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.
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