Secret Naples

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