Conjuring Campania

Northern Italians will warn you, as they warned me, away from Italy south of Rome. "Anything can happen in Naples," I was cautioned. But rather than to frighten or deter me, the concern only caused me to be more curious. Having temporarily had my fill of exploring the north, I was ready to venture south into Italy's Campania region. While no number of cautionary tales prepared me for the chaos of Naples, neither did the fabled stories of Amalfi's scenic coast serve my senses half as well as actually being there. On the bus, through the hairpin turns, looking out over vistas so high and blue that I was at once serenely entranced and deeply mortified, both. Campania is an intensely sensual experience in a way that Northern Italy is not. It is neither better nor worse, only different. There is much to admire. Nothing to fear.