Secret Naples

Maria Franchini - guide and lecturer on the monuments of Campania for fifteen years, was born in Naples. A journalist and the author of several books, she is passionate about Neapolitan culture and is also a specialist in Roman civilisation. She works for the Italian Cultural Centre in Paris, where she runs courses in the Neapolitan language, gives lectures and organises seminars on her favourite subjects. http://www.sgdl-auteurs.org/maria-franchini/index.php/ Valerio Ceva Grimaldi Pisanelli di Pietracatella, 38, belongs to an old noble Neapolitan family. A journalist by profession, he worked on the staff of the governor of the Province of Naples, Professor Amato Lamberti, then for the Assessorato all'Ambiente del Comune di Napoli. He also spent two years with Rai TV's Gap programme. He was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Notizie Verdi and deputy editor of Terra, the first environmental daily with a wide distribution. He has published numerous articles and surveys on the City of Naples. If you would like to visit some of the places in the guide, accompanied by the author, email him at: cevagrimaldi@gmail.com "

Kayak tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The cursed villa of Gaiola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Is Virgil behind the curse? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Ospizio Marino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Brother Ludovico da Casoria, an extraordinary character . . . . . . . . 21
Villa Doria d'Angri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Naval Museum of the "Parthenope" University of Naples . . . . . . . . 23
The devil of Mergellina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Jacopo Sannazaro (1457-1530): the poet of Arcadia . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Epitaph on Virgil's tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
"Poetry trees" in Virgil's honour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Virgil, poet and magician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Symbolism of the Crypta Neapolitana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
When Our Lady lost her shoe: why is Santa Maria di Piedigrotta
so called? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Cinderella was born in Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Private collection of Piaggio Vespas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Studio 137A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Every picture tells a story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Frescoes at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Palazzo San Teodoro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Female centaurs that caught the attention of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Palazzo Leonetti staircase and elevator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Gay-Odin Museum of Chocolate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Museo del Tessile e dell'Abbigliamento "...lena Aldobrandini" . . . . . . 43
Traditional Neapolitan chic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Palazzo Mannajuolo staircase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The early days of Eduardo, "a giant of European theatre" . . . . . . . . 45
Palestra "Fitness & Beauty" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Carafa caves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The old city and its ferruginous water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Salons of Palazzo Serra di Cassano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Why is the main entrance to Palazzo Serra di Cassano closed? . . . . 48
Sartoria C.T.N. 75 - Canzanella Costumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Tours of the Galleria Borbonica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Remains of an underground tramline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Former Aula Magna of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce . . . 56
Museo Orientale "Umberto Scerrato" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Museo di Etnopreistoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Byzantine remains in Castel dell'Ovo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
From Virgil's egg to the Castle of the Egg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Archivio Fotografico Parisio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The president's anti-aircraft shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Vestiges of the former "Suprema" brothel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Associazione "Circolo Artistico Politecnico" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Giosue Carducci's revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Mascagni, a poor loser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Horns against the evil eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Cuckold's horns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Corals in the Museo Ascione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Lucchesi Palli wing, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III . . . . 71
Aosta collection at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III . . . 73
Teatro San Carlo clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Royal access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The new "Giardini room" in the disused carpentry workshop . . . . . . 75
Naples, world capital of music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Circolo Nazionale dell'Unione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Bas-relief of a woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Castel Nuovo: a pope imprisoned, Campanella tortured, Giotto's frescoes, the escapades of Joan of Anjou ... . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The crocodile that devoured prisoners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Statue of Antonio Toscano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Societa Napoletana di Storia Patria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Plaque in Vico Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The thinker of Vico Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Diana and the witches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Naples, a city steeped in spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The janara: the legendary witch of nocturnal evildoing . . . . . . . . . . 89
Museo del Giocattolo di Napoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Giardino dei Cinque Continenti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Sister Orsola Benincasa's cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Antico Laboratorio Scientifico di Scienze Naturali, Fisica e Chimica . 95
Museo della Fondazione Pagliara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Museo dell'Opera Universitaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Reproduction of Lourdes grotto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A kitchen garden declared national heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chair in the chapel at Santa Lucia al Monte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
San Martino vineyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Largo Baracche gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Inscription on Palazzo Majorana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Castratos: thousands of children sacrificed in the name of bel canto 105
Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Obscure saga of the last Caravaggio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Bust of the goddess known as the " Canzanella Costumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Tours of the Galleria Borbonica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Remains of an underground tramline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Former Aula Magna of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce . . . 56
Museo Orientale "Umberto Scerrato" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Museo di Etnopreistoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Byzantine remains in Castel dell'Ovo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
From Virgil's egg to the Castle of the Egg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Archivio Fotografico Parisio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The president's anti-aircraft shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Vestiges of the former "Suprema" brothel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Associazione "Circolo Artistico Politecnico" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Giosue Carducci's revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Mascagni, a poor loser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Horns against the evil eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Cuckold's horns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Corals in the Museo Ascione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Lucchesi Palli wing, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III . . . . 71
Aosta collection at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III . . . 73
Teatro San Carlo clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Royal access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The new "Giardini room" in the disused carpentry workshop . . . . . . 75
Naples, world capital of music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Circolo Nazionale dell'Unione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Bas-relief of a woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Castel Nuovo: a pope imprisoned, Campanella tortured, Giotto's frescoes, the escapades of Joan of Anjou ... . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The crocodile that devoured prisoners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Statue of Antonio Toscano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Societa Napoletana di Storia Patria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Plaque in Vico Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The thinker of Vico Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Diana and the witches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Naples, a city steeped in spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The janara: the legendary witch of nocturnal evildoing . . . . . . . . . . 89
Museo del Giocattolo di Napoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Giardino dei Cinque Continenti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Sister Orsola Benincasa's cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Antico Laboratorio Scientifico di Scienze Naturali, Fisica e Chimica . 95
Museo della Fondazione Pagliara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Museo dell'Opera Universitaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Reproduction of Lourdes grotto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A kitchen garden declared national heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chair in the chapel at Santa Lucia al Monte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
San Martino vineyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Largo Baracche gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Inscription on Palazzo Majorana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Castratos: thousands of children sacrificed in the name of bel canto 105
Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Obscure saga of the last Caravaggio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Bust of the goddess known as the " Canzanella Costumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Tours of the Galleria Borbonica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Remains of an underground tramline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Former Aula Magna of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce . . . 56
Museo Orientale "Umberto Scerrato" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Museo di Etnopreistoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Byzantine remains in Castel dell'Ovo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
From Virgil's egg to the Castle of the Egg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Archivio Fotografico Parisio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The president's anti-aircraft shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Vestiges of the former "Suprema" brothel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Associazione "Circolo Artistico Politecnico" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Giosue Carducci's revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Mascagni, a poor loser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Horns against the evil eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Cuckold's horns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Corals in the Museo Ascione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Lucchesi Palli wing, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III . . . . 71
Aosta collection at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III . . . 73
Teatro San Carlo clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Royal access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The new "Giardini room" in the disused carpentry workshop . . . . . . 75
Naples, world capital of music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Circolo Nazionale dell'Unione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Bas-relief of a woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Castel Nuovo: a pope imprisoned, Campanella tortured, Giotto's frescoes, the escapades of Joan of Anjou ... . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The crocodile that devoured prisoners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Statue of Antonio Toscano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Societa Napoletana di Storia Patria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Plaque in Vico Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The thinker of Vico Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Diana and the witches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Naples, a city steeped in spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The janara: the legendary witch of nocturnal evildoing . . . . . . . . . . 89
Museo del Giocattolo di Napoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Giardino dei Cinque Continenti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Sister Orsola Benincasa's cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Antico Laboratorio Scientifico di Scienze Naturali, Fisica e Chimica . 95
Museo della Fondazione Pagliara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Museo dell'Opera Universitaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Reproduction of Lourdes grotto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A kitchen garden declared national heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chair in the chapel at Santa Lucia al Monte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
San Martino vineyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Largo Baracche gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Inscription on Palazzo Majorana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Castratos: thousands of children sacrificed in the name of bel canto 105
Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Obscure saga of the last Caravaggio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Bust of the goddess known as the "Head of Naples" . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Secrets of Naples town hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Emeroteca-Biblioteca Tucci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Pastrengo barracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Underground altar of the church of Sant'Aspreno . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Why does Saint Aspren relieve headaches? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Saint Aspren: the original aspirin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Great hall of the Chamber of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Palazzo Penne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Istituto Magistrale Eleonora Pimentel-Fonseca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Antonio Genovesi high school . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Antonio Genovesi (1712-1769): a philosopher who became the
world's first economics professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Marks on the facade of the church of Gesu Nuovo . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Bourbon Hall of Fame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
The Virgin's veil, Guglia dell'Immacolata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
When the Virgin belongs to the city and not to the church . . . . . . . 127
Archbishop Sisto Riario Sforza's great hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
The archbishop who invented microcredit before its time . . . . . . . 129
Church of Santi Marcellino e Festo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Garments of the miraculous Virgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Cloisters of the former monastery of Saints Marcellino and Festo . 135
Museo di Paleontologia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Museo di Antropologia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Museo di Zoologia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Bas-relief of a hairy man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Real Museo di Mineralogia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Museo di Fisica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Accademia Pontaniana library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Fontana di Spinacorona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Naples and the myth of the Siren Parthenope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
The Giambattista Vico Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Land registry of the State Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Filangieri room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Souvenir of the terrible explosion of 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Lo Zingaro, the blacksmith who became an artist for love? . . . . . . 152
Saint Benedict's plane tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Tasso room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Saint George and the Dragon fresco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Legends of Porta Nolana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Augustissima Compagnia della Disciplina della Santa Croce . . . . . 157
Greek tower at the Trianon theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Pay for your pizza eight days later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
False windows of Corso Umberto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Basin of a Roman aqueduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Former Sava wool mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Saint Januarius' missing fingers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
The miraculous Carmelite crucifix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Bungled looting of the remains of Conrad of Hohenstaufen . . . . . . 163
Quartiere Intelligente . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
The "holy land" of the Archconfraternity of Pilgrims . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Legend of the desiccated pine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Italian clock of Spirito Santo conservatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
The other two Italian clocks in the city . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
What is the origin of "Italian" clocks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
"Holy land" of the Arciconfraternita dei Bianchi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Church "holy lands" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Former oil tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Clock in Piazza Dante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
What is the equation of time? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Cloister of the former convent of San Sebastiano . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Arciconfraternita dei Verdi nel Palazzo Ruffo di Bagnara . . . . . . . . 175
La Conigliera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Hotel Correra aqueduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Pasquale Catalano, a specialist in nativity scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Where can you see some extraordinary figurines? . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Church of San Giuseppe delle Scalze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Museo Hermann Nitsch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Installation seen through a peephole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Casts of Parthenon sculptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Gypsotheque of the Academy of Fine Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Holy Steps of Santa Maria della Sapienza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Origin and meaning of the Holy Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Holy Steps in Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Underground galleries of Pietrasanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Cloister of Sant'Andrea delle Dame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Seventh Heaven Lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Private tour of Monastero delle Trentatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Why is the number 33 generally associated with nuns
in the Neapolitan lottery? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Neapolitan lotto: a history of divination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Smorfia: the real meaning of the numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Incurabili pharmacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Electricity as therapy in the 18th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Naples, the last bastion of Teriaca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Museo delle Arti Sanitarie degli Incurabili . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
When unhealthy air was believed to cause syphilis . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Museo di Anatomia Umana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Casa Zevola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Commemorative plaques at Palazzo Filangieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Gaetano Filangieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Remains of a Dioscuri temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Congregation del Crocefisso della Sciabica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Origin of the word "sciabica" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Artworks by Nathalie de Saint-Phalle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Courtyard of Palazzo Spinelli di Laurino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
The ghost of Bianca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Hidden symbolism of Cappella Sansevero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Why are two medallions faceless? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Sansevero's Veiled Christ: from legend to the reality of sudation
and mystical internal fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Triptych of Christ Unveiled or Hidden Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Plaque of the church of San Domenico Maggiore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Tomb of the first bishop of New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Biblioteca Maurizio Taddei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
A hotly disputed amputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
The duke's study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Maradona's hair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
The Holy Steps of San Gregorio Armeno convent . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Other curiosities of San Gregorio Armeno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Forgotten figurines of the Ferrigno workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
The figure with no gift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Symbolism of objects and characters from the Neapolitan
nativity scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Emblems of Naples sedili . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Banksy's Saint with a Pistol graffiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Reliquary cabinet at the church of the Gerolamini . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Palazzo Carafa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
The Neapolitan horse: an exceptional animal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Shield of the city of Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Is that Domenichino's tomb at the chapel entrance? . . . . . . . . . . 241
Bars of the Treasury chapel's monumental portal . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Statue of the Virgin that terrified worshippers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
"Il Re di Poggioreale", a trafficker who brought the treasure
of Saint Januarius back to Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Self-portraits on the Treasury chapel altar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
The dome: each face had its price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
The "Tesoro Vecchio" chapel of San Gennaro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Marble calendar of the 9th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
The "passo da terra" of the Duomo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
How is a metre defined? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Sala del Lazzaretto of the former della Pace hospital . . . . . . . . . . 251
"May the Lord deliver me from sad neighbours and violinists" . . . . 251
Archivo Storico, Banco di Napoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
A Neapolitan banking institution older than Monte dei Paschi
di Siena? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
A Roman villa in the basement of the Banco di Napoli archive . . . . 253
Biblioteca Alfredo De Marsico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Lizard in the church of the Santissimi Apostoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Ionic column at Pelletteria Collaro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Crucifix of San Carlo all'Arena church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Why "all'Arena"? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Fate Presto: reproduction in the metro of a "Neapolitan" work
by Andy Warhol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Piazza Cavour tunnels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Bomb shelter in Babuk's garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Events organised by the "Friends of Marcel Proust" . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Palazzo de' Liguoro di Presicce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Studio of painter Massimo d'Orta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Little secrets of Palazzo dello Spagnolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Sirens of Palazzo Sanfelice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Greek hypogea in Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
"Cristallini" hypogea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Touching farewell scenes in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale . . . 275
Church of Santa Maria Antesaecula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
The fertility chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Other fertility chairs in Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
San Gaudioso catacombs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Palazzo de' Liguoro-Santoro staircase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Michele Iodice's workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Wine tax marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Torre del Palasciano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Ferdinando Palasciano, army doctor of the Two Sicilies . . . . . . . . 287
Ospedale Leonardo Bianchi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Roberto De Simone, bard of Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Cloister of the Facolta di Veterinaria (Universita Federico II) . . . . . 291
Museo di Anatomia Veterinaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Saint Anthony the Hermit's pig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Saint Anthony's monks and the Templars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
A strange procession and a bungled theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Blessing of the animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Curiosities of San Gennaro catacombs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
The noble Cerula and a hitherto unknown Saint Paul . . . . . . . . . . 297
La Sanita bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Model of Battaglino chariot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
The captain's skull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
The forgotten history of the Fontanelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
The woman killed by gnocchi and other Fontanelle tales . . . . . . . . 301
The cult of souls in Purgatory: when the dead and the living help
each other to reach Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
What is "refrisco"? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Sweating skulls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Neapolitan riding academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Golden cube in the exhibition park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Tunnels below Fontana dell'Esedra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
A Roman road below the exhibition park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Rai production centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Roman baths on Via Terracina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Naval basin of the Hydrodynamic Laboratory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Guido Donatone private museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Bas-relief of the Triumph of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Sergio Ragni's private collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Gothic tunnels below San Martino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Della Vicaria tribunal column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Meridian of the Carthusians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
How does a meridian work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Why was 4 October followed immediately by 15 October
in the year 1582?
Measurement of time and origin of the meridians . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
The highest meridians in the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Why were meridians installed in cathedrals? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Parco Viviani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Centrale ABC (Acqua Bene Comune Napoli) dello Scudillo . . . . . . . 334
Casa Museo di Pulcinella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
The symbolism of Pulcinella, exorcist of Neapolitans' existential
angst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Maradona "museum" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Cimitero delle 366 fosse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Keller Architettura studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Origin of the name "Foria" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Calabrese enclosed garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Underground passage at San Giovanni a Carbonara . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Parco di Re Ladislao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Archivio Storico del Comune di Napoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Statue of San Gennaro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Hidden symbolism of the cult of San Gennaro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Church of San Carlo Borromeo alle Brecce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Symbolism of the fly: from Virgil's golden fly to the Madonna
of the Flies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Archivio Nazionale e Storico Enel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Art workshops of the Teatro San Carlo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Museo Ferroviario Nazionale di Pietrarsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Naples and the south before 1860: a wealthy and progressive
kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Museo Privato delle Carrozze di Villa Bianchi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366