Seeing Naples and not dying

Naples - Tuesday

Friends of ours tend to try and plan their holidays by avoiding ours. In the last five years we have been in the worst hurricane in Cuban's memories (a force 5 hurricane called Gustav), caught in Spain by the Icelandic ash cloud and stuck in New York for a week by hurricane Irene.

We therefore wondered if coming near mainland Europe's biggest active volcano, Vesuvius, was wise. Well it turned out that the volcano behaved itself, so we are not sure what hazard may effect us between now and the end of the holiday!

Naples is a hard City to get your head around. The beauty of the coast and sea are marred by the rubbish on street corners and graffiti. The beautiful old Churches are next to the dead rats and dead pigeons (I'm not sure what killed them but we saw one of the former and three of the latter just laying on the ground.) It has shops of the most fashionable with the latest brands near to run down areas that are the homes of gangs. It has buildings that are 21st century, next to run down, boarded up semi-ruins. 

It was Drew who summed it up for me when he said that he kept forgetting he was in a European City. The town reminded him of the poorer more run down parts of Havana, and had the feel of a third world location like Mumbai with the radical mix of richness and poverty.

Would I have missed it, not in the world, it has all the charm for which it is reputed. I would never have wanted to miss waking up to the sight of Vesuvius or the arc of the bay. But would I go back, well perhaps for the hotel, but whether for anything else well we will see.

Following the advice of our websources, this time it was the Independant who had an artcile on a day in Naples, we began our day at 8.00 walking along Spaccanapoli, this street which means 'split Naples' divides the old town into two and forms the perfect way to get to see the town. At the hour we began the street was only starting to come to life, as the day progressed it became busier and busier. 

We began in the Piazza de Gesu Nuovo beginning with the Church of Gesu Nuovo (picture on the right). Just to be clear this does not mean the Church of the new Jesus, but the new Church of Jesus, there is an old one elsewhere in the town. This church did not allow photographs, but was a load garish renaissance church. How much nicer, at least for me, was the much plainer more functional Basilica di Santa Chiara which was across the road. It is pictured on the left.

From there another walk along the street led us to the Church of St. Dominic another pretty church of late renaissance style. We were then onto Nilo square and another three churches all huddled together the largest being dedicated to St. Angela (pictured above). Taking a side alley off Spaccanapoli we passed another impressive church, this one dedicated to St. George of Armenia. This led onto a street, by now the shops were open, where the worst tat I have ever seen was being sold. Cribs, baby Jesus, other characters from the nativity, all with gaudy lights. There were also statues of secular figures (see above - The Queen, Nelson Mandela and loads of Italian football stars among them) which were all pretty tasteless, but some of the cruise passengers now filling the streets thought they were interesting enough to buy and take home - I think you can guess we did not! Given the number of shops selling this stuff they must get enough interested purchasers.

The next big square we came to, one which links Spaccanapoli with Via dei Tribunali that runs parallel to it, had two large Churches: St. Lawrence (left) and St. Paul’s (right). We stopped in the square for some breakfast (it was 9.30 by now). We had foccacia with tomato and garlic rubbed into it, two coffees and two acqua frizzanete

Beside the Church of St. Paul were the remains of the aqueduct which the Emperor Augustin had built to provide fresh water to the people of Naples (you can see this on the left). The crypt of St. Paul’s had an entry at the level of the street. This led to the tomb of St. Geanto (the English transliteration of this seems to be St Cajetan) and a shrine in his honour pictured on the right above, he died here in Naples, though he was a Venetian by birth. Beside the Church of St. Lawrence was an architectural dig which led into the Roman level of the town, with a number of streets and buildings which retain their ancient style. There were no photographs allowed in the dig.

As we reached the end of Spaccanapoli and tuned to walk up to Via dei Tribunali, to walk back through the old town, we came across a ruined Church - Drew thinks this is representative of Naples one proud but now humbled, run-down and needing some loving care and attention.







Along Via Tribunali we came to the Duomo of Naples. A very different cathedral from those of Florence or Milan. Much smaller in scale, but still with a lot of things to see inside. One of these is the tomb of St Gennaro (Januarius in English) the patron saint of Naples. He is most famous for the tradition that his retained blood liquefies on his feast day. This miracle made Naples a popular pilgrimage site in its day. Cardinal John Henry Newman writes about it having visited Naples after his conversion to Catholicism

The walk down Via dei Tribunali brought us back to the square of St. Paul and this time we saw the entrance to St. Paul’s Church on the side, so went inside. This Church is very decorative, less ornate in a gaudy renaissance way, but still full of pictures and decorated cornices. The church also houses the third saint’s body of the day though this one was not named anywhere I could see.


The walk continued along Via Tribunali past another four or five Churches, until at 12.30 we dropped down from the Old City and into a restaurant called Il Pomoderino. Here we opted for some Neapolitan delicacies. Drew started with Pasta e patate con provola (left), which was a kind of pasta soup with, as the name implies potatoes and provola cheese. I opted for Tufoli alla bella napoli (above right), tufoli is a pasta and it was served with garlic, olive oil, mussels and white beans, typical of this region, in a sauce. Again it was more soup than pasta but was really tasty.

Being in Naples we had to try the pizzas. I opted for one of the most local ones: Pizza Regina Margherita (right), often known in the UK as Pizza Margherita, but in Naples the fact she was queen is celebrated in the title of the pizza. Neapolitan legend has it that this Pizza was created for her visit using the three colours of the Italian flag: red, white and green. With the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil acting as the three colours. Even such a simple pizza, when cooked well, as this one was, can be excellent. The flavours of the three ingredients (four including the base) were a combination to be remembered. Drew opted for another pizza’ – this was Pizza Re Francischello (King Francis - above left) a pizza made of tomatoes and oregano (i.e. no cheese), Drew will certainly try cheese free pizza again as he said it gave a different taste and feel to the pizza all together.

At 1.30 we were back in the hotel, in the air-conditioned pleasure enjoying the views, for the afternoon.

Tomorrow being the Feast of the Assumption (15th of August) and us being on trains for most of the day. I had wondered how to get to Mass, the Assumption is a Holyday of Obligation (a day when Catholics have an obligation to attend Mass) both in Italy and the UK. I had therefore spotted online that a Vigil Mass of the Assumption was being celebrated at 6.30 in the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel near the Port in Naples, it was about a mile along the port road from our hotel. We headed off at 5.45 and got to the Church at 6.15. Drew opted to wait outside, he had planned to walk around this area of town, but it because clear as we got to the Church that this wasn’t the part of Naples that it would be really safe to walk around!! The Church itself was very large and ornate, though at 6.30 it became apparent that a priest had not arrived. The frantic mobile calls indicated one was on his way, but delayed. In the meantime one of the elderly ladies lead the praying of the Rosary and Litany of Loreto at just after 7.00, the priest, an African, arrived and was very apologetic (well as much as I could make out in Italian). It seems he had gone to a different Church with a similar name! The Mass was pleasant and prayerful, with a large congregation, who even after the delay stayed until the end. Drew was safely, if a little worriedly, waiting outside listening to music on his iPod.

We had thought to walk from the Church into that part of the town to look for a restaurant, we both decided that was not an option given the look and feel of the place, so we got back onto the main Port road, and headed back to the parts of town we knew. We found a quaint local restaurant called: Osteria borgo antico. Pictures from inside the restaurant are above.

Drew began with prosciutto e mozzarella and liked it as much as he hoped. I opted for polipo all’insalata and had chunks of octopus served in a way similar to Polpo in Spain with rocket and a slice of lemon.




For the second course Drew opted for Gnocchi alla Sorentina, I’d read about this dish before coming to Naples, but had no idea how much flavour there could be in taking traditional pizza topping (mozzarella, tomato and basil) and putting it over lovely gnocchi. I had linguini alla Luciana (apparently Luciana was the wife of a Naples fishermen), I opted for this as it sounded local, and it turned out that the linguini was served with a different style of polipo. Unlike the starter this was warm and a whole leg of which had been quite a good size octopus. I hope the picture captures the sense of it for you. That long brown thing over the top of the linguini is the octopus's leg.

Drew them opted for Salsicce alla griglia, which turned out to be two pork sausages split open and then roasted on each side over the grill, unusual, but flavoursome, I opted for bistecca al ferri and as the name implies got a small steak cooked medium and still very tasty. We both had insalata (i.e. lettuce) with this.

It was then back to the hotel in time for bed at about 10.30 p.m. There is that part of me which now loves Naples, and that part that knows how dark and terrible some of it is. Overall though it was well worth the visit, and we’ve enjoyed ourselves.