On the final day of our visit, we got breakfast, paid our bill, and dragged our bags through the drizzle down to Sorrento's harbor for the boat ride to Naples. It wasn't quite as dramatic as the previous day's voyage, for which we were grateful. The weather was maddeningly changeable: sun one minute, showers the next.
We disembarked, and since the weather was having a "sunny" mood swing, we decided to risk going on foot rather than hailing a cab. So we dragged our bags up the Via Toledo to our hotel just off the Piazza Dante.
Along the way we passed a political parade. About a dozen Forza Social supporters were marching down the street carrying signs, escorted by about two dozen Carabinieri in full riot gear. I'm guessing Forza Social is a branch of Forza del Sud, which in turn is an offshoot of the defunct Forza Italia party, Silvio Berlusconi's outfit. The demographics of the parade didn't look encouraging: when you're outnumbered by your security detail and nobody in the rally is under 35, you really should think about picking another party.
Our hotel was called 241 Correra. It was located at number 241, Via Correra, a little side street just north of the Piazza Dante. The hotel is a small "boutique" hotel, which bills itself as a combination of hotel and art gallery. That's why our room was dominated by an enormous canvas of soft-core pinup art by this guy. That's culture, that is.
We checked in, rested for a little while, then ventured forth into the old quarter of Naples. This was to be our low-pressure, no rushing, "just say yes" day.
Leading east from Piazza Dante is a street of booksellers, at which we heroically resisted spending the day shopping. From there we turned south along a street of musical instrument shops, with more heroic resistance required from Emily and Diane.
Lunch was at a little bar in the Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, and then we went to inspect the archaeological diggings under the church of San Lorenzo. As it turned out, that was absolutely fascinating. Beneath the Baroque church there's a Byzantine and medieval one, and below that is a Roman market street, and below that is the Greek agora. You wander around on Roman pavements below the basement of the church, occasionall looking down at deeper excavations (Phoenicians? Celts? Elder Things?).
From there we headed to the Cathedral of Naples itself, a massive pile so big it has swallowed up another adjacent basilica, like a giant consecrated amoeba. The cathedral is built on the Vatican scale, and boasts a row of portrait busts down the main nave showing all the bishops of Naples who became saints. Since it was a very early church foundation, several of those bishops got canonized the hard way.
There's a side chapel that's just absolutely packed with reliquaries. The cathedral of Naples has sacred relics like American households have National Geographics.
After that we drifted back toward our hotel through the streets of the old quarter. The historic center of Naples is ridiculously scenic, with narrow cobbled streets, often covered by archways. One glimpses courtyards through heavy gates. You expect to come across Rafael Sabatini fighting Alexandre Dumas with cloak and sword around every corner.
Naples is also the loudest place I've ever visited, and that includes New York, Tokyo, and Paris. Approximately 175 percent of the inhabitants ride motorbikes, and it seems the first thing you do when you get a motorbike in Naples is to remove the muffler. Add to that the noise of a million people yelling at each other in order to be heard over the sound of the motorbikes, and the racket of official vehicles which can't move without a blaring siren. (One absence striking to American ears: no car stereos.) Combined with the night-owl habits of the people this means noise about 22 hours a day.
Dinner was at a restaurant called Il Garum, which was excellent. For antipasti we had octopus with lemon, and a caprese salad topped with crabmeat. My pasta course was a very oily spaghetti with garlic and anchovies, and my main dish was beef strips with peppercorns. We rolled back to our hotel feeling very well-fed, and bedded down early for our flight out the next day.
Next time: Airports!
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