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Will ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Gentrify a Naples Neighborhood?
Residents of Rione Luzzatti never expected it to become a tourist destination. Then Elena Ferrante set her bestselling novels there.
New street art celebrating Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels has just been unveiled in Rione Luzzatti, the area of Naples where the bestselling books are understood to be set. Eduardo Castaldo, the photographer for My Brilliant Friend—the TV series based on the first novel, which has been renewed for a second season—created a mural around the entrance of a public library with images and silhouettes of the show’s characters.
The mural is the first in a series, funded by the Campania region, which will roll out between now and May. It’s a sign of the “Ferrante effect” now being felt in this formerly low-profile neighborhood.