Florence - Summer? - KLM

Oh what a lovely summer day! At times one forgets that Florence, while holding possibly the greatest art museums in the world, is a small city ... hence the running down the stairs to the tarmac to dissolve in the rain.

KLM was incredible as usual. The cabin crew are so attentive, and the meals are excellent; presentation - taste - and ... well when I looked down at my four course dinner and realized that the coverings of the various dishes formed the pattern of a set of Delft plates, I fell in love with them all over again (not that I have ever fallen out of love with KLM).

Honestly, I have to say that all things KLM were just lovely. I might be a little biased, I have used KLM out of necessity, or convenience over the past three decades, and over the past few years I had little to say, but for this trip, I have a lot to say. I felt like I was back on a plane in the old days of luxurious airline travel! Remember when Mom put you in a tiny suit and tie or dress with a scratchy cardigan and Dad picked out the jacket that smelled the least like cigarettes and fumbled drunkenly with his tie ... and there was a smoking section and they served champagne on the plane! ... They still serve champagne, well they did in business class a few years ago, and if I remember correctly, they served Prosecco even in coach from Canada. I swear I was sent back in time, KLM is just .... (indicate wistful eye emoticon here) ... wonderful ...

Herculaneum - Getting There

Pompeii was one archeological site I had always wanted to see, Herculaneum was the other. I never actually thought that I would get to see both of them on the same trip. It was a dream come true.

The site of Herculaneum is in one of the poorest parts of Italy, which is Ironic as it was once the playground of the rich and famous, and still could be as a tourist destination, but because they won’t move the shanty town off the ruins, they can’t excavate, which means that can’t develop the tourist business, and therefore they have a shanty town…Its almost Zen-like.OOhhhhmmmmmmm…..I really wouldn’t encourage that many more tourists. It’s a small site, much-much smaller than Pompeii, but also like a delicate jewel.

Herculaneum was destroyed in the same cataclysmic eruption that took out neighboring party town Pompeii. Though here instead of being buried under a layer of burning ash the victims were smothered by a flow of pyroclastic mud, the first of which was so hot it carbonized all the wood it touched, preserving the forms of carpentry. Herculaneum is so well preserved because of this mud which filled the buildings from the ground up so the roofs did not collapse like in Pompeii. The state of preservation is so much more conducive to actually understanding how the town appeared, and how daily life actually took place in the Roman era.

The train to Herculaneum leaves from the Circumvesuvia Station on the Via Giuseppe Garibaldi. The cost was around three Euros for a one way ticket (2012). The train usually has a final destination of Sorrento, so don’t worry if you don’t see a train that actually says Ercolano. Watch the reader boards though, as the trains can change departing platforms at a moment’s notice. The trip takes about 25-30 minutes and arrives at Ercolano Scavi. From the train station it is a straight shot down the via Novembre IV to the entrance gate. There are a number of pizza and pastry shops along the route, eat now if you can’t wait because there wasn’t any sort of cafeteria or vendor at the site. You can’t miss the entrance, it’s right at the end of the street, shaped like a triumphal arch and has the word SCAVI on it. Strangely enough there was a tree with hundreds of CD’s hanging from it; just to the right of the entrance.

Be warned this is an extremely poverty stricken area, it’s not pretty and crime can happen quickly. I would never say skip going to Herculaneum, just be cautious and aware of your surroundings.

Once inside the gate you will come to a large modern building that sells the tickets, maps, books and has restrooms. The walk to the excavations is rather exciting because it is such a small area and the lava buildup was so high, that you are looking down on it as you approach and can see the entire thing.

The view is ... the view just is. I don't know if there are words to describe it? Amazing? Horrifying? Phantasmagorical?

I think it really sinks in as you are walking down to the town and you realize that the path you are walking on is several score feet above the warehouses that faced the sea. And if you turn around you realize that the sea is pretty darn far behind you.

I live in an area with fairly active volcanoes (though the last devastating eruption was in 1980) and earthquakes, and I am blessed with having the only "dormant" volcano within a cities limits. We (the city of Portland)  put two reservoirs on it in the late 19th century. So far, so good.

Herculaneum - from near entrance pavilion  off to the left out of camera (there are flush-able toilets there)

Naples - Palazzo Gravina

Palazzo Gravina from the Fontana Monteoliveto

On the same piazza as the Fontana Monteoliveto is the wonderfully executed façade of the Palazzo Gravina.  Built for the Orsini family in the 16^th century it looks like a page from a renaissance book on architecture. Perfectly proportioned pilasters stand over a rusticated ashlar ground floor, windows with classical surrounds between each set of pilasters are topped with round garlanded niches filled with busts. Slightly forbidding, it would appear to be made out of the same volcanic rock that Gesu Nuovo just around the corner was made of.  It’s now the architecture school of the university and I must say that I can’t imagine a better building for it.

Naples - Fontana Monteoliveto

North of the post office, just east of the via Toledo and west of the Piazza Jesu Nuovo, on the via Monteoliveto is the Fontana di Monteoliveto. Lions and eagles and Charles II oh my! Built in 1669, another towering eclectic baroque sculpture. This was given as a gift to the city from King Charles II … the city thanked Charles II and didn’t mention that they had really wanted a toaster. I mean what’s the point in registering at Macy’s?

This particular little piazza has seen some rather industrious graffiti artists and yes that is a street sign that has been wedged in the fountain.  On the

Fontana Monteoliveto, held up by graffiti

Naples - Santa Chiara

Santa Chiara - Piazza Gesu Nuovo

Bell Tower Santa Chiara

Located in the Piazza Gesu Nuovo the church of Santa Chiara is possibly most famous for the cloister that is lined with Majolica tiles. It was damaged heavily during the allied bombing of 1943 which destroyed all of the baroque interiors.

When the church was reconstructed after the war it was as its earlier incarnation as a gothic church, so one will have to imagine the baroque splendor that was lavished on it in the 18th century.

The bell tower is an amazing work of art. It stands separate from the church and is massive. It’s hard to get a sense of scale from pictures but it just seems to have been built over scale. Built of brick and stone it was finished in the renaissance era and has some fine classical detailing on it.

Naples - Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco

Along the via dei Tribunali just east of Santa Maria Maggiore and just west of San Paolo Maggiore stands yet another façade darkened with age; Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco.
I would not have originally noticed this church had it not been for the bronze skulls on posts outside. From there one begins to look at the façade and the wealth of carving reveals crowned skulls with drapery drawn out of the eye sockets. The whole effect is rather striking, if a bit sinister and Lovecraftian.

The church was built in 1616 and appears to have become a center for Naples unofficial cult of the dead. There were certainly offerings there when we were visiting. There is a hypogeum underneath the church (well where else?).

Santa MAria delle Anime del Purgatori ad Arco

Naples - San Paolo Maggiore

San Paolo and San Gaetano

Back at Piazza San Gaetano, at the intersection of Via Tribunale and the Via San Gregorio Armeno is the church of San Paolo Maggiore. The magnificently restrained façade post-dates the late 17th century Neapolitan earthquake.

The façade consists of ten Corinthian pilasters painted gray with white capitals. Above the central portal the second order is of composite pilasters in the same gray and white configuration and they support a rounded pediment. The molding between the pilasters reminds me of some of the wainscoting at Versailles, though overall the coloring and complicated staircase is slightly reminiscent of the vestibule of the Lauentian library.

The church was built on the site of a temple to the Dioscuri (our old friends Castor and Pollux) and two of the columns from that temple can still be seen on the façade.

Naples - Porta Nolana

The Porta Nolana

The Porta Nolana is located about 100 yards north of the Circumvesuvia train station on the Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi. I believe this gate to be part of the Aragonese walls that surrounded Naples in the 15th century. Unlike the Porta Capuana, which has been cleaned up and restored, the Porta Nolanna is incorporated into occupied residential buildings in various states of decay. It’s actually quite fantastic.

Naples - Duomo

Just west of the church of the Girolamini is the Duomo or cathedral of Naples; San Gennaro. This is the site of the famous Miracle of San Gennaro; twice a year his dried blood (in a vial) liquefies. The façade of the cathedral is a riot of gothic architecture, most of which dates from the late 19th century. The three portals however are supposed to date to the 13th century.

The via Duomo itself is a narrow street lined with shops and even some trees!

Naples - Santa Maria della Colonna

The adorably cute Santa Maria della Colonna

Santa Maria della Colonna: Directly opposite the church of the Girolamini is the little yellow church of Santa Maria della Colonna. This delightfully whimsical gem is nestled, or rather wedged, between two residential blocks that have seen better days. Well they must have surely?

The church had a number of notable features on the façade. Two statues flank the entrance in niches topped with cockle shells, there are a number of cherubs or seraphim hanging about a plaque over the portal and the upper window has some interesting sculptural detail over the center. The capitals to the pilasters appear to be some sort of hybrid of the Composite order. Which itself was a hybrid (hence the name Composite)… The little dome that tops it all off is irresistibly possibly unnecessarily cute.

After the Piazza Jesu Nuovo, I think this is my favorite square in Naples.

The small roads leading south off the square were also delightful.  Almost quaint, as the below picture attests.

Naples - Church of the Girolamini

Right off the via Duomo is the church and convent of the Girolamini. It is actually quite a large complex but it is lost in the jumble of Neopolitan streets. We came across it quite by accident; walking south on the vico Girolamini to the via Tribunali we came to a little piazza where I initially spotted the church of Santa Maria della Colonna. It was only after I began to approach that façade that I realized the building behind me was a huge late baroque fantasy of a building.

The façade was constructed in the late 18th century, but the two cloisters predate this by two hundred years or so. It is by the master architect Ferdinando Fuga, whose other work in Naples includes the Albergo dei Poverei, he is probably most known for the façade of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

I think that the façade is one of the most beautiful in Naples. The pavilion like bell towers with their onion domes and the superimposed orders of the pilasters all work together in perfect harmony.

Naples - Funicular and City Views

Vesuvius looms over metropolitan Naples. 

To get to the Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa de San Martino we took the funicular railway from the station just west of the Via Toledo.

It was quite an experience. The dog was strange; there was a dog that no one seemed to be paying attention to sitting in the middle of one of the cars. It was still there when we came back down.

The station and the cars are delightful. Lots of 19th century detail (thankfully not in the cars).

Upon arriving on top of the Vomero I felt as if we were in a very different world than the Naples of the Centro Historico. The first thing we noticed was that it was so clean. It lacked the gritty graffiti of the lower city. Oh there was graffiti  it just seemed cleaner.  Even the supermarket we stopped at was cleaner. The clerk was from Newcastle, which made me laugh.

It also lacked that soiled mattress smell that gave so much character to the old city.

An even more amazing thing is the well placed signage that clearly pointed the way to the Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino.

Below, Dallas! No, actually the Centro Direzionale from the Certosa San Martino.  A number of landmarks can be seen in this picture.  It gives you an impression of how dense the historical center really is.  These were taken from the forecourt of the San Martino Monastery (certosa di San Martino) where a number of people had gathered for the sunset to drink wine and be merry. Really awesome place.  

From mid left: Santa Maria Maggiore, just below that the Piazza Dante, the Duomo, San Lorenzo Maggiore (and Tower),  San Domenico Maggiore and the San Domenico Plague Column. 

Looking north towards the Palace of Capodimonte in the distance.

Naples/Caserta - Palace of Caserta - Gardens

One of the features of the park that I think is fantastic beyond all that is fantastic is the 3 km long “pond” with a 70 foot tall cascade at the end of it. After the cramped quarters of the Centro Historico in Naples, the open English style park with its great wazzok of a “pond” is rather nice. As with the palace itself the impression is one of overwhelming size, quantity rather than quality. This is sad because there are actually some really amazing sculptures here, they just get a little lost in the sheer vastness of it all.

To walk around the pond/canal it takes about an hour with stopping at each fountain and terrace for a good look and photo op. I would recommend taking an umbrella if it is drizzling or raining. The ornamental trees provide little protection from the elements.



There are tons of sculptures, mostly in collected groups: the arts, the sciences, personifications of architecture, geography etc. and urns supported by tritons and putti. I bet in the summer it must be delightful, but around about New Year’s it’s a little depressing, especially with the drizzle and fog.  The sheer size makes up for it though, damned impressive.

Every quarter kilometer or so one comes to a new fountain and or terrace. Each with it's own theme and dripping with ornament and sculpture.

First up is the fountain of dolphins.  They are sort of proto-evolution dolphins as they have claws and are actually rather terrifying. If marvelously sculpted in a grotesquely fantastic way. 

Can't sleep the dolphins will eat me! 

Next up is the Fountain of Aeolus. Here is a sort of grotto with several dozen zephyrs spouting water jets.

Fountain of Aeolus. I'd love to get in that artificial grotto, it looks cool! 

After the fountain of Aeolus comes the Fountain of Ceres.  I think she is holding a medallion of Persephone? 

Ceres, being all fountain like. 

The palace gets further and further away.

It's gonna be a long walk back. 

The fountain of Venus and Adonis is next. 

Not entirely sure what is going on in this sculpture but it looks darn sexy.

Add caption

Finally the statue of Diana and Actaeon, the unfortunate peeping Tom.  For his crime of catching the goddess Diana in the nude he was turned into a stag and torn apart by hunting dogs. Nice! Give me that old time religion. The cascade leads from a grotto about 200 feet above the fountain.

Fountain of Diana and Actaeon. 

Someone liked to sculpt dogs methinks. Here's Actaeon getting torn apart:

And here's Diana with all her bathing attendants. It suddenly all becomes clear:

One last look at the cascade from close up and back to the palace. During the summer there are acres of garden to explore.

Naples/Caserta - Palace of Caserta - Interior

Lion on Staircase at the Palace of Caserta

Staircase

Staircase at Caserta with Octagonal Hall

The central octagonal hall on the Piano Nobile was inspired by Santa Maria Della Salute in Venice (one of my favorite Churches, so light and airy). Walking around the hall the spatial composition is mind bogglingly beautiful. The staircase is magnificent; absolutely a work of art, double plus the lions are so cute!

The chapel was designed after Louis XIV’s royal chapel at Versailles, it is a fair imitation. The throne room has an incredible ceiling, however, after that though the interior goes downhill very quickly. I’m not sure if it just needs restoration but it really seems like the designers were just phoning it in. Now this could be because the palace was remodeled in the early 19th century during that whole Joachim Murat fiasco. Or it could be that I am just spoiled after the palaces of Russia and France.

Some of the neoclassical-empire style decoration is elegant, but most of it is ponderously academic, over large, lacking in detail or in a few cases, sense.

But the staircase and the octagonal hall! Totally worth the trip.

Chapel at Caserta 

Naples /Caserta - Palace of Caserta

Caserta, Front Facade 

If you have a half day to spare and have already visited Herculaneum I would recommend heading out to the Palace of Caserta.

Trains leave Napoli Centrale in Piazza Garibaldi about every 10-20 minutes. It’s a fairly easy ride on a commuter train. Tried to take a bus, but was repeatedly mauled by ancient gypsy woman while trying to read the timetable, so went with the train.

The train drops off as Caserta’s railway station in, can you guess? Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi in Caserta. As you exit the station the palace is right there in front of you being big and palace-like. I am not kidding about the big, at 1,200 rooms it is one of the largest palaces in Europe.

Started in the 1750’s Caserta, when the Bourbon monarchy was ruling Naples, it was designed with the massive palace of Versailles in mind. However, Caserta was finished in less than thirty years whereas Construction on Versailles continued for 120 years and never reached full completion. Like the Royal Palace in Naples it was built as a symbol of power and as a sort of tribute to the idea of monarchy. Somewhat like the Escorial in Spain, Caserta was meant to be more than just a palace. It was also to contain a military barracks and a university, skipping the monastery included in the Escorial’s plan. I get the impression that Carlo de Bourbon really just liked huge buildings. The palace of the poor in Naples was built at the same time (see: Albergo dei Poverei).

In April 1945 the palace was the site of the signing of terms of the unconditional German surrender of forces in Italy. The agreement covered between 600,000 and 900,000 soldiers along the Italian Front including troops in sections of Austria. It was also used in the tragic Star Wars Episodes I and II and served as the Vatican in a number of better movies.

Rear, Center Facade

One of four courtyard

Naples - Church of San Gregorio Armeno

On the Via San Gregorio Armeno is the Church and Monastery of San Gregorio Armeno, go figure? The street is famous for the makers of nativity scenes and all of the pieces that go in them. Some people refer to it as Christmas Alley.

Like all of the other buildings in this section of Naples the church was built on the site of a Roman temple.

One of the most intriguing elements of the complex is the lovely tower perched over the road; a truly beautiful piece of architecture.

And San Gregorio? Well He brought Christianity to Armenia then died of natural causes. In the fifth century his bones ended up all over the place including Naples and the church was founded here to house his relics. The building there now is actually from the 16th century and has a baroque interior that rivals any in Europe with its flamboyant treatment.

Naples - San Filippo e Giacomo

Church of San Filippo e Giacomo

Just a little to the west of Via San Gregorio Armeno down the extremely narrow Via S. Baigio dei Librai is the church of San Filippo e Giacomo.

The façade reconstructed in 1758 has often been compared to works by Borromini, the unfortunate architect behind San Carlo a Quattro Fontaine in Rome. This is another church that just appears out of nowhere next to a rather rickety looking block of flats with the cutest little Juliet balconies. I digress as is my wont…

The façade is divided into two superimposed orders. On the ground level a portal with a rounded pediment supported by a pair of engaged Ionic columns with swags of stone cloth hanging from the volutes, (whimsical! Also interestingly similar to San Lorenzo Maggiore which is in this same neighborhood and reworked about the same time) is flanked by niches filled with gigantic statues of St. Filippo (Phillip) and St. Giacomo (James). Each of the Apostles looks rather grand and stands on a funky beveled pedestal.

The second story has four well proportioned Corinthian pilasters and a couple more statues, topped off with a triangular pediment over the central projection only. All of this in whitish stone over a yellow painted stucco ground. Very bright, very pretty.

When I think how the bright colours and innovative shapes of the Neapolitan baroque remind me of St. Petersburg, I am also reminded that most of the architects in the mid 18th century in Russia were Italian (Rastrelli et al).

Saint James (Giacomo, also the name of my Neapolitan great-grandfather), son of Alphaeus was one of the Apostles, though he isn’t really mentioned much in the New Testament. Which is understandable there was someone else there who had a bit more of a starring role.

Saint Phillip (Filippo) we know a little more about. Also one of the Apostles and the patron saint of pastry chefs (for obvious reasons laid out in John) and hatters (I have no clue, perhaps he was mad? Maybe he dealt in felt or mercury?). Phillip was originally from Bethsaida and he died (either by being crucified upside down or by beheading or possibly from being hung upside down from a tree) up in what is now Turkey sometime in the late first century. Surprisingly enough in 2011 “archeologists” claimed to have found his tomb in Hierapolis. As they say; Investigations are ongoing.

The church of San Filippo e Giacomo from the Via San Biagio dei Librai 

Naples - San Lorenzo Maggiore

Piazza Gaetano and San Lorenzo Maggiore

Right at the intersection of the Via Tribunale and the Via San Gregorio Armeno in the Piazza San Gaetano the church of San Lorenzo is yet another superb example of baroque architecture. At least from the outside, sort of. In any case It is one of those brightly colored highly decorated mid 18th century façades that appears out of nowhere, wedged in a corner attached to a six story block of flats on the left and a very large bell tower to the right that forms the edge of the Via San Gregorio Armeno.

The façade is divided into two levels; on the bottom level four be-swagged composite pilasters divide it into three bays. Two tremendously large  statues flank an ancient Gothic pointed portal. Each is within its own square niche, set above graffiti level and capped with a bas relief of a couple of popes tiaras and the keys of St. Peter.

On the second level bass reliefs are set between smaller composite pilasters on either side of a extremely large octagonal window. Above all of this a unique break-fronted semi broken pediment with a round oculus window. On top of all of that it is orange, which makes me happy. I like orange.

The interior has been heavily restored back to its Gothic roots. The unique (at least among churches in Naples) apse is of French inspiration and rather remarkable piece of stark Gothic architecture in a city of such over exuberant decoration.

The square itself is rather fascinating. Standing on the site of the ancient Greek and later Roman forum, it has been the center of Naples for some 2400 years. Named for the tomb of San Gaetano which is inside the church of San Paolo Maggiore. The buildings even mark where the ancient buildings were. San Lorenzo Maggiore is over the ancient temple of Castor and Pollux, while San Paolo Maggiore was built over the site of the ancient Curia of Naples. There is a a statue of San Gaetano in the square, he looks quite ecstatic. Though not quite sure why? He battled against the church of Rome in the 16th century, trying to reform corruption and greed. Eventually he died of exhaustion and grief in 1547 after saying some rather profound words on his death bed.

San Lorenzo Maggiore, Gothic portal and baroque additions 

Naples - Castel Capuano

The back end of Castel Capuano - Porta Capuana

The Castel Capuano is another of the castles in Naples. It was a violent place…

Named after the east-west roman road that led to Capua (which the gate is also named for, even though it was moved four hundred years ago and no longer straddles the road) this is the second oldest castle in Naples. After the Castel Nuovo was built it seems to have been relegated to the role of a secondary palace or guest/dower house (think Blair House, in Washington, DC). 

As with most palaces it has a long history of famous visitors (Petrarch for one) and palace intrigue (the occasional murder of someone’s lover) and momentous events (Black plague, looting, black plague, wars, black plague, lavish royal weddings, black plague…etc.). It was briefly the royal residence under Ladislaus and Queen Joan II, but then fell back into disuse.

In the 1530’s the building was remodeled as the Palace of Justice. This act consolidated all of the individual courts and offices all over the city of Naples into one gigantic structure (some things never change). A new prison was built in the cellars along with the very in latest torture chambers, it’s all fun and games until someone pulls out the thumbscrews….

The appearance today is the result of a mid 19th century “restoration” that seems to have heavily romanticized the medieval structure.

An interesting note, on the rear of the structure is a fountain from the 1470’s that was built as a horse trough. It's hidden behind the open air vending machines and the newsagents. I kid you not...

Naples - San Gennaro Shrine - Porta Capuana

San Gennaro Shrine at Porta Capuana

Just outside the Church of Santa Caterina in Formiello there is a baroque shrine to San Gennaro (Januarius) patron saint of Naples. Constructed from black and white contrasting marble, two pilasters and a pair of volutes flank a bust of San Gennaro in an octagonal frame above a bas relief white marble drapery. Above this a broken pediment contains a coat of arms and two b@stard cherubs. Because as we all know everything needs more cherubs.

St. Januarius was born into a rich family sometime in the third century. He became the bishop of Naples and then annoyed the wrong people (namely the government of Emperor Diocletian, the only Roman emperor to retire of his own will) and was either torn apart by bears or beheaded or both. The cathedral of Naples is dedicated to him and it is here in Naples that his dried blood liquefies three times a year.

If you are ever in New York around the 19th of September (one of the days that the blood liquefies) check out the feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy.