Lungomare

This guide to the Lungomare in Naples follows a dispute over dates, some records say 1835, others 1849 or 1850, for the birth of a song along this curve of the bay near Borgo Santa Lucia. It follows the Naples publisher Teodoro Cottrau, who is said to have taken an old boatman's tune and given it new words, printing the sheet music the following year. You'll hear about the boatmen's original invitation to strangers passing the water's edge, and why Cottrau's choice to write in Italian rather than Neapolitan dialect mattered. Stand at the curve of the shoreline and listen for that same pitch in your head.