Ian Thomson

Starving street urchins sell their sisters in the chaos of Naples, 1944

When the Allies arrived in the city in the wake of the German retreat, they were shocked by the child prostitutes, shady commerce and downright miseria

Three street urchins in Naples in 1944. [Corbis/Getty Images] 
issue 28 September 2024

Naples is ‘certainly the most disgusting place in Europe’, judged John Ruskin. The boisterous yelling in the corridor-like streets and beetling humanity filled the Victorian sage with loathing. (‘See Naples and die’ became for Ruskin ‘See Naples and run away’.) In the city’s obscure exuberance of life he could see only a great sleaze.

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