Lined with endless souvenir shops, pizzerias and bars flogging Aperol Spritz, it's a challenge to walk down Via dei Tribunali, one of the most historic thoroughfares inNaples.
Guides with microphones lead columns of cruise ship passengers, tourists tuck into street food and helmetless Neapolitans hurtle past on motor scooters, weaving perilously between the crowds.
Once synonymous withmafiacriminality, street robberies and rubbish crises, Naples is undergoing an extraordinary tourism boom.
The southern Italian port is the latest city to find itself on thefrontline of the tourism battle, enduring the kind of pressures that have been felt so keenly in popular European destinations such as Venice, Barcelona and Dubrovnik in Croatia which was used as a filming location for Game of Thrones.
But there is a growing backlash against what many Neapolitans say is now a serious case ofovertourism.
Landlords are kicking out their tenants so that they can turn apartments into lucrativeAirbnbproperties.
Cruise ships are bringing pollution to the city, docking in the Bay of Naples against a backdrop of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that smothered Pompeii 2,000 years ago.
Traditional shops like greengrocers and ironmongers are being replaced by identikit restaurants that pump out Neapolitan specialities like pizza and limoncello.
"The historic centre is practically a no-go zone for us Neapolitans, it's so overcrowded," said Livia Coletta, 79, who has lived in the city all her life.
"Most of the tourists don't come to admire the art and architecture of Naples. They drink a Spritz, they eat a pizza, they take a few photos and then they leave."
Tourists are drawn to the city for what they see as its gritty authenticity – its vibrant street life, colourful murals and food culture.
But as residents are priced out, that very authenticity is eroding.
"There's a process of Disneyfication going on," said Anna Fava, an expert on overtourism in Naples. "The historic centre is being transformed into a theme park."
She points to the example of the 16th century Spanish Quarter, a part of the city that has become a must-see destination for its murals ofDiego Maradona– colourful street art that celebrates the career of the Argentinian footballer, who played for Napoli FC and is practically regarded as a saint by residents.
A courtyard in the area is festooned with Maradona-themed football jerseys, scarves and stickers. Shops sell themed baseball caps, lighters, mugs and even Maradona beer and energy drinks.
"It's a fake. The Maradona murals are not a Neapolitan tradition," said Ms Fava, a member of Resta Abitante, an association defending locals' rights to affordable housing. "We love Maradona, of course. But we never had this tradition of painting murals. It is a place of pilgrimage that has been invented by local residents for visitors."
Locals in central districts like the Spanish Quarter and nearby Rione Sanità are being kicked out of their apartments by landlords who make a lot more money by turning them into short-term holiday lets. With fewer properties available for locals to rent, prices have rocketed.
"Rents in the historic centre have risen in the last 10 years by around 40 per cent," said Ms Fava. "A process of expulsion is under way."
The city's Camorra crime syndicate was quick to recognise a business opportunity when the tourism boom took off.
"They have bought property at low prices. It's much easier than dealing in drugs – and it's legal," said Ms Fava.
The proliferation of short-term tourist lets has hit Naples particularly hard as a city of renters.
"In Italy overall, around 75 per cent of people own their own homes. But in the central districts of Naples, it is totally different – 68 per cent of people rent," said Ugo Rossi, a professor of economic geography at Gran Sasso Science Institute in central Italy.
"These people are very vulnerable to rent increases. It is an existential threat to Neapolitan society.
"It's threatening the unique characteristics of Naples, a social fabric that has developed over the centuries. Overtourism is eroding local identity."
Campaigners are calling for the authorities to take urgent action.
"The council needs to place a cap on the number of Airbnbs. We need a limit, the kind of restrictions that have been imposed in Amsterdam and Barcelona. Right now, it's a free-for-all in Naples," said Ms Fava.
The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, declined a request for an interview.
Teresa Armato, the councillor in charge of tourism, says the authorities are "monitoring" the number of short-term tourist lets and taking steps to reserve some public housing for low-income groups such as students.
The explosion in tourism has been fuelled by a potent mix of factors.
There is thefamiliar unholy trinityof budget flights, online accommodation platforms and the promotional effects of social media, a mix of factors affecting destinations across the world.
But there are other reasons behind the rise in tourism, which are specific to Naples.
In the last few years, the city has been portrayed in a plethora of books, television series and films, from the gritty Gomorrah, which is based on the criminal underworld of the mafia, to the popular novels by Elena Ferrante.
On top of that, Naples has managed to resolve the rubbish collection crises which so marred its image more than a decade or so ago.
And although members of the Camorra do still shoot and knife each other in bloody vendettas, the general level of crime has reduced.
"Ten years ago, we were the number one city inItalyfor criminality. Now we are in 13th position," said Vito Occhipinti, a young man selling glasses of Aperol Spritz to passers-by on a rainy evening in Via dei Tribunali. "Naples is changing and tourism is bringing great benefits to us. We want the tourists to come."
Just around the corner from Via dei Tribunali is a lane called Via San Gregorio Armeno, where crowds admire the handiwork of craftsmen who make traditional Nativity figures.
There are shelves packed with baby Jesuses in straw-lined cradles, miniature donkeys and sheep, and the Three Wise Men in elaborate, glittery robes. These days more modern secular figurines can also be found in the shops.
Places like this have become so popular that a city councillor has suggested that tourists should be charged a fee to enter the historic centre, as they are in Venice.
Gennaro Esposito said that charging visitors €5 each might help to reduce the "absurd" overtourism.
The fee would only be levied during "the busiest tourism periods, like Christmas," he told Italian media. He recounted how it had taken him 30 minutes to walk the length of Via dei Tribunali because of the crush of visitors.
"Tourism is killing Naples. The historic centre is lost, gone," said Francesco Calicchia, a sociologist and activist who lives in the working-class Sanità neighbourhood.
"You don't see normal shops anymore. I remember there was a historic ironmonger's on Spaccanapoli (a street in the historic centre) and now it is closed. Now it sells only tourist souvenirs.
"Compared to places like Venice or Rome, tourism has been a recent phenomenon in Naples. The change has been very sudden."
He said that for the first five years he lived in the city he did not dare set foot inside Sanità, such was its reputation as a haunt of the Camorra.
A survey by Ipsos found that 46 per cent of Neapolitans now consider overtourism to be a problem for the city and 58 per cent want tighter regulations on the number of short-term lets that are allowed to operate.
"We have asked for an immediate stop to new Airbnbs because we have already surpassed the threshold of sustainability," said Martina Locorotondo, an urban policy researcher and a member of the Southern Europe Against Overtourism Network.
"We want abandoned buildings to be restored and given to residents as housing. We want limits for each neighbourhood on the number of Airbnbs that can be allowed. But the council just wants to keep increasing the number."
Many Neapolitans have profited handsomely from the boom and are anxious not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
"I'm happy that there are so many tourists," said Antonio Sabato, 55, a taxi driver waiting for customers outside Naples railway station. "It's good for the city. We're not stupid. We know a good thing when we see it."
Agostino Ingenito, the president of ABBAC, an association of short-term tourist let owners, told RAI, the state broadcaster: "We should be careful – in a city where there is no longer any industry, tourism is the only flourishing economic sector."
Campaigners say they are not against tourism per se; they just want to see more controls imposed so that Naples does not lose its soul.
"Creating an economy that relies only on tourism is suicidal. Because tourism can be an ephemeral phenomenon. What happens when the bubble bursts and tourism shifts to another city? All the bars and pizzerias, the pizzamakers and waiters, what will happen to them?" said Mr Calicchia.
Campaigners worry that the situation is only going to get worse because Naples is to host the nextAmerica's Cupsailing competition next year, with the event continuing into 2027.
The world's oldest sporting trophy will bring even more visitors and tourist development.
"We fear that with the Americas Cup, there will be a kind of social earthquake," said Prof Rossi. "Even more apartments will be turned into short-term lets. There will be a big impact. What we see now is nothing compared to what we will see in the next couple of years."
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