Death, Del Naja explains, is never final in Naples. It’s volcano time, this idea that what happened before and happens now is the same and that we’re just in the middle of it, before the next eruption.” In “Siamo figli di Vesuvio” (We are sons of Vesuvius), the most popular chant in Curva B, ultras sing of watching their team “from above” and directing their own funeral celebrations. “In the ground, an ancient chant could somehow manifest itself in a song or rhythm or a flag. That makes it such a unique environment for a football team,” says Del Naja.Īnother unusual feature of Napoli, he adds, is the way minutes and centuries blend into one. In Naples, people wear blue to say, ‘We are all the same, we are all one’. “Everywhere else, people wear the colours of their club to distinguish themselves from their neighbour, who wears the other colour. Unusually for a European city of its size - Napoli has a population of 920,000 - all the love and pride fixates on a single club. It didn’t feel like ‘we are the best of Italy’, more like a celebration of the people and their culture, that great mix of Greeks, Romans, Saracens, the French, the Spanish, Arabic culture… it’s such a brilliant mosaic of influences.” Instead of the typical tricolore, they also had dark blue, white and light blue flags, colours that hark back to the city’s Ancient Greek origins. In the Fiorentina game, Napoli supporters draped the Italian flag upside down, it was that same idea, that the world had been turned on its head. Everything has changed, power has completely shifted. “It symbolises the idea of a world turned upside down. How can there not be when an underdog from a culturally distinct city, belittled and discriminated against for decades, triumphs against the elite? Del Naja’s 10-day stay allowed him to read up on the history of the region and visit Pompeii, the ancient city destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, where he came across a mosaic of an ass mounting a lion. There is, of course, a political dimension to Napoli’s championship, too. But ultimately, it’s about the passion for what you believe in. “After feverishly posting all those photos and videos (from Naples), I looked back at my account and thought, ‘Oh my god, I’ve gone from the conscious to the ridiculous’, from the plight of the people in Ukraine due to the inhumane invasion from Russia to all about Napoli and the celebration of that historic moment. People celebrated the victory everywhere, in themselves, in their hearts.”īeing caught up in all that communal ecstasy, brought on by nothing more important than football, must have felt a little strange after visiting Ukraine shortly before. “What was great about it was the mass civic spontaneity. On his walk back from Fuorigrotta, where the ground is situated, through the tunnel to the seafront promenade Lungomare and on to Piazza del Plebiscito, the classicist municipal square, Del Naja encountered many different groups who were all celebrating the championship in their own way, with their own songs and little rituals.

The party was very wild, but noticeably peaceful and, most importantly, spontaneous. We called it la tripleta because it was a combination of three different emotions that were all connected in a beautiful way.” And then seeing them as champions for the first time in three decades that Sunday. “Then the relief, when all the emotions were released into the air after the Udinese game. “There was the sort of Greek comedy-tragedy of Salernitana,” reflects Del Naja. The ensuing pandemonium lasted well beyond the next home game against Fiorentina. But an 84th-minute equaliser by Boulaye Dia delayed the party by four more days, until a 1-1 draw at Udinese got them over the line. He had travelled to Mount Vesuvius to see them clinch the title against Salernitana on April 30, making the pilgrimage from the famous Diego Maradona mural in the Quartieri Spagnoli, the claustrophobic heart of the city, out west to the stadium, “that gladiatorial bowl brooding in the landscape”, as he calls it, “almost a mini-version of the volcano that the city is quarried from”. “The way it happened only added to the drama.” “It’s been a long time coming,” Del Naja - Massive Attack’s 3D - tells The Athletic.

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