The Essence of Naples: A Blend of Hope and Fatalism

"If I were to leave Naples, I would not write another word," says Maurizio de Giovanni in response to a question posed to him live by Marcello Foa and Alessandra Ghisleri, hosts on Rai Radio 1 of the show 'Giù la maschera' today dedicated to the city of Naples under the title 'In the Shadow of Vesuvius: Between Hope and Fatalism'. "I tell what the city says - the writer and journalist continued - A city that is absorbing, tight. Just think that it is the most densely populated place in Europe, despite the risks. The issues from the red zone, which have always been there, are notoriously looming. Unfortunately, we have had a series of very recent shocks, even beyond magnitude 3. I believe this makes the city different, 'tight', where social classes are overlapped and interact with each other. This creates a cultural homogeneity, which is an extraordinary wealth." Two peculiarities of Naples and Neapolitans for Maurizio de Giovanni: "First of all, the temporariness, which leads to flexibility, to the ability to always look at the future with optimism. The second is fatalism, because we know that against Vesuvius, as against the Phlegraean Fields, there is no possibility of fighting. Superstition? It's a quirk: no one really believes in superstition. An example is the championship won by Napoli last year: despite the lack of mathematical certainty, we started celebrating two months earlier, because the desire to do so was so strong."