfan Nov 06 '17 edited Nov 06 '17

I understand your concern. But our car was stationary, we weren’t moving, the guy on a scooter hit us. Someone who spoke English better than our Italian translated for us and said the guy on the scooter was telling the cops we hit him. We were pretty defenseless as non residents with only a loose grasp of the language. We weren’t even close to being at fault. The guy’s parents showed up and started yelling at us. We DID NOT bribe the cops. But in order to not get arrested we had to sign a report (they wrote for us in broken English) saying we were at fault and hit him, and pay a fine to the cops. We understood the report they wrote. No one sided with us because I’m sure we were viewed as ignorant / careless / disrespectful tourists. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. We love Italy and did our best to be respectful and follow culture / customs.

I do not encourage bribery.

1

u/PHEELZ Nov 06 '17

But in order to not get arrested we had to sign a report (they wrote for us in broken English) saying we were at fault and hit him, and pay a fine to the cops.

We understood the report they wrote.

I'm brainfarting ATM.... -_-