Editorial

 
The autumn issue begins in a sombre tone, given the earthquake devastation at Amatrice. The summer holidays ended with an SMS sent at dawn by a concerned friend wondering how we were. We were in Napoli, our last night there after a three day visit. Napoli was a revelation, the cry "See Naples and die" ringing in my ears.

Given peeling paints and the grime accumulated unchecked, one couldn't quite feel that problems were absent and yet everyone seemed reasonably content to continue living in that seemingly indolent and informal way. I kept on wondering where the civic heart of the historical centre was until I realised that unlike other Italian cities, this historical centre was less a showpiece of civic pride rather more a living neighbourhood, there principally to accommodate 'culture' in its living everyday sense. The centre, unlike say in Rome or Florence, has not been reduced to exclusive addresses of the social elite nor a full scale amusement park for tourists.

Instead I found it occupied by relaxed ordinary people of all classes and ages treating each other as equals. The walls, grime and all, are mutating into a kind of skin, giving the whole town a feel of a living organism, not unlike the North African Casbah. Yet differently, it is all laced together by an enduring classical sense. Visions of European delights mark every corner. This is the architecture of freedom - at the same time honouring and ignoring the rules - a city that contains and entertains every possible human foible. I wondered if Foucault ever came here.