Dave Harte: How a little Italian flare could serve us well here

Sep 3 2010 By Dave Harte

Now they’re back in school my kids are, as we speak, authoring their ‘what I did on my summer holidays’ essays.

In a show of solidarity, here is mine.

After a couple of years of staying in the UK, this year we splashed out on a trip to southern Italy.

Naples in fact.

Scruffy, corrupt, smelly, noisy, Naples.

It has as bad reputation in its homeland as it does overseas.

A nine-month long rubbish dispute in 2008 that saw residents rioting and alleged Mafia involvement didn’t help the city’s image, as beautiful as it is in architectural terms.

Yet our very first conversation with an Italian during our visit made me realise that there’s a pride in Naples that’s identical to the pride we feel as Brummies when anyone asks us about where we live.

As we were staying in the surrounding area I asked the chap handing over our rental property keys if he thought Naples a good place to visit.

That led to a 20 minute lecture in which he completely failed to tell us about any of the cultural highlights of the city but described in no uncertain terms how it’s the greatest city on earth and he would never leave.

He mentioned its recent travails but explained how citizens had a clear identity they were proud of. Along with a healthy disrespect for power, they understood local politicians were either self-interested or corrupt but the populace got on with their lives anyway.

Eventually pausing for breath, his point was that we shouldn’t be distracted by such whimsies as art galleries or churches or other ‘tourist’ attractions, we should instead absorb a sense of Naples.

But Naples’ troubled recent past means attracting the tourist dollar is as tricky a job as Birmingham’s.

I think we’re two cities that poster campaigns can’t express the real value of.

In fact I’m wondering if we should just give up trying.

Better, instead, to use ordinary citizens to instil in visitors our sense of pride in the place and like our Neapolitan friend did with me, open up visitors’ minds to what the city is really like.

* Dave Harte is Award Leader for the MA Social Media at Birmingham City University and is temporarily overcome with pride for his city