Via dei Tribunali is one of Naples’ busiest arteries, filled with restaurants and shops. Down one of its side alleys stands a bronze statue of Pulcinella, the trickster who has long symbolized the city. In high season, the queue to rub his nose can stretch half a kilometer as tourists chase an ancient Neapolitan good-luck ritual.
But locals know that tradition is fake.
The statue was erected only in the 2010s, and was largely ignored by Neapolitans. Only in recent years influencers discovered it, fabricated a folkloric backstory, and suddenly no tourist felt their trip to Naples was complete without it. The result is a paradoxical “local” tradition without any locals — and a good example of what overtourism is doing to Italian cities.
“The historic center of Naples is dead,” said sociologist and activist Francesco Calicchia, who lives and works in the working-class Sanità neighborhood. “Those streets aren’t neighborhoods anymore. There are no Neapolitans left, no real life left. They’ve become playgrounds, open-air shopping malls.”
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