Best New Year fireworks is in the Philippines HANDS DOWN.
I was there for 2 New Year’s celebrations and their fireworks are akin to using gunpowder. I saw many times these old timers lighting up firecrackers the size of pizza boxes and throwing them 10 feet which is insane. There was so much powder blown up before midnight you cant see 10 feet in front of you.
Hahahahaha...I lived in Subic Bay for several years, but never ventured off base to find out how the Filipinos did it...
You Air Force or USN?
When I was on the USS JFK, we spent one New Years in Naples, and they wouldn’t let anyone go ashore on liberty.
They said that the city had a reputation for that particular night, where it was unsafe to be anywhere in the city.
Apparently, there was some custom about throwing things out of a window to usher in the New Year. They said the Neapolitans took it to a different level and would everything and anything out of upper story windows, and you could get killed. Seriously. Anyway, that is what they told us and I don’t know if that is true, but I can say this: I sat on the flight deck watching Naples from anchorage that night, and it looked like what I thought Beirut must have looked like.