Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Neapolitan Way of Life
There is nowhere more theatrical than Naples, a city in which everyday transactions be-
come minor performances and traffic jams give rise to impromptu car-horn concerts. Both
literally and metaphorically, locals air their laundry with pride, and the streets and squares
are a stage on which to play out life's daily dramas.
Neapolitans know that many of the stereo-
types foreigners hold of Italians - noisy, theat-
rical, food-loving, passionate and proud - refer
to them. And they revel in it. Nowhere else in
Italy are the people so conscious of their role in
the theatre of everyday life and so addicted to its
drama and intensity. Everyone has an opinion to
give, a line to deliver or a sigh to perform.
Eavesdropping is a popular pastime and know-
ing everyone else's business is a veritable sport. Neapolitans joke that if you were to col-
lapse on the street a local would first want to know all the juicy details, and only after that
would they think of calling an ambulance. In a city with a population density of 8566
people per sq km (45 times higher than the national average), this penchant for curiosity is
understandable.
Over 60% of Neapolitans aged 18 to 34 live at
home. This is not because Naples is a city of
mammoni
(mamma's boys) and
figlie dipapa
(daddy's girls) - at least, not entirely. High
rents make independent living prohibitively
expensive for many young locals.
Hunting for Work
Naples' scarcity of space is matched by its scarcity of jobs. In mid 2012, overall unemploy-
ment in the region of Campania reached a staggering 31.39%, compared to the national av-
erage of 10.8%. In the same period, the number of jobless youth in the region reached
43.2%, significantly higher than the record-breaking national figure of 36.2%. These dire
statistics are fuelling the country's panic-inducing
fuga dei cerveli
(brain drain), in which
an ever-growing number of young university-educated Italians are heading abroad in search
of a better future. The statistics are alarming. In a 2012 study of Italians under 30 by Mil-
an's Instituto Toniolo, 48.9% of participants claimed that they were ready and willing to
bid their country
'arrivederci'
to improve their job prospects. Of those with both a uni-
versity degree and a job, only 33% were employed in an area that reflected their formal
training.
This mass exodus is well documented in
La Fuga dei Talenti
(Flight of the Talented;
www.fugadeitalenti.wordpress.com
), a book-turned-blog by Italian journalist Sergio Nava
