Learn to speak Neapolitan with a hymn

Barcelona"Naples is a walk, through the alleys, among others. Naples is a dream and everyone knows it, but they don't really know the truth," wrote musician Pino Daniele in 1977. At the time, he was an artist from the city center struggling to make a career, amidst incomprehension looks and friends who wouldn't leave him alone. It wasn't easy living in the city; the violence between the clans of the quarrel He was getting older, there were no jobs, and Maradona hadn't yet signed for the local team. Pino Daniele would sing in Neapolitan instead of the standard Italian imposed by the language academy in Florence. They told him he wouldn't succeed like that. Especially not if he fused local styles with foreign ones like jazz. But in 1977 he wrote "Napule è ′na cammenata..." and created an anthem.

All Neapolitans know Napule èIt plays in cafes, in football stadiums, appears in the city's Christmas lights, and film director Paolo Sorrentino included it in the last scene of his film It has been the hand of God. It's beautiful, Neapolitan, a language for some and a dialect for others. If you listen by ear, you'll understand. And to learn it, Pino Daniele is a good teacher. His beautiful ballad is already part of the identity of one of the most polarizing cities in the world, loved or hated. So much so, that a popular petition has called for a plaque to be placed at the spot where Daniele began writing the song. The musician told his son that he was in the lungomare, the seafront promenade overlooking Castel dell'Ovo. In the background, the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius.

Naples invites you to wander amidst the chaos. If you visit the beautiful convent of Santa Chiara, you'll be on the street where Pino Daniele was born. Up close, in fact, a small alley has been named after him, a space where admirers paint the walls with messages and drawings. Pino Daniele grew up here, in the yolk of an egg, spending entire days at his aunts' house in the alley that now bears his name or with Grandma Concetta, who lived in Largo Banchi Novi. The whole family lived five minutes away, as they had before. In streets where he would lean out the window to ask the children to come up for lunch, when their plates were already on the table.

One of those magical areas is close to major tourist attractions like the port, Via Toledo, the Archaeological Museum, and the Duomo. You're close to where thousands of tourists queue, but here the city breathes as it always has. Look for a bar in the small Teodoro Monticelli square. And he watches life go by in the bars where Daniele sang with the neighbors. And he chats with the people. He will overcome language problems with a universal language: football. The sport that Pino Daniele was passionate about, and who even got Maradona to sing with him. Napule è.

Recommendation for traveling to Naples

Song: Napule è

Author: Pino Daniele

Year: 1977