northampton, ma

When I last wrote it was on the eve of the USA vs. Italy match, which ended up being a very tense game and a lot of fun to watch. The hostel put its TV projector outside and projected it onto a neighboring building, thus we got to watch the game on what was essentially a 30 foot TV. Brilliant. About 30 Italians came to the hostel to watch, and we had maybe 6-10 Americans, and each group shouting at the screen anytime something good or bad happened. We all were very into the game so maybe it was best that it turned out to be a 1-1 tie, thus we could all leave as friends (although truth be told Italy expected to beat us handily so they weren't too pleased with the outcome). This was obvious on the faces of the Italians at the hostel, they were OK about the outcome if you went by their words, but you could tell they weren't very happy inside. A bit of strain on their faces.

This strain logically would be amplified in those Italians in Naples who wouldn't be willing to go to a hostel full of Americans to watch the game, which they might view was something akin to sleeping with the enemy. And of course add in the alcohol factor. Maybe we weren't marked men exactly, but we knew we shouldn't go prancing around Naples at midnight shouting God Bless America. We had hoped to enjoy a night out without incident, but it wasn't to be. On our walk down to the reggae bar we passed a group of about 10 guys standing on a corner, talking outside a cafe. Upon hearing our English they immediately started saying things about America, in Italian. One of our group, Andy, decided it would be a good idea to reply back and said ''America!'' and raised his fist. This didn't go over to well, they got more agitated, and given there were 6 of us (and only 3 guys) versus 10 of them, we wisely kept walking. As we were about to disappear around a corner, one of the Italians threw a beer bottle and it shattered all over the ground just behind us. Luckily we were a good 30 feet away and he didn't have much of an arm, but it scared the crap out of us. Naples is a bit dodgy anyway at night, we didn't need to upset the locals. So that was a bit exciting, and we learned a bit of a lesson and stayed a bit lowkey for the rest of the night. I've never seen Italians actually engage in a fistfight, in fact they are reknowned for being barkers and not biters, but on an occasion such as the World Cup that might all change.

Other than that incident I really didn't experience any of the ''bad side'' of Naples, although I certainly recognize its capability for such. And the whole beer bottle throwing incident could really happen anywhere in Italy. So I very much enjoyed my stay in Naples. But there's one more Naples story to tell, involving me, my hostel, and the Mafia. One night we were coming back home from a night out, a night where we had a bit to drink. And in Naples they have these yellow painted metal posts that line the sidewalks, perhaps to guard pedestrians from errant Naples drivers (which are plentiful). So as we go up the steps to our hostel we notice that one of these yellow posts was not in fact bolted down and was just asking to be carried away with us. The post got hoisted off its base and brought into the hostel, at which point we kinda looked at each other and wondered aloud what to do with the thing. Inspiration was dry so we just propped it against the tree in the courtyard and went off to bed. The next day I get asked by one of the hostel workers if it was me who brought in the post. I cringed, remembering, and said ''yes'' and waited to get a bit of a tongue lashing. Instead the guy smiled as if relieved and said ''ok, I just wanted to make sure it was you and not somebody else, it's really no problem.'' I thought this reaction was kinda strange, but shrugged it off and didn't think much else about it.

Then the night of the USA-Italy soccer match came and all the employees of the hostel were in attendance to watch. After the game somehow the topic of the yellow post got brought up between me and two of the employees. This time I got the rest of the story. One of them, Alessandro, had found the post in the courtyard and immediately freaked out and called his boss. The boss flipped out too and they spent the next few hours worrying and fretting about who brought in the mystery post and how it got in without anyone seeing it. At first as they were retelling the story I figured they were simply worried about hostel security, maybe figuring they should be keeping a better watch on the door late at night. No, instead they were worried that the mystery post was a sign left by the Mafia. Since the hostel opened up only three weeks ago the hostel workers have been waiting for the Mafia to show up at their hostel and make demands. Apparently the Mafia likes to play on people's fears and leave mystery signs to freak out the local business owners. And maybe a post wasn't a dead horse in their bed, but it was something very out of place and they were already anxious about when the Mafia would show up. They said it was better for an actual person to show up to the hostel than to have them leave a sign, since they knew what to do and how to react to a Mafioso who came in person. But a random gift like a street post is something you don't know how to respond to, it simply means they are watching and waiting. So at the end of their story I apologized profusely of course, and was also dazzled inside by the fact that Naples still very much operates based on the old code of the Mafia. The fact that in a round about way it involved me made the story something I doubt I'll forget.