Naples

One gets the feeling that the people of Naples have been there forever. These teeming masses, which fill the space between the bay and the slopes of the Vesuvius, seem to be the direct descendants of the Roman "populus". They own the place and they live as they see fit - as they have always lived, with as few rules as possible. They have seen it all: Tiberius, Belisarius, the Ostrogoths, the Spanish, the French, the Habsburg, the Bourbons, Mussolini, the Americans sitting in their military base, Berlusconi. All these rulers come and go. They stay and go on in their immemorial ways. The family; the clan; the mafia. That's real. Those who don't like it leave: to the north, to America, to Argentina. Most stay. Not many newcomers arrive. Perhaps now, from Africa.