Roman Holiday
I spent two days in Rome; it was a bit of a whirlwind but still fantastic. Today I got to see the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s. It had been a while, so I was happy. Here’s a picture in St Peter’s, with Bernini’s towering bronze baldacchino over the altar with the dome above. Tomorrow off to Orvieto.
Pompeii’s Treasures
I spent the morning at Pompeii today, exploring the ruins with MANY other tourists. I thought this was the ‘shoulder season’. I guess with a site like Pompeii there’s always lots of visitors. It’s still marvelous. I was able to see some new things this time, such as a villa that was just opened up in Regio I (one of Pompeii’s nine sectors or ‘Regii’), as well as the Forum Baths. Everyone loves the more famous mosaics and frescoes of Pompeii, but another pictorial and decorative art form was stucco relief sculpture, which decorated many of the baths and villas. Here’s an elegant figure in one the apodyterium (changing room) of one of the bath complexes. She lifts a knee to support a cornucopia, a symbol of fertility and plentitude. Perhaps she is Persephone. As in many of Pompeii’s decorations, there is an eroticism to the image, the figure is partially nude and seems to toss off her diaphanous dress.
Majolica Tiles of Santa Chiara
The cloister of the nuns of Santa Chiara in Naples is best known for hundreds of panels of majolica tiles as well as 64 tiled pillars. It’s quite a sight. They have scenes you wouldn’t expect in a nunnery: triumphs of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses, scenes of peasant dancing and games, hunting scenes, and so on–all of them decidedly unchristian and secular. But the colour and vibrancy is impressive. It was my last day here in Naples after a wonderful two-week stay. Still, with all that time there were still things to see. Maybe I’ll get to them next time.
Old World Craft
It’s not often you pass a lute maker’s shop, but I passed by this one today while exploring the incomparably interesting streets of Naples’ historical center. It was my last day in Naples, the end of a fantastic two-week visit. Tomorrow it’s off to Ravello/Amalfi and more adventures with a Smithsonian Journeys group; a 17-day trip through northern Italy.
Dante’s Real Inferno
This morning I took the train to Pozzuoli to see the Solfatara, the calderas of old fumaroles and volcanos created by the same geological forces that created nearby Mount Vesuvius. The yellow and orange are deposits of sulfur and other minerals, the stones too hot to touch. According to mythology, this very place was the home of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. A couple of volcanologists were there with their equipment taking measurements. Of what I haven’t a clue, but it was interesting to watch them work, sticking tubes in the steam vents and injecting fluids. They were like volcano doctors probing their patient. The Solfatara is inside a larger geological area called the ‘Campi Flegri’ or ‘Phlegraean Fields’, known to volcanologists the world over. I wish I had a scooter to go around and explore the area, which consists of several calderas. Maybe next time.
Naples by Foot
I walked many miles today, but saw some great things. I started by going to the Montesanto station, which is a complex nexus of transportation in Naples, intersecting a train station, a funicular station, and a metro station. I went for the train; the ‘Cumana’ line, which takes you out to Pozzuoli and other stations further west. At Pozzuoli there is a Roman amphitheater, one of the largest, and much better preserved than the one at Capua. Later in the day I visited the imperial bath complex at Baia, which was fantastic even in a light rain (I made a short video of part of the site, which you can see here). At the end I managed to fit in a quick visit to Cuma, an ancient site where, from the acropolis, you can see the island of Capri to the south. This picture was taken at the amphitheater at Pozzuoli, a Roman statue long ago snapped off at the ankles, leaving a disembodied foot for posterity.
Alice Pasquini, Naples
I did a little research and found out that ‘Alice’ is Alice Pasquini. She’s featured in a half-hour documentary on Naples street art called Street Heart (her part starts at about 12 minutes into the film). The film is imbedded in the website (link on title above). It gives a good sense of the streets of old Naples and how the artists use the decay of the city’s walls as an opportunity to create some aesthetic and colour where nothing but dissolution and grey walls otherwise appear.
Another Alice
This is the third work I’ve found in Naples done by the graffiti artist who signs her name ‘Alice’. She’s Naples’ best mural street artist. All three pieces are portraits of women (see earlier posting) and all beautifully realized in quick strokes of colour. The characters are preternaturally alive and seem to look out of the walls into the street, and all I’ve found are tucked into intimate facets of the city’s decaying and much vandalized walls. People respect her work; nobody ever paints over an ‘Alice’.
Girlwatching
Even if you’re a struggling Indian fellow selling cheap umbrellas in Naples’ streets it’s hard not to notice the beautiful women of the city. I took this picture on the Via Benedetto Croce, named after the famous philosopher, who died in Naples in 1952. I appreciated the man’s brief and spontaneous delight in what otherwise must be a hugely difficult life. Their lives are separated by a huge cultural and socio-economic gulf, but in this picture they share an almost intimate space, if only for a millisecond. Only later did I notice the heart that was tucked into the right hand side of the picture.
Promising a Lot
This cafeteria promises a lot, and with the winning smile of the proprietor (note that beside his head is the word ‘PERFECTO’) it just might deliver. I just took the picture. Fewer calories. This is part of my series on Neapolitan store fronts.
Room of the Barons
In the mid-fifteenth century a huge ‘Room of the Barons’ was built in the Castello Nuovo in Naples. The room is unimpressive until you look up and see this huge rib vaulted dome overhead, designed like a giant flower’s petals. Just another of the great works of architecture to be found here in Naples.
Prayer Lamps
In a lot of Italian churches these days they don’t allow actual candles or flame lamps for the devoted to leave for prayers. Instead, there are little electric candles and you put a coin in and they flicker for a few hours. Somehow it doesn’t quite do the trick, though it’s much better for the air quality inside the church and better, too, for the works of art around the altars. This may be a devotional scene you won’t be able to see a few years from now. By then, there will be an app for that.
The Shepherd
In early Christian art it was much more common to depict Christ as a young shepherd rather than the bearded, long-haired hippie we usually associate with him. In these fourth-century mosaics in the baptistery of San Giovanni delle Fonte in Naples there are four such examples of Christ the shepherd; here’s one of them. These 1600 year-old images give us a rare glimpse into the early years of the religion, just decades after the once illegal cult had become the religion of the empire.
