FAN-TASTIC: Naples Goes nuts for Cup

The one and only America’s Cup World Series event for 2013 kicks off this week in Naples, Italy. Matthew Sheahan of Yachting World describes the local scene…

For an event that has no significance in the overall scheme of the 34th America’s Cup, it is encouraging, if not a little bewildering, to see that there are no less than nine boats competing.

There is something quite fitting about charging around a race course nose to tail in Naples. In a city where you are more likely to discover the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow than a car without a dent in it, living life on the edge at close quarters and shouting the odds as you do so, is what this part of the world is all about.

Naples is going nuts for an event that they know from last time will bring thousands of spectators to watch the racing. In their preparations, a half mile long stretch of road that runs alongside the sea wall has been closed off and now plays host to the AC park with everything from coffee to cars and kids colouring available in a string of stalls along the shoreline. Every night so far there has been a live concert on a big stage and the city has been buzzing into the early hours.

In the meantime you can get into the swing of things by honking your horn repeatedly in traffic, shrugging your shoulders at any request you don’t fancy and turning your palms to the sky when things don’t go to plan.

WATCH: For those of you on this side of the Atlantic, the races can be viewed here.