219km (136 miles) SE of Rome, 263km (163 miles) W of Bari

Naples (Napoli) is Italy's most controversial city: You'll either love it or hate it. Is it paradiso or the inferno? It's louder, more intense, more unnerving, but perhaps ultimately more satisfying than almost anywhere else in Italy.

To foreigners unfamiliar with the complexities of the multifarious "Italys" and their regional types, the Neapolitan is still the quintessence of the country and easy to caricature ("O Sole Mio," "Mamma Mia," bel canto). If Sophia Loren (a native who moved elsewhere) evokes the Italian woman for you, you'll find more of her look-alikes here than in any other city. Naples also gave the world Enrico Caruso.

In recent years, Naples has made world headlines for its cultural renaissance and its fight against crime. Despite Mafia-directed crime, political corruption, prostitution, street hoodlums, chaotic traffic, and pervasive unemployment, the longtime mayor of Naples, Antonio Bassolino, chose culture as a weapon to clean up the city's image. Since taking office in December 1993, the former Communist party official made cultural revaluation his top priority -- and it seems to be working.

Bassolino received a national government grant of $30 million to make Naples look safer and more presentable, and has been aided by a group of concerned citizens who since 1984 have collected funds for the upkeep of the city's treasures and monuments. The first civic move was to restore and reopen scores of neglected museums and palaces in dilapidated neighborhoods. Muggers, prostitutes, and cars were driven from many historic plazas, especially Piazza del Plebiscito, and from around the San Carlo opera house and Royal Palace areas. All this activity seemed to spark a minor renaissance among the city's musicians, writers, moviemakers, artists, and playwrights. The Neapolitan art scene has been given a shot in the arm. Bassolino is now regional governor of Campania, and the new mayor of the city is Mrs. Rosa Russo Lervolino.