But learning to love Naples means plunging into the noise. There are a few tried and true ways a pedestrian can survive the motorized chaos of a Naples intersection. If you like to dare death and grave injury you can make like a Vespa and dart head on into the oncoming traffic. But if you aren't brazen enough to charge into traffic there are still craftier ways to cross the street. Find a venerable old Neapolitan, with stuffed shopping bag and cane, and shadow their slow crossing.
Tires are more likely to screech to a halt for a respected elder.
And if the signora you follow has made it this far without being flattened by a bus she must know something about navigating the chaos. Braving the chaos of the Naples streets grants you a tough pride. You begin to feel closer to the people who need the streets to survive. Full time jobs are scarce, and many Neapolitans earn their lire selling contraband cigarettes, glittery lighters or plastic shower shoes. Despite this lowly work, you get the feeling that most people feel there's a way to scramble to the top, to pull themselves up on the cross-hatched laundry lines to the top of a beautiful old building for a view of the bay and Vesuvius.