Page  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

Sunday, 24 June. We drove to the Duomo (Assumption of Mary Cathedral - c.1300) for Mass. After breakfast at a nearby bar, we phoned home to check on our boys. We then visited the San Martino Museum (1368), originally a large monastery complex. It had spectacular views of the City, as well as of Mt. Vesuvius. Right above it was star-shaped Castel Sant’ Elmo (1368) with even better views, but we did not take the time to visit it.

Next we went to the Royal Palace (1620) in the Piazza del Plebiscito. A unique feature of the Palace, added in 1888, was a series of eight niches around the façade displaying statues of prominent rulers going back to the founding of the Kingdom of Naples in the 12th century. They were in chronological order by dynasty.

Our next stop was the Basilica of San Francesco di Paola (1816) The design of this church is quite remarkable. The center section is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, but it has a wide sweeping colonnade on each side reminiscent of St. Peter’s Square in Rome. We were delighted to hear a beautiful violin solo of Schubert's Ave Maria while we were in the church.

After a quick lunch, we drove down the east side of the Bay to Resina (renamed Erculano in 1969), the modern city built on the ruins of the Roman resort town of Herculaneum. The old town was almost at the foot of the volcano so it is not surprising that it was buried under 60 feet of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Like the nearby city of Pompeii, Herculaneum is famous as one of the few ancient cities to be preserved more or less intact, with no later accretions or modifications. The thick layer of ash protected it against looting and the elements. Unlike Pompeii, the mainly pyroclastic material that covered Herculaneum carbonized and preserved wood in objects such as roofs, beds, and doors, as well as other organic-based materials such as food and papyrus. Herculaneum was smaller, but much wealthier than Pompeii. It was a popular seaside retreat for the Roman elite, so the houses were bigger and more luxurious.

The traditional story is that the city was rediscovered by chance in 1709, during the digging of a well, but remnants of the city had been found much earlier. Regular excavations began in 1738, and have continued intermittently ever since. Yet only about a quarter of the ancient site has been excavated because the modern city sits right of top of it. From the ruins, you can look up the almost vertical cliff and see modern buildings along the highway (Via Mare) almost hanging over the edge.

For most of our visit, there were no other tourists there in this hot weather, so we had the place to ourselves, except for the lone attendant on duty who showed us around. Some of the more famous buildings we saw include the Villa of the Papyri, House of the Deer, the House of Neptune, the bath houses, and a two-story bordello.

Finally, exhausted from walking in the 100 degree heat, we drove back to our pensione in Naples. We intended to have our final dinner in Naples at one of the tourist trap restaurants in the famous Santa Lucia neighborhood on the bay. There was still plenty of daylight left, though, so as we drove down the Riviera di Chiaia toward Santa Lucia, we stopped to visit the Villa Communale, the most prominent park in Naples, with French gardens, fountains and statuary. It was a very pleasant place to spend an hour. (At the time, we did not realize that, just across the Riviera di Chiaia, on the landward side, was the Museo Pignatelli (1826), as well as the Palazzo Pignatell di Strongoli. Prince Guido Pignatell, of this family, had until recently been a co-worker of Darrell at SETAF in Verona, and Guido and his wife, Barbara, were still close personal friends.)

Arriving at Santa Lucia, we picked a restaurant at random as we walked down Via Peartenope, the street along the Bay. Although we ate inside, we had a marvelous view of the Bay, with Castel d’Ovo right in front of us. The isle it stands on (Megaride) is where there first human settlement in the area took place. The castle is the oldest standing fortification in Naples.

Strolling musicians in the restaurant came to our table playing old Neapolitan songs, and Jane surprised them by singing along in Italian to O Bella Piccinina, Santa Lucia and others old Neopolitan favorites. We both ordered spaghetti alle vongole (clams) for the pasta course, followed by a grilled freshly caught fish. When Darrell paid the bill with a L.10,000 note, he was keenly alert as the waiter counted out the change because these places were notorious for cheating tourists. Darrell felt something was not quite right, but he waited until we were outside before he recounted his change. Aha! By clever sleight of hand, the waiter had short-changed us by one L.1,000 note ($1.60). We considered going back in to challenge him, but decided there was no point in doing so. It was rasre that arrell was ever been successfully short changed, and he grudgingly admired the waiter for his cleverness. On the way back to our pensione, Darrell began to feel sick, possibly from the clams, and he had a miserable night.

Page  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

 

Home  

Copyright © 2000-2023  DarrellPeck.com  All rights reserved.