“Vieni appriesso a me”, it’s a phrase of sincere friendship in Naples. It means: come with me, follow me. Whoever tells you this is asking you to trust him while he promises brotherhood and welcome.
The Neapolitan word “appriesso” has two main origins. The first is French and comes from the words apres which means “afterwards, then ..”, the second comes from the late ancient Latin pressum which means “close”. And in fact also in the Italian language, the regional one, below contains these meanings. But in Naples no.
Appriesso it is used for different meanings and situations. It mainly means follow me, that is, walk behind me so that I can show you the way to go. Both metaphorically and literally. If, for example, we get lost in an alley in Naples and ask for information from a stranger, this stranger is likely to tell us: “Vieni appriesso a me (follow me), I’m going in your same direction”. Or if we are in trouble because of an event in our life and we don’t know what to do, it happens that a dear friend of ours tells us: “Vieni appriesso a me, that is, trust me. Do what I tell you and you will see that everything will work out”.
It also has a geographical meaning. If we are in Naples and we have to go to a new place, it may happen that we ask the salesman of a shop for directions because we do not find the house number of the building in which we are headed. And so he will say to us: “Sta ‘cca, ‘o palazzo appriesso. It is there, in the adjacent building (or following this one here)”.
But the most beautiful and romantic meaning of this word is in its meaning of love. When in Naples a girl is courted by a boy it is said that that boy “va appriesso a lei”, that is, follows her with the mind. He lives behind her because he tries to reach her heart.
And finally it can also be a word often used by mothers who have to take care of very young children. Mothers in Naples “vanno appriesso” to their children because they are trying to keep them safe. Safe means first of all that they don’t get hurt but above all that they don’t follow a bad path.
Neapolitan Dialect Of The World 