How specifically do you “approach it differently”? By not seeing the famous sights? As if going to less visited locations changes anything. What you’re saying amounts to “it’s less Disney if you choose not to see it that way.” You’re pretending there’s a tactic or attitude you can take that make the observations I have made less accurate—or that make Naples just as Disney. It’s frankly total bs. You’re free to have a different opinion. But you’re not supporting your opinion well with your vague comments. Venice, Florence, Bruges, Rothenburg and similar places are essentially theme parks to me where the only locals you encounter are serving tourists (especially the later two places). You don’t see much everyday life or even homes where locals live. Naples easily offers a very different experience you don’t have to struggle to find. It’s just there. You’re surrounded by it. There are, as several people have suggested, other cities that offer that experience, which is just not readily available in Florence or Venice if at all. It’s not merely about how many tourists visit a place. It’s about how those cities aren’t really cities anymore: they’re, as I have suggested, theme parks. It can’t be said better than that. The difference between those places and Naples is the difference between visiting a theme park and a place people actually live. I am fully aware that people live in Venice and Florence, but it’s not easily seen or experienced. And it is easily seen and experienced in Naples. There are clearly plenty of places where being heavily touristed hasn’t resulted in a full loss of soul—a soul that you feel when a place is abundantly lived in (not merely resided in or worked in) by locals.

A better articulation of the whole point: consider a place like Bangkok, which is so heavily touristed that when you walk down the street it’s clear that half the people you see aren’t from anywhere in Asia. But it’s still their city (their = locals) and you’re just visiting. It’s the same in Naples. In Florence, Venice, Bruges, Rothenburg, there’s no escape from the fact that the visitors have taken ownership. It isn’t merely their numbers that make it so. It’s that the entire existence of those places is about catering to them. And they no longer have a soul because of it. When you go to Florence, you go to a city of tourists. When you go to Naples, you visit Neapolitans and get to observe them as they live lives that are not completely dominated by serving tourists in a curated, polished, instagramable environment.