Sunday, October 24, 2004
The first question any student asks when they know I am English is, invariably, 'Do the English have a cup of tea every afternoon at 5pm'? They seem genuinely astonished when I say that it isn't the case any more. The reciprocal question... 'Do the Neapolitans eat pasta every day?' is met with a resounding 'yes'.
Two years ago in my diary I wrote: 'October 15th, and 28 degrees. Yesterday, being a Sunday, Naples went to the beach. It made the front pages this morning. Lido’s are going to be open all year round. And, unlike such a story in England, there was not one mention of global warming. '
Friday reached the dizzy heights of 32 degrees up the coast. Now the lidos are open all year round, and are packed. The shopkeepers are looking increasingly glum as they have yet to shift one furlined winter coat. Benetton's multi coloured scarves and jumpers remain folded on the shelves and nobody is partaking of the warm icecream
Things are hotting up too for Christmas. The paper stand now sells a magazine with Christmas decorating ideas. Issue One came out in August. They’re way ahead of the English, Regent Street hasn’t even got round to deciding whether to ditch the lights this year for want of a sponsor. The focus for life switches from the beach side to the town center in the autumn. The theatres have reopened with their autumn seasons and the cinemas are well patronized having been closed for three months over the summer. Via Toledo buzzes until midnight, and the street sellers have vacated the Lungomare in favour of the centro storico. Fake Prada and joss sticks are the illegal traders stock of choice this year. Ice creams are still selling like hot cakes. And I for one am there queuing for my cone. Autumn flavours have come, and I would queue for days for walnut or mandarin falvoured icecream.
The third weekend of the month sees the antique fair out in the Villa Communale. What looks worth buying is undoubtedly a fake, and the rest of the stuff is junk. Even the stall holders seem to acknowledge this as they set up their stalls on a Saturday morning. By lunchtime the days business is done, and instead of packing everything up only to come back bright and early on the following day, the stock is merely covered in a tarpaulin and tied down. The dealers go off for a long lunch and a lazy afternoon leaving all their goods at the mercy of the Neapolitan criminal fraternity. And nothing seems to get stolen. Either because its not worth nicking or because there are sinister forces at work that deter would be thieves. I like to think it’s the former, but somehow, being Naples, I would bet on the latter.
I wandered round the stalls this morning. There was still stuff there that I had seen when I was here a year ago. Turnover is not great in the antiques business. Or perhaps it is, and the workshop just produces an identical ‘antique’ to replace the one sold. There are always enough people flocking round in the hope of finding a bargain, and most of them are local, so there must be something worth buying among the religious bits and bobs, and dumpy dark furniture. I just have yet to find it.
Sunday morning sees the pleasure seekers out on the Lungomare, walking, renting bikes, skateboarding and rollerblading, as well as partaking of ice creams and chestnuts, corn on the cob and friarelli. The latter are an assortment of deep fried geegaws, rice, potato, aubergine, bread with seaweed, and shrimps. They are delicious, and form a staple snack in Naples, snack time being whenever you aren’t sitting down to a huge meal.
The new kid on the block of ice cream flavours is chestnut, so everyone is now aware that Christmas is on the way. At the same time that you can buy the frozen version, hot chestnuts are for sale on every street corner, popping from the braziers, which seem a little incongruous when the temperature is still in the high 20’s. At the weekend the clocks go back, which just means I will have to get up an hour earlier to sunbathe.
Two years ago in my diary I wrote: 'October 15th, and 28 degrees. Yesterday, being a Sunday, Naples went to the beach. It made the front pages this morning. Lido’s are going to be open all year round. And, unlike such a story in England, there was not one mention of global warming. '
Friday reached the dizzy heights of 32 degrees up the coast. Now the lidos are open all year round, and are packed. The shopkeepers are looking increasingly glum as they have yet to shift one furlined winter coat. Benetton's multi coloured scarves and jumpers remain folded on the shelves and nobody is partaking of the warm icecream
Things are hotting up too for Christmas. The paper stand now sells a magazine with Christmas decorating ideas. Issue One came out in August. They’re way ahead of the English, Regent Street hasn’t even got round to deciding whether to ditch the lights this year for want of a sponsor. The focus for life switches from the beach side to the town center in the autumn. The theatres have reopened with their autumn seasons and the cinemas are well patronized having been closed for three months over the summer. Via Toledo buzzes until midnight, and the street sellers have vacated the Lungomare in favour of the centro storico. Fake Prada and joss sticks are the illegal traders stock of choice this year. Ice creams are still selling like hot cakes. And I for one am there queuing for my cone. Autumn flavours have come, and I would queue for days for walnut or mandarin falvoured icecream.
The third weekend of the month sees the antique fair out in the Villa Communale. What looks worth buying is undoubtedly a fake, and the rest of the stuff is junk. Even the stall holders seem to acknowledge this as they set up their stalls on a Saturday morning. By lunchtime the days business is done, and instead of packing everything up only to come back bright and early on the following day, the stock is merely covered in a tarpaulin and tied down. The dealers go off for a long lunch and a lazy afternoon leaving all their goods at the mercy of the Neapolitan criminal fraternity. And nothing seems to get stolen. Either because its not worth nicking or because there are sinister forces at work that deter would be thieves. I like to think it’s the former, but somehow, being Naples, I would bet on the latter.
I wandered round the stalls this morning. There was still stuff there that I had seen when I was here a year ago. Turnover is not great in the antiques business. Or perhaps it is, and the workshop just produces an identical ‘antique’ to replace the one sold. There are always enough people flocking round in the hope of finding a bargain, and most of them are local, so there must be something worth buying among the religious bits and bobs, and dumpy dark furniture. I just have yet to find it.
Sunday morning sees the pleasure seekers out on the Lungomare, walking, renting bikes, skateboarding and rollerblading, as well as partaking of ice creams and chestnuts, corn on the cob and friarelli. The latter are an assortment of deep fried geegaws, rice, potato, aubergine, bread with seaweed, and shrimps. They are delicious, and form a staple snack in Naples, snack time being whenever you aren’t sitting down to a huge meal.
The new kid on the block of ice cream flavours is chestnut, so everyone is now aware that Christmas is on the way. At the same time that you can buy the frozen version, hot chestnuts are for sale on every street corner, popping from the braziers, which seem a little incongruous when the temperature is still in the high 20’s. At the weekend the clocks go back, which just means I will have to get up an hour earlier to sunbathe.
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