Weekend in Naples

My sister in law's visit corresponded with a weekend My Girl was scheduled to be out of town for a soccer match so we took advantage and headed to Naples.  The team plans changed so My Girl got a little practice at adulting on her own.  Good practice for the future.

Naples has been inhabited for three millennia and has an interesting and complicated history.  It started as a Greek colony, then grew to be a major city, Neapolis, in Magna Grecia, part of ancient Greece.  As Rome grew it took over the area and eventually all of what had been Greece.  The coastal areas surrounding Naples were the playground of the wealthy, peppered with palaces of the Roman elite.  

After the fall of Rome, the area was ruled by a tangled string of foreign powers, but remained somewhat independent.  It changed hands between the Byzantines, Ostrogoths, and Lombards.  Later the French Angevins took their turns with what was then the Kingdom of Naples.  Under the Norman King Roger II, the area was wealthy, fairly peaceful, and cosmopolitan.  More wars, more occupations, and more kingdoms later... During the period of Spanish rule in the 16th century, Naples was a wealthy and sophisticated Baroque capitol in part because of its central location for Mediterranean trade.  After the area was conquered by Napoleon and united with Sicily into the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, Naples retained its shine for while, but was soon left behind as trade routes shifted and Northern and Western Europe became more industrialized.

Really.  So complicated.  I tried to sort it all out and get a solid time line of who controlled what when, but gave up.  The short story:  Naples was a big wealthy center of things twice, but both very long ago.  The history is much like the city.  Kind of cool and kind of a mess.

In 1860 Naples was forced to unify with the North into the Italy we recognize today.  With industry and wealth now concentrated in the North, the agricultural South suffered.  A power vacuum was filled by the mafia which is still present today.  Naples had once been Italy's wealthiest city, but after unification poverty prevailed and many residents emigrated to the United States and other countries.  This is why the Italian American culture we know in New York and New Jersey is distinctly Southern Italian.  

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the centuries of outside control and influence Naples is a unique city of chaos.  My guide book says that Italy intensifies as you go south.  So true.  Florence is clean and orderly.  Rome is chaotic and a bit dirty, but still has a level of sophistication and charm.  Naples is a distinctly gritty city where everything is big and loud and more is more is more.  Did I like it?  Yes, for a bit, but I think the Roman middle ground is about right for me.  It I had come here fresh from the US I think it would have been too much.

We only had a short time to scratch the surface of Neapolitan cuisine.  It is so different from Rome, more similar to Sicily, but still uniquely its own.  Notably it is the birthplace of pizza, so we had to try a few of the local versions.  It is cooked hot and fast.  I like a bit of char on the crust and a middle that isn't too soupy.  A full pizza is considered a single person serving, but if you choose well it isn't overwhelming.  Simple is usually better.  Multiple heavy cheeses can be a lot.

One of the big differences was the desserts.  Roman desserts, except for gelato, range from forgettable to not good at all.  It is different in Naples.  The years of colonization were good for their food.  Sugar came from North Africa to the south and years of control by the German Lombards, French Normans, and Napoleon also helped.  For good dessert culture I think you need to be far enough south that you got sugar from the Arabic people or far enough north that you are on the far side of the butter/olive oil line.  Naples, surprisingly, got both.

Lemon cake typical of Sorrento

Outside view from our hotel

Inside Galleria view

Inside view from our room

We stayed in a charming hotel tucked under the eaves of the Galleria Umberto I.  It is a shopping center built in the 1890s and still going today.  Umberto I was the second king of Italy (1878-1900), the son of Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy and his wife Maria of Austria and queen of Sardinia. There are shops on the ground floor and offices and apartments above.  Our hotel was likely a series of apartments or servant's quarters back in the day.  The strangest feature was the coin activated elevator.  During business hours you need a 10 cent coin to activate the elevator going up or down.  No coins were required after 7pm or on the weekend.  Thankfully, the hotel provided us with two coins each time we left so that we could get down and back.

Near the port is one of three castles in Naples.  This is the New Castle built around an existing church at the end of the 13th century by Charles of Anjou, the Angevin king from Northwest France.  The Medieval Angevin Empire included England, Ireland, and parts of present day France.  A century and a half later it was rebuilt by the Aragonese (Spanish) rulers and the style shifted from Medieval castle to Renaissance fortress.  We didn't get to go inside, but we did get to see the base of one of the towers in the new metro station.

On our first day we spent most of our time in the National Archeological Museum.  All the bits and bobs from Pompeii and Herculaneum are on display.  When you visit the archeological sites you can see the buildings, but they are mostly empty.  All the loose items and even pieces of wall frescoes and mosaic floors are in the museum.

Fresco detail

We started on the top floors with the frescoes and mosaics since that is what we were most interested in.  We ran out of time and energy before we got to the marble sculptures on the bottom floor.  I guess I'll just have to go back another time.

I really like the detail on the frescoes.  Such beautiful artistry.  It's pretty amazing how vibrant the colors are even after nearly 2000 years.  I can appreciate that the panels were removed to preserve them indoors, but it is quite a different experience to see them in place.

Fresco detail

Ancient glass bowl

There is something about ancient glass that fascinates me.  There are both colorful and clear pieces.  The colored pieces look rather modern in spite of being some of the oldest.  The clear glass can have an iridescent sheen that is quite beautiful.  I can just imagine the little bird shaped vials filled with precious scented oils.

The glassware was displayed among housewares which included items made of bronze, silver, and glass.

Gladiator helmets

Floor mosaic detail

I just love mosaics and birds, so bird mosaics are just awesome.  These water birds were particularly elegant looking, even though the duck above is a little derpy.

There was a section of the museum where the floors were ancient mosaics that had been removed and placed in the palace turned museum in a different time with very different attitudes toward historical items.  This was a special section displaying items from Magna Grecia, Greek Southern Italy before it was Roman.  We enjoyed both the floors and the items on display.  It was a little strange to be walking on these ancient artifacts, but they are floors after all.  The only concession to their history and value was that we were asked to wear protective booties over our shoes.

Magna Grecia exhibit with ancient mosaic floors

Pottery from Magna Grecia - Eye cup

I was interested in the different motifs that we saw repeated.  One was the protective eye.  Sometimes it is called an evil eye, but it was really meant to protect people from harm.  In the museum I first noticed it painted on ships in frescoes from Pompeii.  It then appeared on the eye cup from Magna Grecia and then in a floor mosaic.  We were trying to figure out what the image was in the floor mosaic below the castle walls.  It took a minute to recognize the bow of the ship and the eyes.  It helped that I had noticed a similar image in a fresco that was much clearer.  

The eyes on ships may have been painted on, but stone eyes have also been found in ship wrecks and harbors.  There are a couple theories about why the eyes appear on ships.  They could have been used to make the ship a living thing like Jason's Argo from Greek mythology.  Perhaps they represented the eyes of a deity who could watch out for the ship and sailors, or they may have been symbolic protectors against evil and envy, much like the blue glass eyes common in Greece.  In any case, the overall idea was good fortune and protection.

I was also curious about all of the dolphins.  In ancient artwork dolphins symbolize romance and are connected to the goddess Venus, since she was born from the sea.  They do seem to pop up everywhere in these ancient seaside towns.  They are also repeated in a lot of Baroque statues that depict Classical themes.

Floor detail - Back of boat with eye designs

View of Vesuvius across the bay of Naples

I thought we would spend a few hours at Herculaneum, but we spent most of the day exploring the ruins.  Herculaneum is a town that was destroyed in the same volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii, its more famous neighbor.  Pompeii was covered in ash, but Herculaneum was buried in superheated mud that turned to stone.  As a result the ruins were preserved differently.  The main difference is that a city was built above Herculaneum, but not Pompeii.  For this reason only part of the city has been fully excavated.  Instead of exposing more of the ancient city, 19th century archeologists carved tunnels beneath the newer city above to continue their exploration.

Another big difference is that the wood didn't burn in the same way.  Hot embers set Pompeii on fire.  In Herculaneum there are wooden beams, doors, and even a boat that were carbonized, but are still remarkably intact.

I loved seeing the frescoes on site.  It really helps in visualizing what the rooms might have looked like.

The city is now further from the sea than it was in 79 AD.  You can see the sea wall and the villa that would have had amazing water view.  I can imagine the beautiful people of Herculaneum lounging in the evening watching the sun set over the sea.

On our last day we decided to ride a funicular up a hill and see a castle/fortress perched on top.  We wandered around a bit and stopped in a few shops to escape the rain, including a shop that sells coral and cameos.  These are both quite traditional for the area.  The work is beautiful and the older shopkeeper entertaining and the perfect salesman.  It is still a family business which I love.  They have a couple of workbenches set up in the shop, one for carving and one for settings, so that you can see the process.  Most of the cameos are carved by artisans around the city and surrounding area.  It was interesting that they had a tray in a corner specifically for LDS items with images of Christ and LDS temples.  The most traditional cameos are white figures with a darker background, but there were some that were quite interesting with layers of light and dark mother of pearl.

After the cameo shop we headed into the Castel Sant'Elmo, a star shaped castle fortress on top of one of the highest hills in Naples.  It was interesting to see how it was built, a combination of carving into the hill and using the removed material as bricks to build the structures above.  The 16th century fortress was built on top of and around an existing 13th century house under the direction of a Spanish viceroy.  After that it served many purposes, including miliary prison, before becoming a museum.

There are cannons pointed right in my direction

Certosa e Museo di San Martino below the fortress

Naples and Vesuvius - Pano shot distortions

View to Capri

The Spaccanapoli

From the side looking into the city you can see the Spaccanapoli, one of the main streets from the old Greco-Roman city.  This is where you find most of the old churches and historical sites.  We didn't get to explore this area.  I'll just have to come back.

Steps all the way down

The funicular ride up was deceptively short.  The walk down the steps reminded us just how high we were above the town.  We descended the hill into the Spanish quarter.  It is another step up in chaos and congestion.  The streets are narrow and crowded but straight.  The street grid is the only orderly thing in the whole neighborhood.

The Spanish Quarter

Neapolitan purses

It was fun to look in windows at fashions.  It is a riot of color and texture.  I can appreciate it, but personally, the further north I go the more I like the clothes.  The Netherlands was good.  Sweden might be better.

My sister in law and I are great travel buddies.  There are friends and then there are friends you can travel with.  It is a rare find.

P.S.

Playing soccer, but not at Naples

This picture was taken by a teammate's brother and is from a couple weeks ago so it isn't from the game in Naples.  It's a great action shot from a game against a very physical team.  I also particularly like the Dazzle stripe uniforms.