Napoli: Electric Dreams — Terrace Edition

Words: Imma Rhamely Borrelli

Images: Imma Rhamely Borrelli

I leave Naples Central Station behind me and walk towards the seafront, where the heart of the Scudetto celebration will take place, with the passing of the buses carrying the Napoli team.

I walk through the alleys of the historic centre, passing through Spaccanapoli to Via Toledo. The streets of Naples are always crowded with tourists, students, Neapolitans.

Naples is a city that is always a party for those who live there, today even more so for fans. About 150,000 people are expected. The procession of open-top buses will start from the Mergellina pier and reach Piazza Vittoria.

©Imma Borrelli/ Terrace Edition. SSC Napoli title celebrations.

I live this event as a spectator of something unique, felt and experienced in this city in a very personal way, unique I would dare say compared to other championship celebrations in other cities in Italy.

Because Naples is the exaggeration, but also the simplicity of a passionate people, who with this victory, can live the illusion of redemption in the eyes of those who divide Italy between North and South, between the best and the worst.

Neapolitans are a people who express their being freely and without hesitation, wherever they go, for good or bad. The shimmer and the dirt.

When the buses arrive, amidst the frenzy of cell phones and smoke bombs that clog up the views, the fans are climbing everywhere, on statues, on trees, and they thank and wave, and then confetti flies and they sing and jump in the din of trumpets.

This is the true and visceral way of the Neapolitan people, to join the crowd to thank for the dream of the championship fulfilled for the fourth time.

Once the bus parade is over, the fan processions continue, branching off into different streets of the centre depending on their tastes. The party will continue, again and again and again and again.

The Naples night is dark, secret, electric.

©Imma Borrelli/ Terrace Edition. Naples night.

Imma is on Instagram: @rhamely

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