Eating Spaghetti by the Fistful Was Once a Neapolitan Street Spectacle

A hungry visitor strolling through the narrow streets of 19th-century Naples would have encountered a wealth of food options—some more tempting than others. Vendors hawked meats and cakes, women cooked up soups and omelets, and goats patiently awaited milking. Among those vying for attention would have been the pasta-sellers tending to cauldrons brimming with long strands of spaghetti writhing in boiling water. The spaghetti would have been fished out of its scalding bath and handed over to hungry men and women who then would have deftly lowered fistful of the noodles into their mouths in one gulp. These were the macaroni-eaters of Naples.