Naples, summer of 2018.
We're falling into step with the ebb and flow of people meandering along the oversized cobbles of the street.
Broken glass and cigarette butts nessle in the cracks, wear flip flops at your peril around the old part of the city!
1.5 million people live and work on top of each other here, and tourists swell their ranks in the summer.
Crumbling apartment blocks, from every era, crowding along on the narrow streets, creating shaded canyons radiating from sun soaked piazzas.
For all its busyness, to the observer, Naples doesn't cut a prosperous figure.
Boxes and battered crates teeter in festering piles in the back alleys. Graffiti, fly posters and OSB patch boards are the patina of these grimy streets.
Scooters zip through, weaving between pedestrians like bees about to swarm.
Every vehicle is dinged and dented, dust caked and forlorn in the sensory-battering throng of the streets. The song of this city is the buzz of Vespa engines and the impatient blair of horns.
Moments of tranquillity are rare in such purposefulness. Then we strolled into the Quatro Espanol, the Spanish District - named after the Spanish soldiers Garrisoned there during the reign of Ferdinand of Aragon.
We watch as women lower plastic baskets down from their balconies to street level.
Vendors take the money from the basket, replace it with goods the customer has phoned ahead for, and the basket is then hoisted back up these UNESCO protected tall apartment blocks.
Colourful, cheap plastic baskets dangle from so many of these windows, while below, people walk past unawares.
Built in the Renaissance, these, tall, slender apartment blocks don't have lifts and who wants to walk up four flights of stairs in 28 degrees for a loaf of bread and a bottle of beer from the shop!
