Alfonso’s Arch
Alfonso of Aragon conquered Naples in 1443. By 1470 he’d constructed a triumphal arch in the narrow space between two large medieval towers, demarking the entrance to the castle with myriad sculptures celebrating Alfonso’s triumph and his ideal courtly ideals. The Castello Nuovo, or ‘New Castle’ is one of Naples’ most impressive works of architecture. It sits by the seaside and once towered over a medieval port just to the north. The sea would have come right up to its walls and the moat may even have had water in it.
Mosaic Naples Cathedral
I took this detail of a saint from a mosaic of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Naples cathedral. I had seen it before, but liked this particular picture. Naples is filled with surprises in every church and alleyway. Weather is holding… it was sunny today, but there’s rumors of storms on the way again.
Neapolitan Lines
In Naples everyone dries their clothes on clotheslines. The streets and alleyways are always draped with clothes. It’s hard to think of the city without thinking about the lines and the pins, so I took this picture of some clothespins outside a woman’s house. I thought it funny that she seemed to have ‘designer’ pins (‘IVANA’). They do look a bit more stylish than the conventional ones.
Grate Waste
The last few days of heavy rains washed lots of garbage along the streets of Naples, much of it, alas, out to sea. Some of the little bits clogged the drainage grates, making a colourful–if unfortunate–mess of urban detritus.
Commedia del Arte
The Commedia del Arte characters, including the pulcinella, are popular culture icons in Naples. I took this picture of some wooden souvenir marionettes along the Via Tribunali. The street is among the most vibrant I’ve ever walked along. Everyone was out. The past few days had seen torrential rains and the sun-loving Neopolitans were enjoying the clear skies after having been cooped up during the downpours.
Fifty Shades of Shades
Like most large Italian cities there are immigrant men selling knock-off purses, watches, and sunglasses on the streets. The ones I talked to today came from Senegal, India, and Nigeria. The fellow from India (Calcutta–he was surprised I knew about the Howrah Bridge) let me take this picture of his display.
Storefront, Naples
One of the most interesting streets in Naples is the Via Tribunali. I walked along it today and found lots of wonderful things. It was Sunday and all the Neapolitani were out for the afternoon passegiata. The store fronts in Naples are decidedly photogenic. I liked the warm yellows of this shop surrounded by the grey and black basalt stone that characterizes so much of the city. That dark stone, produced eons ago by Vesuvius, is the main building material in Naples and most of the streets, especially in the old town, are paved with it.
Art Deco Light Posts, Naples
I took this picture this morning of some great 19th century iron light posts in Naples (was thinking of my friend Chris Husted, who loves the style). As it turned out, the bus that I’d just taken an hour before drove through the frame. I’m looking forward to ten days in Naples, a city I don’t know very well. It’s a photographer’s dream. I’ll be posting lots of images in the days to come as I stay at the ‘Hostel of the Sun’. My luxurious hotels are no longer (at least until the 23rd of October), with 8 beds to a room here. Still, these hostels have character and I always meet many nice young travelers in them.
A Mosaic in Herculaneum
I took this picture yesterday at Herculaneum: a detail of a mosaic in one of the town’s villas, the Villa of Neptune and Venus, which was named after a mosaic in the same room as this one. Great though a visit to Pompeii is, I prefer Herculaneum. It’s a much smaller but also a less crowded and more manageable site. Plus, things are generally better preserved there. Spent an hour and a half exploring . The most amazing things were charred beams of wood still surviving.
Trains of the ‘Circumvesuviana’
There’s a train line from Naples to Sorrento and around the famous volcano Mount Vesuvius that’s called the ‘Circumvesuviana’ Line. The trains are rickety but inexpensive and efficient. I’m sure that many people might decry the graffitized cars (and stations, for that matter), but I like the riot of colour. The best artists add a lot of vibrancy to what are otherwise dull places. As I was going to Herculaneum with a small group, we were entertained on the train by a trio of Syrian Christian refugees (father, son, mother). The boy had a drum and was excellent. It was a great day.
Mosaics in Otranto
The Otranto cathedral was built by the Normans in the 11th century and while the building itself is very nice, though not exceptional, its flooring is amazing. The entire church floor is covered in medieval mosaics. This picture is of a soldier fighting, but the scenes include Biblical stories and personages, wild animals and hybrid beasts, and figures from fantasy and history, such as King Arthur and Alexander the Great. It’s one of the most remarkable artifacts from the middle ages. Otranto is a lovely small town on the Adriatic coast of south Italy. Its castle is famous and impressive. Wonderful to visit there again with Smithsonian Journeys!
Lecce, Italy
Lecce is sometimes spoken about as the ‘Florence of the South’. It is a beautiful city filled with Baroque churches and noble buildings in the famous honey-coloured Lecce limestone. The city has an ancient past, however, as this picture shows: it’s the partly excavated Roman amphitheater in the old city’s main square. I know of few cities that are so pleasurable to walk around in.
Alberobello
Alberobello is the home of the famous constructions known as the ‘trulli’, dry masonry houses and storage rooms with conical domes/roofs. The collection of them in the town of Alberobello (though they are also found in the vicinity as well; in the countryside) is the most famous. It’s like a fantasy village where gnomes might live. They are in the beautiful region of Apulia in south Italy.
