Fall in love with Naples ... With Neapolitan songs

Fall in love with Naples ... With Neapolitan songs, is possible? Naples, love and music have always shared an unbreakable link. Land of artists, poets and great passions, the city has been able to tell the feelings in thousands of different sjades, through songs that strike straight to the heart.

Here are five different interpretations of love, according to Neapolitan song.

Romantic love - 'O Marenariello

There isn't a Neapolitan song that's not, among other things, very romantic, but there is one song in particular that speaks of love by the sea, under the stars, with two hearts beating as one. It's 'O Marinariello, written back in 1893 by Salvatore Gambardella in a very unusual location, given the subject, the workshop of a smith.

Since then the song has been sung by all the greatest Italian and non-Italian artists. Singed also by legend like Roberto Murolo and Luciano Pavarotti.

Neapolitan songs and a young love: 'E Spingule Francesi

This cheerful and rhythmic song tells us, with great irony, about bold and cocky love, as only that of young people can be.

The protagonist of the verses, written by the great poet Salvatore di Giacomo, is a young man who earns his living by selling nursing brooches from house to house. While doing so he courts beautiful girls and doesn't refuse to be paid in kisses! The song has known a huge fortune to the point that, according to a famous anecdote, even the emperor William II was in love with it, to the point that he wanted it played while he was in Piazza del Plebiscito, during his official visit in the city of Naples.

Fall in love in Naples with a tormented love: Malafemmena

Perhaps because it tells about the pains of love with great realism, or perhaps because it was written by the famous Totò, Malafemmena is one of the most famous Neapolitan songs all over the world, although relatively recent.

At least compared to other great classics. Totò dedicated it to a woman of great charm but cold and indifferent, deceiving and opportunist, who broke his heart betraying his trust. Many years after its release it was revealed that the woman the song is named after is Diana, Totò's wife from from which the actor has divorced .

Over the years, thanks to its verses so real and poignant, the song has been 'adopted' by all those who suffer for love.

A great love of the Neapolitans: 'A tazz 'e cafè

A funny and optimistic song, written by the poet Giuseppe Capaldo in 1918. 

The Brigida named in the song really existed, it was the beautiful but grumpy cashier of a bar where Capaldo used to go . The poet was in love with the girl and he was sure that by courting her he would be able to win against her perpetual reluctance. We don't know how it ended between the two and if Brigida actually ended up giving in to the poet's courting. Anyway the song, thanks to its happy rhythm and the lightness with which it addresses the topic, has become a timeless classic.


Neapolitan love but at a distance - Era de Maggio

Perhaps this one is a little less famous than another song about the same theme, 'O surdato' nnammurato, but no less moving.

Era de Maggio is one of the many Neapolitan songs based on Salvatore di Giacomo's verses. Written in 1885, it's about two lovers destined to stay away for some time. Unfortunately their story doesn't have a happy ending. After promising eternal love to each other, the two lovers meet again in a beautiful, flowery garden in May, but while the man's feelings are unchanged, while the feelings of the woman went out until almost completely disappeared .