“See Naples and then die“It is an expression that, however dramatic it can play, actually has a non -tragic flavor: it contains the idea that Naples It is so extraordinary that it can wish to see other splendor on earth. Once seen, nothing remains to be added to life. In a modern form the sentence was popularized by JOhann Wolfgang von Goethe During his stay in Naples in 1787, but the famous saying has older origins and an echo that crosses centuries and cultures until reaching modern tourism, thus entering the‘collective imagination.
The famous expression, only apparently simple, contains a powerful meaning: “see “the beauty of a place And being so overwhelmed that they no longer wish anything, as if to close the circle of life. It is not surprising that it was Goetheduring his first meeting with Naples, to fix its essence. In the letters of his “trip to Italy” (“Italienische reise“) Of March 3, 1787 is the famous testimony that contributed to spreading the motto in Europe. Yet, behind this apparent clarity there is a popular and uncertain origin, linked to the Ancient fame of Naples as an opulent and sensory city of the Bourbon Kingdom.
Over time the formula has made its way into the tourismand in cinema: the phrase gave the title to an Italian film from 1952, “See Naples and Die “ by Riccardo Freda, and appears as a reason in many works and essays that reflect on charm and on the contradictions of the city.
“See Naples and then die” (in Neapolitan dialect “VIRA NAPULE AND PO MOR”) So it works as slogan and how paradox: He says so much in a few words. If on the one hand it promises a unique beauty, on the other it recalls that cities are a complex work of human art that have a lifetime. It is a formula that continues to be enchanted i travelers Between admiration, stereotype and also a little false promise: seeing Naples is an obligation of the traveler, while dying is now only the hyperbole that gives flavor at the origin of this expression.
