Naples Favorites

Favorite thing: If you start to feel claustophobic and overly-confined in the tight density of Naples' urban center, I suggest that you take the funicular or the Green line subway up Vomero Hill and get off at Piazza Vanvitelli. This is a comfortable middle-class neighborhood comparable to one you would find in any other large European city. There's nothing particularly Neapolitan about the place - but that might be welcome after spending too much time amidst narrow overcrowded streets that never receive any daylight!

Around Piazza Vanvitelli are a number of shops, bakeries and restaurants - including Caffe Scarlatti, which I can recommend. It's two blocks down from the Piazza on Via Alessando Scarlatti.

Favorite thing: Piazza Cavour is an elongated rectangular square on the northern edge of the central historical district of Naples. It's named in honor of Camille, Count Cavour (1810-1861), the master architect of 19th century Italian unification. Cavour, a Piedmontese, was the prime minister in service to the King of Savoy-Sardinia. It was Cavour's diplomatic and strategic manuovering that provided the framework for throwing the Austrian out of Italy and ending the rule of the the minor dukes and princes over the various Italian city-states. With Guiseppe Garibaldi, Cavour was responsible for Naples becoming a part of a unified Italian state.

(You could argue that Italian unification has been a long extended process, and that it is still continuing today. Different regions of Italy retain a very strong sense of their local identities - and this is an understatement in regards to Naples!)

Favorite thing: You're bound to get hungry while walking up Spaccanapoli, absorbing the atmosphere and engaging with all the dramatic art and architecture. Why not grab a local specialty from one of the "snack bar" vendors along the street. There are great cannolis and "sfogliatelle," but its okay if you can't speak Italian: pointing works fine!

Favorite thing: The Church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo could be easily overlooked - it is just opposite the grand San Domenico - but it is well worth a look-in. Notably, inside the fine arched doorway you will find a remarkably beautiful tomb of Cardinal Rinaldo Brancaccio. It was one of the first works of the Renaissance to be unveiled in Naples - and one of the artists who worked on it was the "wunderkind" Donatello - a rare instance of this Florentine's work being found so far south.

Favorite thing: This stately obelisk stands proudly in the Piazza opposite the Spanish-looking Church of San Domenico. The Neapolitans have been very fond of erecting this kind of monument, usually to offers thanksgiving for deliverance from one of the many kinds of misfortune that regularly afflicts their community. (You can pick from earthquakes, volcanos, wars, famine or plague.) The occasion for this pillar was a terrible pestilence that hit Naples in 1656. The figure at the top is St. Gennaro, patron protector of the city.

(In Italian, this is the "Guglia di San Domenico" - but do note that is Gennaro and not Domenico who presides over the square.)

(N.B. Personal note: my Italian grandfather, born in the Abruzzi hill-town of Roccaraso, was baptised "Domenico.")

Favorite thing: This church was originally commissioned in the late 13th century by Charles of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily from 1266 to 1285 and founder of the Angevin line of kings. It became the seat of the Dominican Order here, and was closely associated with the founding of the Dominican-based University of Naples. Elements of the original medieval "Gothic" can still be found here, overlaid by layers of Renaissance and Baroque construction and re-construction over the centuries. For example, the exterior of the church was largely completed under the influence of Spanish design, which is appropriate as it was constructed in the late 15th century when Naples was ruled by the Aragonese.

San Domenico is like other Neapolitan churches in that it contains so much notably art and design elements that the first-time visitor is likely to be overwhelmed and not know where to start looking. I was most interested in the number Renaissance and Early Modern tombs and funerary monuments, but there are also numerous paintings to consider.

Interesting too is the fact that St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages, studied and prayed here. One of the chapels is dedicated to Aquinas and features relics associated with him.

Favorite thing: A must-see for all Art and Architecture fans!!Fascinating and unconventional facade on this splendid Jesuit Church in the heart of "Centro Storico." The austere and rather forbidding exterior gives you absolutely no hint of the magificent gold and white marble-encrusted gem of a palatial church that lies within!!

The building was originally constructed as a private palazzo and became known as the "Sanseverino Palace" in the early 1500s. But the owners of the place were convicted in 1584 of not being loyal to the Spanish rulers of Naples, and the palace was confiscated and re-assigned to the newly established Jesuit order. Much of the original building was destroyed, and a new church for the Jesuits built in its place. A Jesuit architect, Guiseppe Valeriano, created a brilliant showpiece designed on the plan of a Greek Cross, usually acres of marble and many pound of gilt to awe the senses and to create a proper stage for appreciating the mystery and majesty of the Mass (as they interpreted it.)

Among the numerous and overwhelming art treasures inside are two paintings by the Spanish master long resident in Naples, Jusepe de Ribera. Thus, Gesu Nuova as a whole attests to the power and wealth of Spain and of the Jesuit order in early modern Naples, and their ability to use Art and Architecture as tools in supporting and propagating their world-view.

Favorite thing: This Baroque obelisk - the Guglia dell'Immacolata - stands at the western end of the Neapolitan avenue known as "Spaccanapoli." The Piazza del Gesu in which it stands is considered to be the entrance point of the oldest part of the city, the quarter which still retains much of its ancient and early medieval character and atmosphere.

Although the construction of the obelisk was organized by the Jesuits of the nearby "Gesu Nuovo," it was financed through donations from the ordinary townfolk who lived in its midst, and there it has the character of a popular religious icon or devotional object. The obelisk still plays an important role in what must be called the peculiar "religiously civic" life of Naples: every year, on December 8th, the Feast Day of the Immuculate Virgin, a ladder is leaned against the statue, and both the Mayor and the Cardinal of the city both climb the ladder to the top so that they may jointly place a wreath of honor on the figure of Mary at the pinnacle.