In March, a banner was displayed over a narrow alley in Naples filled with tourist shops selling Nativity figurines. The banner stated, “Naples no longer supports you.” The “you” refers to the popular Italian crime drama “Gomorrah,” which had recently started filming a prequel called “Gomorrah: Origins” in the city’s gritty Spanish Quarter. The prequel explores the origins of the leading Camorra crime syndicate clan in the 1970s.
Naples, Italy’s third-largest city, has become synonymous with “Gomorrah” since the release of Roberto Saviano’s 2006 nonfiction best seller about the Neapolitan mafia. The book was followed by a critically acclaimed movie in 2008 and a TV series in 2014, which ran for five seasons. In 2019, two more movies were released: “The Immortal,” a spinoff, and “Piranhas,” based on a Saviano novel about teenage crime bosses. And now, there’s “Origins.”
Some Neapolitans are tired of being associated with “Gomorrah.” Gennaro Di Virgilio, the fourth-generation owner of an artisanal Nativity shop, expressed his frustration, saying, “They filmed the first one, they filmed the second one. Enough.”
Naples has seen a surge in tourism in recent years, thanks in part to social media promoting the city’s history, food, and sunny weather. However, some residents feel that the city is being typecast as “Gomorrah,” reducing its image to that of a place filled with lawless individuals. Despite efforts to improve its reputation, Naples still struggles with issues such as high youth unemployment and crime rates.
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