...What did I know" about Naples? That it was an important city historically, formerly the capital of a kingdom; that it had been in serious decline for centuries, that it was full of pickpockets, purse-snatchers, and counterfeit watches, pocketbooks, and pens. I knew that it lay in the shadow of Vesuvius, that Pompeii and Herculaneum were nearby, that many Italian-Americans (among whom I grew up in New York) came from southern Italy, and that it was supposed to be a splendid city, despite the corruption, squalor, and decay. I once heard a company of marvelous young musicians from Naples play and sing medieval and renaissance music, so I knew there was high level musical activity there..." Naples is an overactive city of nobility and squalor, sprawling in the menacing shadow of Vesuvius. Not far from Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, the streets of Naples are lined with Africans and Asians selling sunglasses and watches, and young men from North Africa, seeking work, lounging in the streets. It is here, an island battered by successive waves of war and conquest - from the rivalry between the Phoenicians and the Greeks in the sixth century BCE - through the battles of World War II - that Europe merges with the Third World. Jeffrey Green had wanted to visit these places since his childhood in Greenwich Village, New York City, which, as much as it was a haven of poets, painters, bohemians, and intellectuals, was also the northern fringe of Little Italy. The faces he saw, the voices he heard, the stores he passed on MacDougal Street on his way to school, were all Sicilian and Neapolitan. Hardly a month went by when he and his parents didn't eat at least once in a family-owned Italian restaurant. The fragrance of Italian food was the fragrance of his New York Jewish childhood. At the age of 60, he finally got to Sicily, in the company of Judith his wife, and another couple. By the time he got there, it meant much more to him than an echo of his Manhattan childhood, for he had been living in Israel since 1973, and was now a citizen of Mediterranean civilization himself. So his exploration of Naples and Sicily, although frustratingly brief, was also an exploration of an assumed identity. Travel can give us both knowledge of the world and lead to a deeper self-knowledge. Just as on a trip, no matter how carefully one plans, there are always surprises, some propitious, some untoward; in this book the reader will not necessarily find what he or she expects

...我对那不勒斯了解多少？它在历史上是一个重要的城市，曾经是一个王国的首都；几个世纪以来，它一直在严重衰退，到处都是扒手、偷钱包的人，还有假表、假口袋书和假笔。我知道它坐落在维苏威火山的阴影下，庞贝和赫库兰尼姆就在附近，许多意大利裔美国人（我在纽约长大，也在其中）来自意大利南部，而且尽管有腐败、肮脏和腐朽，它应该是一个辉煌的城市。我曾经听过一队来自那不勒斯的了不起的年轻音乐家演奏和演唱中世纪和文艺复兴时期的音乐，所以我知道那里有高水平的音乐活动......" 那不勒斯是一个过度活跃的贵族和肮脏的城市，在维苏威火山汹涌的阴影中蔓延。离地中海最大的岛屿西西里岛不远，那不勒斯的街道两旁有非洲人和亚洲人在卖太阳镜和手表，还有来自北非的年轻人，他们在寻找工作，在街上闲逛着。正是在这里，一个被连续的战争和征服浪潮所打击的岛屿--从公元前六世纪腓尼基人和希腊人之间的竞争--到第二次世界大战的战斗--欧洲与第三世界合并。杰弗里-格林从他在纽约市格林威治村的童年起就想去这些地方，那里既是诗人、画家、波希米亚人和知识分子的天堂，也是小意大利的北部边缘地带。他看到的面孔，听到的声音，以及他在去学校的路上经过的商店，都是西西里和那不勒斯人。他和他的父母几乎没有一个月不在一家家庭经营的意大利餐馆至少吃一次饭。意大利食品的香味是他在纽约的犹太童年的香味。在60岁的时候，他终于在他妻子朱迪思和另一对夫妇的陪伴下，来到了西西里。当他到达那里时，那里对他的意义已经远远超过了他曼哈顿童年的回声，因为他自1973年以来一直生活在以色列，现在自己也是地中海文明的公民。因此，他对那不勒斯和西西里的探索，虽然令人沮丧地短暂，但也是对一个假定身份的探索。旅行既能给我们带来对世界的认识，也能导致更深的自我认识。就像在旅行中，无论如何精心计划，总是会有惊喜，有些是有利的，有些是不利的；在这本书中，读者不一定能找到他或她所期望的东西