“Naples is also this, a small gesture that is worth a lot”. This is the phrase-caption that accompanies a video that immediately went viral on the network that is “hungry” for positive news. Small great acts of solidarity, examples of humanity which are increasingly needed. Just like the one released by the customer of a restaurant on the seafront of the Neapolitan capital who saw a waiter bring a meal to a less fortunate boy than him. A peer of his age, a black beggar, who was hungry, this time in the literal sense.
The scene
In the video, posted on TikTok by Valentino Casapulla, the author of the gesture can be seen, with a yellow apron and a well-fitted mask on his face, crossing the street. And bring something, which turns out to be a pizza, a Margherita, to a young black man exhausted by the heat. Lying there in front, on a low wall overlooking the Gulf, a step away from Castel dell’Ovo.
«This is not the first time this has happened, we do it often, we try to help as we can, many come here to ask for something to eat» answers the phone Sergio one of the waiters of the restaurant “Antonio & Antonio”. The boy portrayed in the video is not him but “an assistant waiter, a long-distance driver”.
That is Antonio, which is called after the place where he has been working for almost two years, has just over 20 and today he is resting. But he nevertheless makes it known that he was happy, proud of that gesture because “we always do well to do good.”
A custom
«When he called me to tell me that he had become” famous “and that he was making this video, I thought once again that solidarity is the basis of everything – the owner of the restaurant, Antonino Della Notte, points out to Stampa.it. For us it is a custom, we always give something to those who ask us to be able to eat, if they want a sandwich, a pasta, a pizza. Like the one asked yesterday by the boy you see in the film and who waits across the street because here it is no longer a pedestrian zone. And it was not possible to let him in with the new health safety rules ».
The restaurateur, who says he is “absolutely in favor of both the vaccine and the green pass, the only tools that can take us out of this pandemic”, reiterates that the gesture of the assistant waiter is not an exception. And that was not done intentionally, for advertising. In fact, the name of the place opened in 1998 is not mentioned directly in the post: “We didn’t know anything, we believe that helping others, giving what little or how much we are lucky enough to have is normal, we have always done it, for example with community of Sant’Egidio ».
Comments
However, that little big sign of humanity smacks of “exceptional normality”. And as such it had the applause of many who commented on it defining it as “typically Neapolitan” in all its beauty and uniqueness. To be imitated, to neutralize any other negative news concerning Naples and Campania. Because there are those who specify , if there was still a need (and evidently there is) that “there are no Italians or foreigners, whites or blacks, but simply human beings.” And that “The south has a lot to teach”.
And again: «They tell us about all the colors but only we Neapolitans have a heart of gold». Up to the most heartfelt and bitter comment: “The south is heart, soul, suffering, the south is for everyone, if we run away it is only because we are looking for work”. And it is no coincidence that the video on Tik Tok is accompanied by the beautiful, poignant song by Pino Daniele “Terra mia”.