Our first stop this morning was the nearby Duomo, where
workers were busily upending pews and kneelers so they could buff the floors in
preparation for the remainder of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. The nave, with its huge and ornate high
altar, is rivaled by two side “chapels”, more like churches themselves. One, dating from the fourth century and said
to be the oldest in the city, is quite stark, but has beautiful mosaics in a
side altar. The other, dedicated to San
Gennaro, the city’s patron saint, is totally over the top, with an
extraordinary amount of silver and marble ornamentation and bronze
statuary. The chapel contains
reliquaries which hold vials of the hardened blood of San Gennaro which are
said to liquefy three times a year, to cheers and exhortations from the
assembled crowds.
Still in the Centro Storico, we visited the church of San
Lorenzo Maggiore, built atop an ancient Roman road, and adjacent to the Via San
Gregorio Armeno, home to craftsmen and vendors of the city’s famous presepi
(Nativity scenes and figures), many of which have nothing to do with Christ or
the Holy Family. The tiny (and
not-so-tiny) figurines include athletes, movie stars, tradesmen, craftspeople,
vendors and their wares, none of whom I recall from the Gospel accounts of the
Christmas story!
We wandered into the cloister of the convent of San Gregorio
and, along with two young Neapolitan women, were greeted by a woman who works
in the convent and its school; she graciously guided us through the lovely
cloister and the upper level of the church (where the cloistered nuns attended
Mass from behind a screen). It seems
that, though we’d entered an area where we really should not have been, we were
warmly welcomed and given a private tour!
While we could understand some of the rapid-fire information our “guide”
presented, we were grateful for the informal translation of one of our fellow
trespassers! It was quite a
serendipitous experience, all around.
We returned to the narrow Via Tribunali and followed it out
to the busy Piazza Dante, full of the stalls of second-hand booksellers,
produce and general merchandise vendors.
We walked the length of Via Toledo, following the busy shopping street, lined
with converted palazzi, and hotels. On
either side of the modern thoroughfare were the narrow side streets
characteristic of this city -- choked with people, motorcycles, packed houses,
and hanging laundry. The Spanish
quarter, if possible, is even more tightly packed than other neighborhoods, and
its juxtaposition so close to the commercial boulevard is striking. 
When we reached the huge Piazza del Plebicito, there was a
military review under way, part of the observance of the anniversary of the
constitution. At a nearby overlook, we
had good view of the harbor and Bay of Naples below. We reached the shore through the upscale St.
Lucia neighborhood and walked the broad bay-side boulevard until reaching a
park, where we ate lunch. En route to
the Piazza Amadeo Metro station, we had a gentle ascent along a street filled
with very high-end designer shops, jewelers, restaurants and hotels. We boarded the train there and were happy we
needed to take it just two stops, as it was totally jam packed; the very idea
of using it during rush hour or in the summer boggled the mind!
Our destination was the National Museum of Archeology, which
houses, among other treasures, the materials excavated from Pompeii and
Herculaneum. The beauty, extent and
wealth of the collection have to be seen to be understood. Sculpture, fabulous mosaics, frescoes, paintings,
sarcophagi, glassware and household objects – they fill room after room of
treasures that testify and give life to the extraordinary artistic
accomplishments and daily reality of the civilizations that produced them. Simply spectacular, if somewhat overwhelming!
We covered lots of territory during this very full day, and
it was good to get home and put our feet up; they worked hard today!
