I would like to say that long time ago I have decided to make a commitment in my personal and professional life, by challenging the negative stereotypes and prejudice easily and typically associated with Southern Italy and my home town…(Portici, Napoli), without grasping the deep roots of what we see on the surface today.

As people should be aware, until the so-called “unification” of Italy or invasion of Southern Italy by Cavour and his troupes from Piedmont region (with support of England, actually…) in 1860s, the situation was quite different, if not just the opposite, with the Southern part of the country being the richest, and Naples being among the three most populated cities in Europe and behind only Paris and London on many counts. There is plenty of unbiased historical documentation for that.

But, as people are aware, history is written by the winning party and plenty of misleading information has been passed over the years about this issue.

Perhaps, after reading it, people could be persuaded that also good things and good human beings can originate from Napoli and Southern Italy…, besides pizza, Sorrento, mafia, and waste.…

Also, readers will realise why many people like me, who have been forced in a sense to leave Southern Italy to pursue their own dreams, are still so passionate about their roots.

On many counts, Southern Italians share similar feelings of African Americans, and several other populations discriminated in the human history.

Enjoy the reading,
Saverio Stranges

Also, being friend with people from the north doesn’t necessary imply ignorance of the facts, or, in contrary, knowing the facts doesn’t imply you have to be an enemy of the people from the north. For myself, I have many friends from there. They are just common people as we are that have no idea about anything. The problem is the ruling class that is indeed from there as well as the kapos from the south that are just servant who keep selling their land for their own benefit.

Ultimately, the problem is the very foundation of the italian state.

Interesting, too, that I, from a Southern family, now teaching law,
studied Italian literature at Columbia University, often traveling to
Italy, found this narrative entirely new. My parents, who had many
Northern friends, never reflected in speech or behavior what Aprile
portrays.

For now, I am keeping, as I used to tell juries in the many murder
cases I tried, “an open mind.”

Nicholas A. F. Arena, Esq.
Manhattan

First, I hope the city will not freeze up, I do know that traffic flow should improve, but all those cars which usually went through the center and the ones parked will not simply disappear and we can’t say that Naples is not a busy city, maybe the risk of some kind of trouble should be took into account. It will take a bit for everyone to get used to it I guess.

Second, I’m confident, or at least I want to be confident, that the bus “55″ will be on schedule each 10/15 minutes or so, the historical center it’s not a small area, of course it should be actually on schedule, the last time I had been waiting for a bus for 1 hour and half.