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Naples Starts to Believe

For the first time in three decades, Napoli stands on the cusp of an Italian soccer championship. Its city did not want to waste any time celebrating.

Naples is already celebrating a title it hasn’t won. Credit...Roberto Salomone for The New York Times

NAPLES, Italy — The surveillance room at the Vesuvius Observatory, the oldest volcanology institute in the world, is barely a mile from the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona: a few minutes’ walk, or a single stop on the train line from Napoli’s home. It is just far enough, though, that the noise from the stadium does not quite reach it.