In the streets of Naples there will still be clothes hanging, a heritage of the city

Vesuvius. Soccer in the streets. Maradona. And hanging clothes. This would be the quick look of a tourist in Naplesthe traditional city of the south of Italy. But the mayor tried to remove one of his hallmarks: the habit of hanging clothes on balconies. A frustrated attempt because the Neapolitans did not take long to put the cry in the sky. Clothes will continue to hang out in the streets, and with pride.

The story began last week, when the newspaper “Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno” published the draft of a municipal ordinance on the decorum and hygiene which was to take effect from July 1, when the tourist season begins.

One of its provisions included ban hanging clothes on balconies and shaking tablecloths in the streetin addition to other measures such as prohibiting the sale of alcohol at dawn, launching helium balloons at parties and events, watering plants on balconies, stopping music from midnight to 8 in the morning and from 2 in the afternoon until four in the afternoon (siesta time), play soccer or ride a scooter in the Galleries Umberto and Principe.

The municipal ordinance on prohibiting the hanging of clothes in the street was not approved due to the avalanche of criticism from the Neapolitans. PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK

Specifically, section E of the resolution stated: “It is forbidden to hang or hang clothes, cloths, garments and the like outside private places, as well as on windows, terraces and balconies that face public roads when this causes drips in the public area” .

The post immediately brought a wave of outrage and comments that appropriated the media and social networks. “The anger has been monumental”journalist Anna Buj, correspondent in Italy for the newspaper “La Vanguardia”, comments to “The Washington Post”.

Criticism ranged from how the police were going to regulate and control that people did not hang their clothes in the street, to sarcasm about how they were going to differentiate whose underwear would be seized. Others pointed out that there were more important things to worry about in the city, such as unemployment, insecurity or the mafia.

The controversy caused the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, backtrack. “As for the measures related to Urban Decorum, although necessary to restore a dignified face to the city left in total deterioration in recent years, they do not fall under this regulation”The municipality said in a statement.

Manfredi himself had to speak about it: “The clothes hanging in the alleys represent a point of representativeness of our city, not a point of lack of decorum. It is obvious that we must always maintain a boundary between our popular tradition and order, but I do not think that this ordinance of hanging clothes will ever exist. In the narrow alleys of Naples, where the heat of the sun barely penetrates, clothes can only be dried in this way. Since we want our citizens to dry their clothes, I think this ordinance will never exist.”

It is not the first controversy of the mayor. Last year he had already banned fireworks and firecrackers on Christmas Eve so as not to overwhelm the city’s emergency service.

In Spain

The streets of Naples are not the only ones in Europe where it is customary to hang clothes in the streets. Also in several cities in Spain, where even the practice has been prohibited. This is the case of Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia, the three most populated cities in the country, where the city councils have limited this tradition in their regulations not only for an aesthetic factor but to preserve the architectural and landscape heritage.

Source: Elcomercio