This morning, with the melodies of Rossini still in our heads, we came to the beginning of our last day in Naples. The Art Hotel is wonderfully located, but after Ravello it seemed so small and a bit dark. And it was not easy getting cleaned up with three people and one bathroom! We had the usual buffet breakfast and then we packed up. Rebecca was not scheduled to leave for the airport until about noon, so we had the morning to explore. I checked out, and we left our luggage with the desk.
I had the great idea that we should go up to Castel Sant’Elmo and take pictures of the city. We knew that there was some kind of funicular that led there and we figured that it should not be too hard to find. We went off walking in the general direction of the the castles, and I was certain we would find the funicular on the way. Well, I was wrong! All we did was walk through some occasionally interesting neighborhoods in the so-called Spanish Quarter. Each street seemed to climb a bit and even when I asked for directions to the funicular the answers — in Italian — were so complicated we seemed to get more and more lost. To make things worse, John was not feeling well, and Rebecca’s phone was pinging with emails and texts about things going wrong at work in Antwerp. We finally gave up and walked back to the the hotel.
We had a coffee, some farewells, and we negotiated getting a taxi to to the airport for Rebecca. We were sorry to see her go.
John and I still had about a full day left in Naples, so we went wandering about. And it was right we found the funicular. It was right next to our hotel, and we had walked past the entrance to the place at least half a dozen times! But there is a good reason we never saw this funicular. Most funiculars, like Angel’s Flight in Los Angeles, are on the sides of hills. The Naples funiculars — it turns out that there are three of them — are actually tunneled into the hills. They are sort subways angled up the sides of hills. All you can see is the entrance, exactly like a subway. We bought tickets and in a few minutes we were going up the hill.
When we walked out of the funicular into the Vomero neighborhood it was like we were in a different world. This is middle class Naples. There is some trash and graffiti, of course — we are still in Italy — but you can immediately tell that this is a prosperous area. It reminded both of us of the neighborhood where we stayed when we were in Rome. The neighborhood is dominated by the Castel Sant’Elmo. For those of you raised on Sesame Street, Elmo is not a saint. It is a Neapolitan corruption of Erasmus, or Erasmo in Spanish. The fort was established by the Spanish kings after Naples was annexed to the House of Bourbon. Today it is an arts center, though the fortifications are still sort of impressive.
From the parapets there are astonishing views of the city and the entire Bay of Naples. There is the Galleria where our hotel was located and the opera house just to the right of it.
We saw many other "old friends” from up here, including the Duomo. I am really adoring the telephoto lens on the camera my students gave me at the end of this year!
We also saw the commercial heart of a new Naples, a neighborhood we have not visited. Ah well, another time.
As this place is used for a great many arts events — the Naples Theater Festival was taking place there this week — it provides a backdrop for photos and selfies. John decided to snap this one. It almost looks real, doesn’t it?
There is a small museum displaying the work of twentieth century Neapolitan artists. Most of it seemed pretty similar to works of the same period just about every place else. But a couple pieces caught our eyes. The first was this painting of people in a funicular.
And John is always a sucker for pictures of the proletariat rebelling, particularly this piece which could have been the inspiration for Bertolucci’s 1900.
Our next stop of the day was the Certosa di San Martino, Saint Martin’s Charterhouse. For those of you not up on your Roman Catholic monastic orders, a charterhouse signifies a monastery of of the Carthusian order. No doubt when the monks first established this retreat, they were more concerned with isolation from the world than with stunning views. Nevertheless, the monastery does offer panoramic views of the entire Bay of Naples.
