If You Are From Naples, You Stink

Italian sports reporter suspended after saying people from Naples stink

According to a now, suspended, Italian sports reporter, Italians from the southern Italian city of Naples have a distinctive stink.

The malodorous comment made by Giampiero Amandola while he was reporting on a Juventus-Naples football match, predictably, caused a stink.  Hence his suspension.

Amandola’s oddball cultural observation led to a storm of protest, and not only from the supposedly smelly residents of Naples, but from all over Italy.

Such was the uproar, the employer of the journalist, Italian public TV broadcaster RAI, was forced to issue an apology.

I had heard about this story, but did not think, or rather, could not believe, it was true.  I was wrong, it was!

Not so long ago in Italy, northern Italians refused to rent apartments to those from the south.

Old prejudices die hard in Italy.

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Further reading in Italian on La Stampa: “I napoletani puzzano”: scuse della Rai