Andrew Dubbins on Getting to Know Southern Italy By Heart

By: Andrew Dubbins

April 6, 2010

Every northern Italian I've talked to has told me, "DON'T go to Naples. But if you do go, travel with a big group, stay away from the area near the train station, and don't go anywhere at night." For my Easter break, I found myself pulling into the Naples train station, alone, well after dark, looking for the metro in an area near the train station.

"Taxi?" One Italian cabdriver asked me, somehow identifying me as a tourist (it was probably my overstuffed backpack, camera, and unfolded map that gave me away).

"No," I responded. "Dove metro?" I asked, no doubt persuading him that I was a local.

"No metro," he responded. I looked to my right and saw a prominent red M and pointed at it. He shrugged and walked away—, on to the next American. I walked over to the M and found out that Naples does indeed have a metro, contrary to what the cab drivers may tell you.

But despite the aggressive taxi salesmen, the streets paved with trash, and the abundance of cheap Rolexes, I loved Naples. Many in northern Italy do not share this sentiment. There is a feeling that the south is dirty, poor, and “the Third World.” Many in the north resent that their hard-earned tax money constantly flows south. One political party goes so far as to propose separation from the south. Founded in 1991, Lega Nord is a social-conservative Italian political party that encompasses a number of northern and central Italian parties and claims 150,000 members (as of 2008). It has proposed regional autonomy and the formation of an independent northern Italian state called Padania. Lega Nord is by no means a fringe party: it is the largest party in the Veneto region, the second largest in Lombardy, and the third largest in Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, and Liguria. A number of officials in the Berlusconi government count themselves as members. Lega Norde demands that tax revenues collected in northern and central Italy remain in those regions. The party originally called for three separate regions—“: Padania,” “Etruria” (Central Italy), and the “south”—, but after forming an alliance with Berlusconi in 2001, Lega Nord adopted the more moderate proposal of a federalist Italy with three regions.

The history of this condescension toward the south dates back to the nineteenth century. Giuseppe Garibaldi—, the Italian patriot and national hero who commanded troops in Italy's Risorgimento (the resurgence” or unification movement of Italy)—, popularized the term Mezzogiorno to refer to southern Italy and, specifically, its crime, illiteracy, and poverty. Although the risorgimento led to wealth and prosperity in the industrial north, the south moved at a slower pace due to its agrarian and feudal economy. Poverty and organized crime infected the region, and many southerners emigrated to the north in what is known as the Italian diaspora. The Mezzogiorno has since become far more industrialized, but its economy continues to lag behind its northern neighbors. A few southern Italian secession movements have sprouted up but have failed to achieve Lega Nord's level of success.

The south continues to be stereotyped as a crime-ridden, poor, and dirty region. There is certainly some truth to these stereotypes. The quantity of trash in Naples staggers the mind and the nostrils. In fact, the European Union has said that if Naples doesn't literally clean up its act, the EU will intervene. Naples'’ trash pileup is linked to an organization that has become synonymous with southern Italy—: Cammora, the Neapolitan version of the mafia. As MSNBC reported, “Camorra controls the entire cycle of garbage disposal in Campania, running the dumps, waste transport companies, and other businesses, raking in what anti-mafia prosecutors estimate is $880 million per year.” In early 2008, Naples'’ garbage buildup became so dire that collectors stopped picking up the trash because there was no more room at the dumps. One Neopolitan said the problem has improved over the last five years, due to a crackdown by the Berlusconi government. But anyone who has visited Naples in the recent past knows there is quite a bit of room for improvement.

The city has its faults, but also its successes—, like Antonio. Antonio led me and six other Georgetown students on a guided drive of the Amalfi Coast. He is a shining example of Naples at its best. He grew up in the neighborhood of Naples that inspired Gomorrah, the 2006 book by Roberto Saviano and 2008 film about the real Neapolitan “godfathers.” He recommended the book but said he hated it —not because it was inaccurate, but because it was too accurate—. It exposed the horrors and grim realities of the city that he loves and calls his home. He picked up English by translating the words of his favorite American rock singers like Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead. His friendliness and constant smile drove all of the stereotypes about southern Italy out of our minds.

Whenever someone speaks of Naples in the future, I will no longer think of the trash and poverty. I'll think of Antonio: —a man who lifted himself out of Gomorrah, working eight hour tours of Amalfi and Pompeii six days a week during peak season. A man who, on his rare days off, often gets behind the wheel of his own car to give free tours to his in-laws and friends. "Everyone wants to see the Amalfi Coast," he said with the tired yet proud smile of a man who knows the roads of southern Italy by heart.

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