Il ventre di Napoli

The Belly of Naples is now a classic: a novel-reportage that recounts the difficult transition of the great capital of Southern Italy, from ancient, lost, and reinvented traditions to a contradictory modernity. Matilde Serao wrote this book in two parts. The first part, in the heat of the moment, recounts the tragic cholera epidemic of 1884, calling for the "gutting" of the poorest and most degraded neighborhoods, from the Port to Santa Lucia. The second and third parts, however, are a return to those same places twenty years later, to witness the effects of the so-called "redevelopment," of the new bourgeois neighborhoods that have replaced the old, crumbling buildings. But what has really changed, under the sky, facing the beautiful sea of ​​Naples? Serao leads us on a great journey through the life, virtues, and vices of a unique city, and its equally unique inhabitants.