From up here the whole of the city is perfectly visible on a clear day like today. There's the Gulf, the Sorrento Peninsula reaching out to Capri; on the right, the large island of Ischia and, just this side of it, Procida, with its gardens, looking towards the mountain of the same name, just across the water on the mainland. Then if let your gaze move inland, there's the city. Naples, buzzing with activity, and up here you can sense the urgency of telling its story. We, the neglectful children of a loving mother, born and bred here, but living far away, sometimes feel that she is calling to us. We often speak of her with deference or with the longing of one who is separated from his loved one. Up here, from the summit of Vesuvius, known locally as the muntagna - a charming, treacherous, frightening lover, terrible in its present silence and in its past fury - you can see n the distance bonfires lit on the seashore, you can still hear voices singing in the dialect, and everything is new but immutable, vital, never still, with the same everlasting passion. You can hear stories told by people who still know how to sing about love.
Naples, 26th April, 2012
… Special thanks go to Salvatore Argenziano for his generosity and his writings, and to my friends Roberta Alloisio and Beppe Gambetta, both from Genova and therefore great narrators, for there activities and precious participation.