"...Naples is still the favorite Navy city. While CDR Morel was visiting the Navy, picking up his pay, Joan and the children toured castles and museums. Joan was wearing a black sweater and black slacks and found out that the color worn by a woman accompanied by children has a special meaning to Italian men. By the time her husband picked them up, she was more than ready to leave..."
My mom was sick as a dog, but with six kids, she had to watch us while my dad took care of things. So she was a good looking woman, dressed in tight black sweater and tight black capri pants if I recall that day correctly, with her black hair all done up in a bun and her black Jackie Onassis sunglasses on, and took all us kids out with her so she could go shopping.
As we walked down the street, all six of us in tow (BEHIND her, of course) the men started madly catcalling her clicking, whistling, and when I saw this picture some years later, all I could think of was that day in Naples as we all walked like ducklings behind her:
I remember her getting madder and madder, but still standing up straight and boring ahead. Boy, was she ever pissed and gave my dad hell for years after for leaving her that day! (I guess the Italian guys thought she was a hot young widow with a lot of kids?)
And of course, having spent a lot of times in the "Armpit of Europe" myself when I served, the comment "Naples is still the favorite Navy city" makes me roll my eyes...yeah, favorite if you like transvestites, piss-flavored Peroni, and a harbor so toxically polluted if you fell in your skin would melt off!