Bistecca – stile Napoli

I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Fantastic feast. The last one is my little street with the sign above my hotel.

Sunday in Naples

It’s Sunday today, and things are quieter, even in my part of the city. Although it is the tail end of the afternoon rest, perhaps things will pick up a bit shortly.

Back at the hotel, the skies clouding over, looking back on the day.

First was a short walk north up Via Toledo to the Museo Archeologico Nationale. What a treat it was, but what a perfect example of the problems this city faces. The building itself it quite grand, huge, ancient, but completely run down. Like everything else in this city, the facade is chipped and dirty with a thick coat of graffiti on the lower level, the grounds full of weeds and garbage. This is their main museum. It would have been shocking if I hadn’t been forewarned.

My guidebook said that while the museum houses one of the finest collections of Ancient Roman artifacts anywhere, the museum itself is chronically underfunded and understaffed. Certain rooms are only open on a rotating basis because they simply don’t have enough money to keep everything open all the time. The lighting is bad, the floors are dirty, the walls are faded and cracked. But all that is forgotten when you are faced with the magnificent collection they have in there.

It was true that several sections were closed, but I spent hours in there as it was. Mostly housing artifacts salvaged from Pompeii and Herculaneum, it had the best collection of Roman statuary I’ve yet seen – better than I saw in Rome. One wing dedicated purely to wall frescos, one to mosaics, there was even a Pompeii Porn room (not the official name) – the naughtier frescos and statues, giant phalluses and the like. All of this just shy of 2000 years old. These painting are astounding – not just that they’ve survived this long and ave miraculously been transported in tact, but the beauty of them. And like everything here, there’s a minimum of tourists cluttering it up. I was able to browse at my leisure for hours.

Next I made my way to the Chisea of Santa Chiera – one of many beautiful churches in this city – though even they don’t escape the graffiti. The church itself was closed – or at least closed to the likes of me – Sunday after all, there was a service in progress, and unlike a lot of these old churches that seem to serve only a decorative purpose, this one was full of people. The point here isn’t the church though – it’s the old cloisters in the back. An enclosed square, a grove of orange trees in its centre, surrounded and bisected by the brightest most beautiful frescos and mosaics – blues and yellows and reds, painted on the walls, painted on the tiles. A fountain in the centre. A group of nuns passing through. And the sound of a choir singing Panis Angelicus filtering out from the church. A beautifully serene moment.

After that it was the Duomo – the main Cathedral. This was open, and completely enchanting. A chapel off to one side full of little gold boxes with glass fronts – in them the bones of martyrs.

Making my way across town. Down to the marina to see what the situation will be with the ferry to Capri – somewhat chaotic by the looks of things – easy enough to get there in a few days, but getting back, and then getting from the marina to the train station to Florence, well, I daresay that will be a trying day that I’ll do my best not to think about until I have to. Past the Castel Nuovo – closed unfortunately, almost lost in a sea of cranes and construction, its moat drained and full of scaffolding and random rusted junk. And then back up to the Piazza Trieste e Trento near my hotel for a late lunch. A fashion photoshoot underway in front of the fountain across the square.

Getting tired, but not quite done yet, I took the Funicolare to the top of the mountain that rises up behind me here, to the Castel di San Martino. A huge old medieval fortress – all towers and battlements. The most breathtaking views – the whole city, the bay, Vesuvius, and far out across the water, shrouded in mist, Capri. Startling how silent it was up there. All this noise, none of it makes it up there. You’d never know, but for the low haze of smog covering the city, that all this chaos was going on down below. The apartments were nicer up there, bigger and newer, the cars cleaner, the people better dressed – it must be that in Naples, if you can afford it, you live up above the city. The air was noticeably cleaner.

And then back down the mountain home, where I’ll stay for the next little while, lounging out here on the patio, until evening falls and it’s time to venture out again.

Big day tomorrow with all manner of subways and trains and stations to navigate through. Hopefully these clouds burn off by morning. All for now.

Good morning Naples

The bells rang at 7 – no one around here could have slept through them. There’s an old church nearby, and this hotel was once a convent. The horns kept honking until the wee hours. Now just after 8, awaiting the delivery of my breakfast, the streets are (somewhat) quiet below.

After breakfast it’s off to the museum, then just exploring the city further afield from my little corner. I think I’ve decided to divide Pompeii and Herculaneum into two days – attempting to do them in one, as I’ve planned, would have involved rising very early, and returning very late, and rushing through everything in between. I think I’ll be able to see what this city as to offer today, then tomorrow Pompeii, then Herculaneum the next day. Then I can relax a bit.

Breakfast should be here shortly. I’ll finish this later.

Breakfast is here. The sky is full of swallows