NAPLES

219km (136 miles) SE of Rome, 263km (163 miles) W of Bari

Naples (Napoli) is Italy's most controversial city: You'll either love it or hate it. Is it paradiso or the inferno? It's louder, more intense, more unnerving, but perhaps ultimately more satisfying than almost anywhere else in Italy.

To foreigners unfamiliar with the complexities of the multifarious "Italys" and their regional types, the Neapolitan is still the quintessence of the country and easy to caricature ("O Sole Mio," "Mamma Mia," bel canto). If Sophia Loren (a native who moved elsewhere) evokes the Italian woman for you, you'll find more of her look-alikes here than in any other city. Naples also gave the world Enrico Caruso.

In recent years, Naples has made world headlines for its cultural renaissance and its fight against crime. Despite Mafia-directed crime, political corruption, prostitution, street hoodlums, chaotic traffic, and pervasive unemployment, the longtime mayor of Naples, Antonio Bassolino, chose culture as a weapon to clean up the city's image. Since taking office in December 1993, the former Communist party official made cultural revaluation his top priority -- and it seems to be working.

Bassolino received a national government grant of $30 million to make Naples look safer and more presentable, and has been aided by a group of concerned citizens who since 1984 have collected funds for the upkeep of the city's treasures and monuments. The first civic move was to restore and reopen scores of neglected museums and palaces in dilapidated neighborhoods. Muggers, prostitutes, and cars were driven from many historic plazas, especially Piazza del Plebiscito, and from around the San Carlo opera house and Royal Palace areas. All this activity seemed to spark a minor renaissance among the city's musicians, writers, moviemakers, artists, and playwrights. The Neapolitan art scene has been given a shot in the arm. Bassolino is now regional governor of Campania.

New rock groups are born in Naples every month, and interest in traditional Neapolitan music is also increasing. Founded by a group of young Neapolitans, the Falso Movimento troupe has brought new life to the city's theatrical scene. Film companies, following in the footsteps of Neapolitan directors such as Francesco Rossi and Gabriele Salvatore, are choosing to shoot in Naples once again. Neapolitan writers are gaining increasing recognition, especially Ermanno Rea for Mistero Napolitano and Gabriele Frasca for his poems. And Naples is now becoming popular with a younger generation, especially those from countries to the north. Undeterred by reports of unfavorable conditions, they flood into the city and lend it a new vitality. The hippest scene is at the bars and cafes on Piazza Bellini, near Piazza Dante.

Of course, Naples's deeper ills can't be swept away overnight. There are still major problems here (as in most any congested urban area), especially crime -- although a dramatic increase in the number of cops on the street has decreased crime by 25%, leading to a 40% increase in tourism. However, you should still take extreme caution in Naples because theft, especially pickpocketing, remains relatively common.

Naples is on a roll, one shopkeeper told us in perfect English. "Of course, we still have pollution and drugs, and the Camorra [the local Mafia], but we wouldn't really be Naples without that." Art historian Francesca Del Vecchio summed up the change this way: "A few years ago we couldn't sit out in an outdoor cafe because of the traffic and the crime. Now it's like a Mediterranean city again."