During Valentine's anywhere - not only in the West - streets and shops are usually filled with chocolate, stuffed animals and flower sellers, amongst other items to gift a loved one.
Same goes for Naples Italy, where at the start of February the shops started to change their window designs and advertisements for the upcoming celebrations in honor of the ascribed Saint. Most of the alleyways also had garlands with heart and other love signs. The weekend before February 14th, the atmosphere in the city even changed to a more jovial crowd and the streets were packed with people. More than the week before.
And though street artistry is common during the rest of the year, it seemed as if they matched their craft to that of the celebratory day. There were musicians, singers, sand artists, cartoon sketchers and other artists in the streets. Another popular item being sold - not only on Valentine's - are those chilli pepper (or "corno" in Italian) looking souvenirs, that are believed to fend off evil.
Of course there were also the usual items being sold, like clothing, bags, suitcases, shoes, fish, cheeses and produce. We were even approached by socks and flower sellers a couple of times. During that week they even sold confetti, that was abundantly used seeing the streets filled with its residue.
After strolling around the city, we needed a pick-me-up and looked for an artisan coffee street seller Don Café - Street Art Coffee, who prepares coffee the authentic Neapolitan way. We were bummed - because the stall was closed - that we either missed it or that it was closed on that specific day, but on our way back to our apartment we happened to run into Don Café's at an entirely different spot. We ordered two cups without sugar and asked for the price and the coffee maker said "whatever we want", meaning whatever we think it's worth. That cup surely hit the right spot.
