Naples. Italy.

Daria Sirotina writes: “I had a wonderful weekend - my husband suddenly took me to Rome, and I found out where we were flying, quite a short time before departure. On Saturday we walked the capital of Italy, and on Sunday we rushed to Naples for the first time in our lives!

Naples turned out to be exactly how I imagined it and how one of my Italian teachers, who graduated from the University of Naples, described it. This is a very beautiful and incredibly neglected city with a stunning view of Vesuvius and Capri, with narrow, dark and graffiti-painted alleys, where linen is hung thickly between houses, with stunningly beautiful baroque churches and stalls with fresh fish, with street musicians and the smell of coffee. . Peter Vail, whose travel notes I consider one of the best examples of this genre, wrote about one of the cities he visited in the spirit that real, piercing love requires the imperfection of the object and, preferably, its neglect. My love with Naples came out like that - piercing, with bitterness.

(Total 48 photos)

These pictures were taken on a new camera, a gift from my husband, a Sony a7r with my favorite Carl Zeiss 16-80 3.5-4.5 lens and an A to E mount adapter. I've only been testing it for two days, but I'm already amazed at its compactness and incredible clarity and detail in photographs. I have long dreamed of a small but professional camera. Now you need to pick up a compact and convenient lens to replace it.

1. The great charm of Naples is that it lives its own, and not a tourist life. Rome is beautiful, but much more than Rome, I love Italian cities, where there are more locals on the streets than tourists.

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3. Naples gives you almost no reason to consider yourself a tourist city. Very often it seems that you are the only onlooker with a camera in the whole city.

4. Here they are, the famous Neapolitan lanes. Pasha, getting out of the taxi, immediately remembered Hong Kong and its slums. I was delighted, but I hung the bag under my raincoat just in case and told my husband to carefully look after me, the camera and pockets.

5. There are a lot of homeless people, beggars, migrants and others on the streets who want to know what watch you are wearing by asking what time it is. There will be a separate post about the people of Naples met on the streets.

6. A city of amazing texture - all rough, heterogeneous, in a web of cracks.

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10. Naples has incredible architecture, making the city center a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Many buildings are not in the best condition, many are covered with graffiti, but there is almost no visual garbage like wires, ridiculous signs, advertising.

11. One of the most interesting things to do in Naples is to look into courtyards. Look what a staircase!

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13. Naples reminded me a lot of Melbourne with its graffiti and narrow lanes.

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16. As elsewhere in the south, there are announcements of deaths and funerals everywhere. We were passing by one of the churches in the center and heard applause. "Wedding?" I wondered. “Funeral,” Pasha guessed.

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18. There are a lot of motorcycles everywhere. As they say, in Naples they ride motorcycles in three or four people and often neglect the helmet.

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21. No, this is not Milan. This is Naples, the gallery of Umberto the First. Instead of Prada boutiques, there are counterfeit bag dealers.

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23. The gallery has a beautiful mosaic floor.

24. Opera House.

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26. One of the central squares.

27. Let's look up at the elements of architectural decoration.

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thirty.

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32. Bellini. The man who invented delicious pasta and a wonderful cocktail deserves a monument! Kidding.

33. Duomo. I was surprised that he was standing not in the square, but in the middle of narrow alleys and dark streets.

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38. I really liked this picture! Coffee is power!

39. Fish everywhere!

40. And wine! 3.5 euros for 3 liters is a great price, don't you think?

41. And again very similar to Melbourne!

42. Shadows, tags, drawings, paving stones, lanterns, windows - everything has its own rhythm. It seems to me that one can endlessly look at this photo and wander through it, like through a maze.

43. Castle near the sea.

44. Let's go upstairs! Vesuvius is on the horizon.

45. Another castle.

46. Capri is heaven on earth.

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48. Here he is, Naples. It's amazing how many faces Italy has, but each of them is perceived as the most real.