Exiled royals take a 'sentimental journey'

The head of Italy's exiled royal family returned from exile yesterday, but found himself in hostile territory. He may have been born 65 years ago in Naples, but many protesters saw Vittorio Emanuele as a representative of the northern House of Savoy, centuries-old rivals of the Bourbons who once ruled the south.

In an echo of the Middle Ages, the son of Italy's last king was greeted with shouts of "Assassin!" and "Go back Savoys!" by several hundred protesters. One placard read: "Savoys – see Naples and die!" At least one person was taken to hospital as brawls broke out between supporters of the Savoys and others waving banners bearing the coat of arms of the Bourbons, who ruled south Italy for 300 years.

Vittorio went into exile with ex-king Umberto II when he was nine. His last sight of Italy as he sailed away in Umberto's yacht was the Bay of Naples. The new Italian republic banned the family from returning, but there was a change of heart last year. Yesterday Vittorio, his Swiss wife Marina Doria, a former champion skier, and their stockbroker son Emanuele Filiberto, flew from Geneva for a sentimental visit.

But the sentiment has been hijacked by history. "The city is split about their return," said a taxi driver. "People blame Vittorio for the fact that the king supported Mussolini's race laws, leading to the expulsion of the Jews. That's not right, because he was only a child at the time. But most people feel more affectionate toward the Bourbons, who built everything in Naples and made the city great."

The descendants of the two ancient dynasties have been on polite terms for centuries, but Vittorio's decision to return to Naples has infuriated Carlo di Borbone, Duke of Calabria and heir to the defunct throne of the Two Sicilies. "He could have chosen Rome or Turin," he wrote in Corriere del Mezzgiorno, a south Italian daily. "This is not their city. I invite the Neapolitans not to forget that the unification of Italy came about through the forced accession of the south, a fact the history books have been busy forgetting. The Savoys were responsible for the economic collapse of the south. With them all the factories and craftsmen disappeared."

In what locals see as a deliberate bid to recapture the city's heart, the duke and his wife Camilla will return in style to Naples on 23 March.

Vittorio said that Carlo's outburst was "an incomprehensible volte-face".

"I'm returning to the place my heart leads me," he said. "Naples more than Rome is the city of my memories. While Queen Maria Jose was alive, we spoke many times of my dream of seeing Naples again."

All sides insist the visit is private, but its profile could hardly be higher. The seafront Hotel Vesuvio, where they have taken three suites, has been closed to outsiders. Before coming, Vittorio offered a large gift to the city for a hotel for homeless people – it was refused – and another to a Naples hospital to buy equipment to treat infant cancers – accepted. He and his family will attend a Mass at the cathedral, visit the former royal palace, now the national library, to see the room where he was born, and eat a pizza at Brandi's in Via Thiaia where the pizza Margherita was invented – named in honour of his 19th-century forbear, Queen Margherita.

Politics of any kind will be kept off the agenda, but for those waving banners outside the cathedral yesterday, waiting for the ex-royals to arrive, the visit was a reminder of how far the city has fallen.

For most people in this great, crumbling city the visit will pass barely noticed. "The way they organised the visit, it's too swift," said a barber.