See Naples And Don't Die

At the beginning of April 2004 I spent 24 hours in Naples (on my way to Sardinia), I´d like to take you with me and show you what I saw. I stayed in a hotel in the historical centre, Hotel Sansevero in Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 9; 70 Euro for a single room (clean, quiet, nice modern furniture, small breakfast).

I left my luggage in the station (3 Euro for 12 hours, when you reclaim your luggage you pay the rest) and only took my night things in a rucksack with me and went by underground to Montesanto station as advised. After getting to the surface I found myself in the middle of a street market; whatever you think of street life in Naples is right, rows of stalls with clothes, shoes, music cassettes, fruit and vegetables, fish and octopus, you name it, they sold it and hundreds of people bustling and shouting.

I met many friendly people, once when I was looking into my guide book an elderly man stopped and asked me in English and in German if he could help me. I couldn´t help thinking that he may have been one of the so-called papagalli (literally ´parrots´) who used to run after us and got on our nerves with their harassing and pestering behaviour (we didn´t like it, I know that many foreign women came only for them) when I (blond, tall) was in Naples the first time with a girl-friend of mine (blond, tall). We stayed with a friend we´d got to know in London in a language course, once she became so cross that she went to a policeman to complain with the result that he joined the group of whistling and yodelling young men! The Neapolitans are certainly a special tribe, the other Italians say that they´re so quick because they have one gear more than the rest of the population, some love, others detest this depending on their own disposition.

Some 50 m to the right and I was on the Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, (another church there and a pretty coffee bar with tables outside and the most delicious pastries, unfortunately the place is the meeting point of lowlife scum at night) where I found my hotel on the first floor of an enormous palace. Looking out of the reception hall across the inner courtyard I saw a workshop with men making mandolins, very typical, the centre of Naples is full of workshops and small factories. I was in the heart of the old city, but I decided to leave its exploration for the evening, first I wanted to see another part.

So on to the Piazza del Plebiscito and the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace). If you´ve never seen a Royal Palace you should certainly go in, but I was there in 1965 and doubt that it has changed much, besides I´ve seen other Royal Palaces elsewhere, so I skipped it.

Dusk was setting in when I walked back. To the left of Via Toledo there are the (in)famous Spanish Quarters, two-storey houses built in the 16th century for the Spanish soldiers when Naples was under Spanish rule. In summer it´s cool in the narrow alleyways, when it´s too hot to stay inside life takes place outside, washing lines cross the street, housewives lower a basket with money inside when the street vendors come with their goods; should you know the film Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni you know what I´m talking about. I looked into an open door, saw a tiny room with a big bed, two chairs, a sideboard with a telly on it and a woman watching TV, didn´t look very romantic to me. Poverty rules here, unemployment is more common than employment, it´s here that the people live who sell smuggled ciggies on the black market and where brand goods are faked.

I wandered aimlessly through the maze of streets, once I came to a kind of half-open court yard with a fountain, decorated with garlands of bright plastic flowers and a statue of Maria and Jesus, the whole scene illuminated by flashing light bulbs. It was by now pitch dark, wasn´t I afraid? No, I was not, the tourist season hadn´t begun yet, the crooks seemed to still be hibernating, I hid my belongings nevertheless, it wasn´t very warm and I wore a light summer coat with my handbag underneath, not very becoming round the hips but safe. Ignorance is bliss! My husband told me later that only some days before a young woman had been killed in one of those streets when two thugs of the Camorra (the Neapolitan Mafia) decided to have a shoot out in the street and a stray bullet hit her.

Back to the quarter where my hotel was, oh my feet! and cobblestones everywhere. The artery of the historical centre is the long street (really two streets with different names, but they appear like one) in whose middle the Piazza Gesù Nuovo with the baroque church is (Remember? I was there in the morning), called Spaccanapoli in dialect (split Naples [into two parts]), narrow and flanked by high houses giving it a gloomy atmosphere with restaurants or shops (open until late evening) selling either food or souvenirs which often are produced on the premises. The most famous street is a small one to the left, San Gregorio Armeno, where each house has a workshop producing and selling statues of saints and Nativity scenes. Tourists can enter and watch the craftspeople work, look attentively, often the shepherds have the faces of politicians, footie or pop stars!

The following morning I visited the Chapel Sansevero just around the corner from my hotel (open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed on Tuesday, sorry, have forgotten the price of the ticket). It was built at the end of the 16th century in the baroque style but is not as pompous as the church Gesù Nuovo, it is small, just one big room with perfect proportions. Art lovers from all over the world go there to admire the wonderful marble statues, in the middle of the room lies a more than life-size statue of Christ covered with a veil, a female statue, not a religious character, standing to the left of the altar is also veiled, but the veil is made of marble, it is so fine, from a distance it looks like a silk cloth. My fingers itched, I wanted to touch the statues, also the one standing to the right, a male figure covered by a loose net, the loops about 5cm long, made of marble, incredible, the two guards don´t stand there for nothing! This chapel alone is worth a visit.

I could easily have filled the rest of the day, although I had also seen the Archeological Museum during my first visit I´d have liked to see it again, it houses the finds from Pompej and Hercolano among other fine things. I would also have liked to do a tour through Underground Naples which I haven´t seen yet, there is an enormous cave system which has been used by the inhabitants for more than 2000 years (Naples was founded by the Greeks), but my time was up. Back to the station, I reclaimed my luggage and took a normal bus to the airport, only 15-20 minutes away, no need for an expensive shuttle or taxi. On the way the Vesuvio can be seen if it can be seen, but the upper part was still in clouds when I left.