Naples Illustrated

Antwerp's diamond district is as unimpressive as the Belgian weather. There are no neon lights or diamond-shaped signs pointing the way. Even the tourist maps that guide visitors to the city's famous Grote Markt or Kathedraal don't mention it. If it weren't for the police kiosk and anomalous cylinders blocking vehicle access, it would be easy to mistake the drab cement block buildings for postwar housing.

But it's here, on an unmarked, L-shaped street between Antwerp's central train station and pyramidal park, that nine of every 10 of the world's diamonds are cut and polished. So it's here that Gary Sanchez starts his workday, stepping into a world of privileged access and family tradition.

"The best diamonds in the world come from here," says the soft-spoken, witty owner of Diamonds Direct in St. Petersburg. "And that's why I come here."

Sanchez has traveled to Antwerp twice a year for the past decade, spending about three days shopping for diamonds from a select group of cutters whose ancestral lineage is encrusted onto the fiber of the diamond trade - an industry that generates more than $26 billion a year for the prosperous port city.

"Yesterday was a hard day," he says. "A good day is when you find everything you are looking for at the cost you want to pay." On this October day, Sanchez is hunting for several large stones for his Bay area clients, including a 3-carat, high-quality diamond in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, and a marquis or oval diamond for about $30,000.

Passing a Brink's truck, he points out the armed watchmen who lurk in doorways and jewelry shop windows. "These shops are for tourists, so they can say they bought a diamond in the diamond district," he says.