Naples

Naples has been dying for 2,700 years and shows no signs of stopping. Founded as Neapolis ('New City') by Greek colonists around 470 BC, it has survived eruptions, plagues, invasions, earthquakes, cholera outbreaks, Allied bombing, and the Camorra—sometimes all within the same century. Vesuvius looms 9 kilometers east, a geological reminder that Naples exists on borrowed time. Yet nearly a million people live in the city proper, and three million in the metropolitan area, making it southern Italy's largest urban economy.

The city's economic structure defies northern European expectations. The informal economy is enormous—estimates suggest 25-30% of economic activity operates outside official channels. The Camorra, Naples's organized crime network, infiltrates construction, waste management, and counterfeit goods manufacturing, creating a parallel economy that functions as a parasitic layer extracting value from legitimate commerce. The 2008 garbage crisis—when Camorra-controlled waste disposal collapsed and streets filled with uncollected trash—revealed how deeply criminal infrastructure had embedded itself in basic civic functions.

Aerospace and defense provide a counterweight. Naples hosts major facilities for Leonardo (formerly Finmeccanica), producing aircraft components and defense electronics. The port of Naples handles significant container and cruise ship traffic. Tourism draws millions annually to Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, and the city's UNESCO-listed historic center. Naples also claims the birthplace of pizza—specifically at Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba (1830) and L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele (1870)—a cultural export worth billions globally.

Naples persists because it occupies a geographic niche—Mediterranean port, volcanic soil, defensive harbor—that has attracted human settlement for three millennia regardless of whatever catastrophe last struck. The city survives not despite its dysfunction but alongside it, an organism that has learned to tolerate parasites rather than eliminate them.