In the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Italy’s third largest city, ancient queen of the Mezzogiorno, the country’s south, is a glorious contradiction. The face of Napoli is luminous, yet sports plenty of wrinkles, scars, and squalour. History, good eating (hey, pizza was invented here), and high culture – right alongside the sinister machinations of the notorious Camorra, as the local mafia is known. Where the traffic is chaotic (even more than in Rome, some claim) and the locals live in the streets, with Madonnas gracing facades, laundry hung from building to building and the shouts of Neapolitan mammas echoing down the lanes.

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