Naples Local Customs

In Naples coffee is a ritual you just cannot miss out on. It was once made with the traditional Neapolitan coffee-maker made famous by Edoardo De Filippo and Totò. Today coffee is made with the Italian moka espresso coffee maker following a few technical tricks that all Neapolitans know perfectly. First of all, the moka should never be washed with washing-up liquid, but rinsed with warm water only. Remember that if you have just bought a moka espresso coffee-maker you should use it without coffee grains inside once or twice at first, filled just with water or ready-made coffee. The secret of a good cup of espresso coffee lies in not pressing down the coffee grains too hard in the filter and turning the flame down to a minimum as soon as the coffee starts to “gurgle”, leaving it for a few seconds before taking it off the hob and serving.

One of the most famous, traditional coffee shops in Naples where a perfect "tazzuttella" of coffee is served is the elegant Caffè Gambrinus in Piazza Trieste e Trento, on the corner of Via Chiaia, not far from Piazza Plebiscito.

While walking in Naples, you will inevitably catch sight of the numerous glittering pastry shop windows that can be found lining the city’s streets and squares. You just cannot miss out on tasting one of the typical Neapolitan pastries: babà, usually flavored with rum or limoncello, sfogliatella, struffoli. The pastiera napoletana deserves a special mention: it is a dessert made from wheat and ricotta cheese, flavored with orange blossom essence and has ancient origins.
The story goes that in ancient times it was made to celebrate the arrival of Spring. Then when pagan festivals made room for Christian traditions, the pastiera became the traditional Naples Easter cake.

-Keep all sales receipts
-Do not get impatient- Be prepared to wait in some areas. Dinner is not started until approx. 7.00pm and you have to wait awhile.
-Great capachinos. Stand around and chat while having a capachino and cornetto.
-check kissing is normal.

Oplontis is a small village inside of today's village Torre Annunziata.
There is one villa left - and there you may see the walls of the building covered with a special kind of "concrete" that was used where-ever such great paintings were made inside the houses.
The "recepee" of that kind of concrete is still unknown by the archeologists.

Napolitans seemed a tiny bit snooty to me initially. Their stares didn't help either. Then I realised the 'attitude' was part of their 'flair'. They turned really friendly once they realised that I, too, was from planet earth. Napolitans are a warm, responsive people.

While walking aroung in the city, I saw many groups of young boys playing together, just killing time. These two were near their home and just kicking something around, but others were in larger groups with nothing too good to do, just running around ringing door bells.

Like in many southern cities, people live with open doors and meet up to socialise. It is not rare to catch people playing a game of cards together. I wanted to be discrete before taking a picture, but by the time I could take a snapshot, the game was over.

I was told once that if you put your camera right up against wire, that the wire disappears in the photo..............I proved this to be true in some Castellone shots but whoops, it didn't quite work here. Thank you Bill.