I landed in Naples on Saturday evening. The writer, broadcaster and Italy pundit William Ward, who has kindly put me in touch with several Neapolitans, writes to warn:

"You will notice Naples has the air of a grand metropolis to it: in the Middle Ages it was for a while the second largest city in Europe after Paris, but it's kind of been on a downward spiral ever since. It is the city of the hard luck story par excellence – and is in a state of permanent political/social/economic and logistical crisis (in the sense that the current economic emergency could hardly make things seem any worse).

• If you have a story to tell, know a person I should talk to or live in a place you think I should visit, please contact me: jon.henley@guardian.co.uk, or @jonhenley (the hashtag for this venture is #EuroDebtTales)