Naples – An incident that damages not only the victim, but the very image of the city. In the heart of Naples' waterfront, in one of Naples' most prestigious hotels, two robbers carried out an €80 robbery against a foreign tourist, right in the middle of the Ferragosto holiday week.
The victim, a Moroccan man, was outside the Excelsior Hotel when he was approached by two criminals on a scooter. They targeted his luxury watch, a model with a sky-high market value.
When the man attempted to take cover inside the lobby, the robbers didn't stop: they chased him into the building, violently attacking him and finally managing to snatch the precious timepiece from him before fleeing at full speed.
The tourist, in shock and suffering from minor bruises and injuries, was rescued by hotel staff and taken to Cardarelli Hospital for treatment.
The State Police have acquired images from surveillance cameras both outside and inside the hotel and are trying to reconstruct the movements of the two attackers, who fled towards the alleys behind.
A blow that hurts the city
The attack, given its nature and location, takes on a gravity that goes beyond a single robbery. Occurring in broad daylight, in one of the areas most frequented by tourists from around the world, the episode is a severe blow to Naples' image at a time of peak international traffic.
The images of streets crowded with visitors overlap with those of two bandits who, without any qualms, burst into the lobby of a luxury hotel to attack a guest in front of the staff and customers.
This episode reignites the debate about safety in Italy's major art cities, but in Naples it weighs heavily: here, tourism is a key economic driver, and every episode of urban violence is a negative calling card that risks tarnishing the successes achieved in terms of attendance and attractiveness.
This is a strong and disturbing sign of the need for constant and visible police presence, especially in the city's most strategic and exposed areas.
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This is a truly unfortunate episode and raises serious concerns about security in Naples. It shouldn't happen that tourists are attacked in such a famous place, frequented by people from all over the world. It's sad.