Why Napoli?

(Day 3 of 30 – story crumbs from the world of Loveandpizza.it 🍕)

Of all the cities in all the world… why set my novel in Napoli?

People ask me this a lot, usually with a slightly raised eyebrow (mostly people who have been to Napoli), as though I might have meant somewhere a touch more organised, calm. Like Florence, perhaps. Or Verona. Lake Como. Somewhere that keeps its voice down.

But that’s exactly the point. I didn’t want a city that keeps its voice down.

When I had the idea for Loveandpizza.it, I wanted somewhere that would grab my heroine by the shoulders and refuse to let her stay the same. Somewhere a little bit mad – in the best possible way. And on that front, Napoli has never disappointed. Goethe felt it too, over two hundred years ago:

“Naples is a Paradise: everyone lives in a state of intoxicated self-forgetfulness, myself included. I seem to be a completely different person whom I hardly recognize. Yesterday I thought to myself: Either you were mad before, or you are mad now.”

~ Goethe, Italian Journey, 1786–1788

A city that refuses to be a backdrop

Napoli refuses to be a backdrop. It’s loud and contradictory and gorgeous and maddening, all at once. A bit like Marmite: you either love it or you hate it. (well, by now you must know how I feel about Napoli, right? 😉 Oh, and for the record: I hate Marmite! 🤢 My husband loves it, but I’m a Nutella girl all the way!)

In the Napoli that Carolina falls for, Vesuvio sits on the horizon like it’s keeping an eye on everyone. The sea changes colour by the hour. Espresso comes in tiny cups and strong opinions – and even a cappuccino is judgmental if you order it “at the wrong time” (well, I guess this is all over Italy, so Napoli is off the hook on this one!). Washing hangs overhead in the Quartieri Spagnoli like bunting nobody bothered to take down. Scooters treat red lights as gentle suggestions, and the narrow streets of the quartieri as their own private racetrack, at every hour of the day. And the neighbours – oh, the neighbours – sound like they’re declaring all-out war, right up until the moment they burst out laughing and offer you something to eat. Look up, and you’ll spot baskets lowered on long ropes from the balconies, ferrying shopping and bread and gossip up and down the buildings.

A city of too much

Too much noise, too much beauty, too much feeling – all of it spilling out into the street where everyone can see.

Which makes it the perfect place for a story about a woman whose carefully-ordered, firmly-closed-off little life is about to get gloriously, irreversibly messy. Napoli simply won’t let Carolina stay numb. It gets into everything – her days, her decisions, her heart – whether she likes it or not.

The place that changed me, too

I should confess: I know all this because Napoli did exactly the same thing to me. I lived there once. It got under my skin and never quite left. And even though I go back to visit most years, I’ve been a little bit homesick for it ever since. Writing this book was, in part, my way of going home. And bringing it to you now in Italian and Portuguese – while giving the original English a new life (and a new cover!) – takes me right back there, to 2008 and 2009, all over again. I find myself daydreaming about it all over again, too.

Some places change you. Some places hand you back a slightly different person than the one who arrived. Napoli is one of those, for me – and it’s one of those for Carolina, too.

So go on, tell me: which place has stolen your heart and never given it back? The one you still daydream about? Drop it in the comments – I’ll add it to my list. ✈️

Dani. x

P.S. Loveandpizza.it is coming back in English, Italian and Portuguese. Save your slice, pick your edition, and you’ll be first to know the moment it’s ready. 🍕