Long considered a quick stopover on the way to the glamorous Amalfi Coast, Capri, or Ischia, Naples (Napoli in Italian) is garnering more attention these days. The city looms large in literature and film, as the setting for "Parthenope," a film by award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, the hit Italian TV show Mare Fuori, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, which were adapted into the HBO series My Brilliant Friend. It’s no wonder—Naples is often called Italy’s most operatic city, where splendor and squalor have long existed in equal measure.
Naples is nothing if not a sensory overload. Scooters zip through the streets, vendors loudly hawk their wares at outdoor markets, street musicians play old songs, the smell of pizza and all kinds of fried delicacies wafts through the air, and laundry hanging from balconies flutters in the wind.
