My mom really wanted to go explore downtown Naples. I find Naples confusing, overwhelming, and stressful. So she booked a tour-guide. This solved the confusing problem, but it did not solve the getting to Naples problem, which is where most of the overwhelmingness and stress come from.
I looked into it and it turns out there is a commuter train line that runs with in a 10 minute drive of our house. I told my parents we were going to experiment with taking the train into downtown. The lady behind the ticket counter didn't speak any English, but I managed, in my cave-man Italian to get us tickets and figure out which way the train should be going to get us on in the correct direction.
While I was getting tickets, I noticed many of the other persons at the station just breezing through the open turn style. Nobody stopped them. Maybe we didn't ACTUALLY need tickets after all. Oh well, we had them now. The train ride was uneventful and got us to where I thought it would get us.
We were to meet our guide on the Archaeological Museum steps. We got there an hour early. I buffered in time in case things went horribly wrong with the train experiment. Having an hour to kill, we looked for lunch. We found a great little place called L'etto. It was a buffet style place which is great if you want to try some different Italian foods and you want to do it quickly.
After lunch we met our guide Vincenzo. He was very friendly and clearly had a passion for art and art history. He may have gone into too much detail about the art and things in the churches we looked at. It was informative though. I may not remember much, however.
Our tour was mostly based around the Spaccanapoli which is a street that runs through the old historic downtown part of Naples. Because Naples roadways are chaotic at best, the Spaccanapoli is quite visible in views of the city. (Thanks to Wikipedia for this photo).
This is one of the old gates of the old city.
Naples is the, or one of the, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
So I'm not sure which incarnation of the old city this gate is part of, but it's kind of neat.
On your right is the Chisea di Santa Chiara (Church of Saint Clare). It's very traditional church looking. On the left with the pointy bits is the Chisea della Gesú Nuovo (Church of the New Jesus). There is apparently a Church of the Old Jesus (Gesú Vecchio) elsewhere in town.
We explored Saint Clare first.
Saint Clare has a beautiful cloister garden. It is surrounded by frescos and painted tile work.
Painted tiles!
This one is also a bench.
A depiction of Mary which looks suspiciously like a depiction of Apollo in his chariot.
Why does Mary have lightning bolts?
The nuns were apparently big on feeding animals.
Mom thought this one was appropriate given our army of stray cats that we feed in our backyard here.
Vincenzo told us a lot about the history of the scenes depicted in the tiles and how Christian images were done in the style of the pagan Roman gods to help conversions (see Mary and her lightning), and some other stuff that I don't remember.
Inside the Saint Clare. Saint Clare was originally built in a Gothic style in the 14th century. Sometime in the 17th century it was redecorated in the Baroque style (see New Jesus late in this post). It was heavily bombed and suffered severe fires during WWII. This allowed for the restoration of the original Gothic styling of the church to be recreated as the church was rebuilt.
The tomb of King Robert of Anjou is original to the 14th century church.
The church also has a museum.
These are excavated Roman Baths that were discovered underneath the church's foundations.
This thing has a name, I don't remember what the name is, but it's an unwanted baby drop. This drum would be in the wall of the cloisters or church and the hole would face the outside. When a person wanted to surrender a baby to the church, they would put the baby in the drum and turn it so that the hole would be on the inside. The nuns would then raise the baby. Children surrendered this way were given the surname of Esposito which means "exposed."
This is a picture of a squiggley column.
It was taken solely for Dan, who was upset that the columns at the Acropolis are not any of the three types (and only types) of columns you get taught about in grade-school.
Vincenzo talked much more about the art and the pieces taken from the old Gothic and Baroque versions of the church, but I was bit informationed out at this point.
This concludes our tour of Saint Clare.
Our next tour, New Jesus!
New Jesus
New Jesus has a bizarre facade.
It was originally built to be a palace for Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. This fell through and the building was sold to the Jesuits who already had a Church of Jesus - this became the Church of the Old Jesus, while the unfinished palace became the Church of the New Jesus.
The outside (remember the angry pyramid studded facade?) does not match the Baroque grandeur of the interior. You would not believe the two go together.
Supposedly the pyramid shaped stones were placed incorrectly due to inexperienced masons and it caused the good energy of the church to be sucked out leaving only negative energy. The church befell many misfortunes including fires and the pseudo dome collapsing. However in WWII a miracle happened, a bomb landed on the roof but failed to explode.
There's some other stuff about strange symbols on the stones.
It turns out they're Aramaic, and may create a musical score.
There's some other stuff about strange symbols on the stones.
It turns out they're Aramaic, and may create a musical score.
Doesn't it look like a video game boss level?
Surprise! BAM! BAROQUE EVERYWHERE!
This is the false dome of the New Jesus. If you look at the arches above the windows you can see where the roof line breaks. The dome is a painted forced perspective.
This concludes our tour of the Church of the New Jesus.
Christmas Alley
Christmas Alley is where you go to get anything Christmas related. It is especially where to go if you want to get pieces for your Italian nativity scene. These nativity scenes can be huge and extravagant. Here is a Google Image Search just so you have an idea.
Naples Cathedral or Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary
or
Duomo di Napoli
or
Cathedral of San Gennaro
Take your pick.
Naples Cathedral was built in the 14th century. It is most noted for being the home of a vial of blood of San Gennaro. The blood is brought out twice a year. Each time a miracle happens and the dried blood becomes liquid. If the blood fails to liquify, disaster will befall Naples.
I had previously thought the vial was kept in the Naples Basilica, or Basilica di San Francesco di Paolo. I was wrong. It's here in Naples Cathedral.
We left Vincenzo at this point. I'm not sure how much mom got out of her walking tour, since most of it was 3 churches and Christmas Alley. As I said, Vincenzo knew a lot about art and art history, and was very passionate about both; however, I think we could have done with a little less detailed information and a bit more walking.
At some point during our tour I had the brilliant idea that Dan could drive down and meet us for dinner and then we would all drive back together. This seemed innocent enough at first, until it turns out Dan hit a bit of rush-hour style traffic on top of the regular nonsense that is driving in Naples.
We successfully found each other and headed off to dinner. We went to L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. Vincenzo suggested it over Brandi, the birthplace of the margherita pizza, because Brandi had become expensive and touristy. So we went to Pizzeria Michele.
This is mob waiting to get seated. You forced your way in, found the guy giving out numbers, told them how many people you had, took your number, and waited for it to be called. People got very excited when their number got called. I was one of them. I was hungry.
The menu is limited. I believe you could get one of three pizzas: margherita, marinara, or margherita with double the cheese. Your drink options are: water, beer, and coke.
We all got the margherita with extra cheese, a beer, and a water.
It turns out this is the place from Eat, Pray, Love. So there you are.
After dinner we wandered back to find the car. This proved more difficult than expected.
Dan could not quite remember where the car was parked. We wandered back and forth and around the area a few times. We kept trying to look a Google maps in satellite view to see if anything looked familiar. Dan was irritated, I think because I was annoyed.
How could he not know where the car was?
My parents were amused.
We finally found the place where the car was parked, but the lot had been locked shut. I continued to be annoyed. Dan was not concerned. My parents were still amused.
To free our car Dan was told he was to ring the doorbell for apt # 3 and a guy would come unlock the gate for us.
Dan rang. We waited.
I rang. We waited.
Dan rang again. We waited and started discussing options for getting the car out or getting home.
I held the buzzer down for a bit. We waited.
Dan rang again. We waited.
Finally, a head popped out onto a balcony above us. Dan asked about the lot and a key. The guy on the balcony starts lowering down a plastic bucket. In the bucket is the key for the lot.
Hurray! We can get our car out.
Dan pulls the car out of the lot, I lock the gate behind the car, and return the key to the bucket. I am still a little annoyed. My parents are incredibly amused. Dan just wants to go home and go to bed.
This concludes our adventures for today.
