The National Library

Nook of Naples: There was a time when an olfactory sensation went hand in hand with the visual pleasure of reading. Yes, books and libraries had smells that can't be replicated in the on-line world.


To trek back into the past -- and I mean the past of 2,000 years ago -- you can take a free tour of the National Library in downtown Naples. Established within the Palazzo Reale in 1804, the library currently houses more than 1,775,588 volumes and prints.


On an interesting note, libraries in Europe differ from America in that they don't use the Dewey Decimal system. At the National Library, they also don't organize their collection by subject matter. Instead, books are stored in a labyrinth of back rooms. Students, scholars and the general public look up what they want in the card catalog or on-line and then request the materials from the librarians.


If you make an appointment with the public relations department, they hospitably offer free tours that take you inside these back rooms. You can walk through high ceiling hallways and past rooms bursting with materials mostly collected to preserve the art, history and culture of Italy. At the very back of the library, scrolls from the Villa of Papyri are on display.


In the mid-1700's archeologists discovered the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, believed to have been owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. carbonized his collection of approximately 2,000 papyri scrolls, turning them into what looked like burnt wood. For two centuries after their discovery, conservators attempted to open the scrolls and succeeded through different methods. By 1984 a Norwegian team used a glue composed of gelatin and acetic acid to separate many more.


Some papyri are, nevertheless, too damaged to read. But others -- when put under strong light -- have writing that can be wondrously deciphered even by an untrained eye. Most of the papyri are written in Greek and are philosophical texts from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D., many of them from Epicurus' On Nature. While we visited, the librarians opened one of the glass cabinets and we were able to bring our noses inches away from an original papyrus scroll.


The tour also included a visit to the rare manuscripts department where a librarian put on white gloves and then brought out several illuminated manuscripts, including an original handwritten book by St. Thomas Aquinas and a 500 A.D. manuscript written in Greek about pharmacology.


Best of all, the library is open to anyone who wishes to read in the sitting rooms. You're given a free locker at the entrance for storing your belongings and then, if you wish, you can take in the smells of books, books, and more books.


Getting There: Palazzo Reale, Piazza del Plebiscito 1, 80132 Napoli
Hours: M-Fri 8:30-19:30, Sat. 8:30-13:30
Public Relations department (for tours): urp@bnnonline.it or tel: 39 081 781 9231/387

The Sunday Hop -- The Jewish Community in downtown Naples

(Alexander Popivker at Centro Chabad di Napoli)

The Sunday Hop:  The first written evidence of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. comes from an anonymous Jewish author who told about the catastrophe one year later in a passage of the Libri Sibillini.  His verse predates Martial’s (in 88 A.D.) and Pliny the Younger's (in 106 A.D.).

The Jewish community existed in the Campania region perhaps as far back as when the Greek colonies established themselves here.  Certainly, they began to settle throughout the Mediterranean after Alexander the Great took Judaea.  Historians give the date of 70 B.C. as a time when Jews came in larger numbers to Italy as slaves after the fall of Jerusalem.  But inscriptions found during archeological excavations in the Campania region show that their communities were likely large and varied.  


The port town of Pozzuoli had a Jewish community that contributed to commercial activity as well as the manufacturing of purple, fabric, and glass.  Inscriptions have also surfaced in the towns of Nola, Bacoli, and notably Capua, where an Alfius Iuda is mentioned as having been part of the Council of Elders and a rabbi.

Our best information about the Jewish community comes from the impressively preserved archeological finds in Pompeii.  Inscriptions have been found naming Youdaikou a producer and merchant of wine who was wealthy enough to own his own slaves.  Coss Libum was a manager of one of the most important hotels in the city.  Iesus wrote graffiti along a wall comparing a gladiator to a little fish.  Most interesting is the etched word ‘cherem’, which scholars say is the first Pompeian evidence of a bilingual Hebrew-Greek (in Latin letters) inscription and also may point to the place where Jews assembled on special occasions.

Last December, I set out to find today’s Jewish Community in Naples.  I visited Alexander Popivker and his wife Sarah Nurit who live in the center of the city with their four children.  They own a kosher catering business.  Alexander was kind enough to let me interview him, so I turn over this post to his words:

How long have you lived in Naples and where are you from?

We came to Naples over five years ago.  My family emigrated from Ukraine to the United States twenty years ago.  I have also lived in Israel when I went there to reconnect with my Jewish heritage.  Sarah is from the north of Italy, Udine.

What brought you to set up the Centro Chabad di Napoli?

It is our belief that the teaching of Chabad Chassidut that we discovered is the fruit of the Tree of Life, which is the Torah.  That means that these teachings can and should be integrated worldwide, which according to our teachings will commence the messianic age.

What branch of Judaism do you practice?  Could you describe some of its fundamental aspects?

Chabad Chassidut teaches of the unity of all things in One G-d.  This is of course a common theme of Judaism, however Chassidut Chabad has a complete system of representing it on all levels from universal to personal.  This kind of world perception leads to a true love of all creations, which our movement is known for.  Being open, tolerant and always ready to help in material and spiritual, alike.

How big is the Jewish community here in Naples?

Before the Spanish Inquisition the community of Naples was tremendous accounting for about 30% of the local population.  However, with the continued demise of the Roman roads to the south and the Spanish threat, local Jews either emigrated or assimilated.  It is very common to meet people who remember their Jewish ancestry, but not much else.  Presently in the whole region there may be approximately 200 Jews.

When are your services and who can participate?

There is a weekly Saturday morning prayer at the local Synagogue.  Other than that, we are happy to host guests for Shabbat & Holiday meals as well as provide lodging at our Guest House.  We assist with tourist information and keep an open home to all those that may be interested in Judaism or just interested in trying some kosher food.

Would you like us to know anything else?

There is a favorite quote of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that I would like to share, "I don't believe in ideas, I believe in ideas that change people."

You can find Alexander's website here:  www.chabadnapoli.com

Recommended Reading:  The Jews in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and in the Cities of Campania Felix by Carlo Giordano and Isidoro Kahn


Said to be one of the most important writer's of the twentieth century, Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz and Reawakening describe the northern Italian author's capture by Italians during WWII, their deportation of him to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and his return home.


Also -- for a look at the best of Jewish 19th century heritage, you can visit the Villa Pignatelli along the Riviera di Chiaia, built by Ferdinand Acton in 1826 and bought in 1841 by the financier Carl Mayer von Rothschild.  The gardens outside as well as the museum provide quiet reprieve from the frenetic pace of Naples city life.

And with that, I bid everyone -- Shalom!

Caffe Corretto

The Espresso Break: An espresso shot with an added tablespoon of sambuca, grappa, or whiskey?  This is the best of what Neapolitans refer to as caffe corretto.  A typical caffe-bar offers a wide range of liquors from Bailey's and Jack Daniels to assorted kinds of Italian grappa.  (See my La Cucina Napoletana for more on Italian digestives.)  At ten o'clock in the morning, I see quite a few men drinking caffe corretto before heading off to work.  And, in fact, the portions are so small that the caffe has a bite, but not much more.

The tradition of correcting coffee with alcohol very likely started in the 1800's during a time when coffee became an ubiquitous beverage in Naples thanks to the caffettiere ambulante or wandering coffee peddlers.  These men yelled out to customers in the early morning hours:  "Vulite na tazzuella di caffe?"  They wore aprons and set up tables along the street replete with small burners, cups, saucers, sugar, and a bottle of rum.

Today, you can choose from a bevy of liquors, but many (especially things like Campari or Martini & Rossi) don't usually go well with espresso.  I prefer the sambuca with its licorice sweet taste.  The barista still recommends you stir in a packet of sugar, making the beverage a kind of bite-sweet-aaaah.

A Little Bit More About The Caffettiere Ambulante:  By the early 1800’s, coffee became a public ritual in Naples.  The caffettiere ambulante or the wandering coffee peddlers popularize the beverage within the region.  At that time, the bustling city of Naples included a multitude of street vendors.  The maccaronari or Neapolitan pasta makers ladled out cooked macaroni from their boiling cauldrons.  Fruit vendors came from the countryside as did the cepollari with onion and garlic hanging over their shoulders.  Pisciavinnoli or fishmongers sold their fresh catch from the sea and the pizzaivoli invented pizza, serving their new culinary snack to tourists who visited specifically lower class districts for a taste.  To this one could add the caffietterie ambulatore who yelled to customers in the early morning hours:  “Vulite na tazzuella di caffe?”  They wore aprons and set up tables along the street replete with small burners, cups, saucers, sugar and a bottle of rum.  Served with a little water to clean the palette, the coffee peddlers would serve to workers, maids, apprentices and then slip into offices, serving coffee to employees, managers, and nobles.  It was, already then, the drink of the everyman.

Medium or Trickster?

The Odious Women Tour:  Illusionist, medium, levitator, and trickster, Eusapia Palladino (1854 - 1918) lived during an epoch that blazed with the determination to prove the supernatural through science.  To that end, all manner of scientists and writers, including Pierre and Marie Curie as well as Arthur Conan Doyle, sought out Eusapia – and paid her prohibitive fees – for the sake of finding an answer to the impassioned question of the time:  Was she a fraud?

Palladino was born in a mountain village near Bari.  Her mother died during childbirth.  Her father then sent her to be raised at a neighboring farm until the age of twelve, when he was murdered by brigands.  With no living relatives, a family from her village that had moved to Naples took Palladino in.

The family at that time was engaged in holding regular séances, something very common with the rise of Spiritualism (the belief that the spirits of the dead could be contacted through mediums).  When Eusapia was invited to join these séances, she proved able to levitate objects:  tables rose, chairs danced, glasses clanked, and bells rang.  Thereafter, the family invited all their friends to witness Eusapia’s tricks.

But these gifts, as told by Palladino, also tormented her.  Palladino explained that she saw ghosts staring at her.  Also, her clothes and bed-covers would be stripped from her in the middle of the night. 

Fiercely independent, Palladino left the family to work as a laundress.  She then married twice, the first time to a conjuror whose name is unknown.  Her second marriage was to a Neapolitan merchant whom Palladino helped in his shop while conducting séances in the evenings.

In 1888, Palladino first made headlines when a Professor Ercole Chiaia of Naples wrote an open letter to eminent scientist and spirit-doubter, Caesar Lombroso.  Describing Palladino, he said she was “… an invalid woman who belongs to the humblest class of society.  She is nearly thirty years old (actually by 1888 she would have been 34 – my italics), and very ignorant;  her appearance is neither fascinating nor endowed with the power which modern criminologist call irresistible;  but when she wishes, be it day or by night, she can divert a curious group for an hour or so with the most surprising phenomena.”

Not exactly a clipping to bring to a class reunion.  But from that letter forward, Palladino was pushed into the limelight, with venerable intellectuals asking her to display her skills.  Cesare Lombroso asked her to perform a battery of séances in Milan during which time he made careful scientific observations.  Palladino was then invited to cities across Europe.  She traveled to Warsaw, Vienna, Munich, Cambridge, and St. Petersburg, among others.  She even displayed her skills in front of Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris.  Pierre Curie reported that he saw:   ”…tables raised from all four legs, movement of objects from a distance, hands that pinch or caress you, and luminous apparitions.” 

But many intellectuals also caught Palladino cheating.  Whenever she resorted to tricks, her clients bitterly complained about her high fees.  Palladino, in her own defense, noted that her impatient intellectual clientele put too much pressure on her to perform.  That's what caused her to cheat.

Did she think of herself as a fraud?  And how did she view this high-society interest in her skills? Hereward Carrington’s biography tells a story that perhaps reveals more: 

Eusapia says she possessed diamond earrings and bracelets set with emeralds, massive chains and rings with precious stones. Her rich acquaintances Sardou, Aksakoff, Richet, Ochorowicz, Semiraski, Flammarion, knowing her Neapolitan taste for gold ornaments, had loaded her with many gifts. For better security she put these treasures into a sort of strong box in her shop.

"One night," she said, "I had a horrible dream: I saw a man, of whom I saw not only the face, but all the details of his clothes, with an old hat, a handkerchief round his neck, check trousers; he came into the shop and forced open the box, whilst two companions watched at the door."

The impression was so strong that she awoke her husband and told him that the shop was being robbed. He paid no attention; but she got up about two o'clock, went into the shop and assured herself that there were no thieves there. But to set her mind at rest she took her precious jewels and carried them to her room, where she shut them up in a piece of furniture after counting them one by one. 


What was her alarm next day when she encountered, near the door of the house, an individual identical in appearance with the person she had dreamed of! Worried by this thought, she went to consult a police functionary whom she knew, but he excused himself, saying: "I cannot, dear Madam, undertake to act as policeman of dreams, but if you wish to make your mind easy take your jewels to the bank…”

After several decades of intense interest in her abilities, in 1909 Palladino traveled to America where she was invited to show off her talents at Harvard.  There, a pre-eminent psychologist observed her séances and found her to be a fraud.  For whatever reason, his publication sounded the death knell of her international popularity.  While she may have continued her séances from 1910 onward, we know nothing of what happened to her except that she died in 1918 of unknown causes in an apartment house on via Benedetto Cairoli.

(The street along which she lived and died.  The exact apartment number is unknown.)

 










(The English cemetery adjacent to the street where Eusapia lived.)

(The Magic Cafe along the street where Eusapia lived.  I went inside and asked if they had ever heard of her, but the barista and two customers only shrugged.)

Suggested Reading:

Carrington, Hereward.  Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena

Doyle, Arthur Conan.  The History of Spiritualism

Attacks in Rosarno

Ugh.  In December I wrote about the plight of African immigrants in Naples.  Unfortunately, last Thursday in the town of Rosarno (about 5 hours south of Naples), some Italians in a car decided to shoot air bullets at two Africans as they were walking back home from work.  Their shots set off riots and protests throughout the town by African immigrants.  By Sunday, the police came in and evacuated more than 900 immigrants.  While watching their departure, many Italian inhabitants cheered.  You can read about the incident by googling 'Rosarno' or clicking here.

I have never known a country, region, or city that didn't have its share of inequalities, biases, xenophobias, and racism.  But I currently live here in Italy.  So I report the sad story from Naples.  Voice of America reports that in the last two years there have been more than 300 violent attacks in Italy against the Roma, Romanians, and Africans.

What can we do to curb this tide of anger and xenophobia?

Sunday Skip -- The Etruscans

New!  The Sunday Hop, Skip, and Jump!


Every first Sunday of the month I'll be posting the hop (usually an interview with someone in Naples), the second Sunday the skip (a Nook of Italy), and on the third Sunday the jump (a Nook of Europe).  Hope you enjoy it!

Nook of Italy: My love of the classics led me to take an Etruscan tour of Italy, visiting three of the dodecapoli (the twelve fabled cities of the Etruscan league)-- Cerveteri, Tarquinia, and Orvieto. 


The Etruscans once lived in the Umbria and Tuscany region, some settling all the way down to Capua in Campania.  Archeological remains set their beginnings at 1200 B.C.  Through the centuries, they co-existed with the Greek colonizers and then with the Romans, trading and warring with them.  Cross-cultural integration also occurred as exemplified through the three Etruscan Kings of Rome from 600-500 B.C. and the large number of Greek vases found in Etruscan tombs.  


What made the Etruscans well-known throughout the ancient world was their technological savvy in mining metals.  It seems that the Etruscans traded their metals thanks to a bottomless desire for gold, which they could only acquire through contact with the outside world.  

The Etruscans left no written documents.  We know about their non-Indo-European language only by what's scratched on stones. Their art shows they likely were either heavily influenced by Eastern dress and artwork, or even came from the East.  As a consequence, questions always persist as to whether they were indigenous or first settled the region from a faraway land.

We have no records of a single person's life.  We know of them predominantly through their cemeteries, which they left burgeoning with red & black painted vases, opulently sculpted sarcophagi, and multi-colored frescoes on the walls of their tombs. 

Cerveteri has the largest necropolis in the world next to the Egyptian pyramids, the cemetery layered with centuries of now empty Etruscan tombs:

What archeologists found inside the tombs, they preserved at the Etruscan museum in downtown Cerverteri:

In Tarquinia, twenty some-odd Etruscan tombs can also be found.  The tombs remain buried under several feet of dirt, thereby better preserving the paintings inside.  The frescoes -- in various conditions -- depict dolphins jumping next to seamen and lavish banquets with their accompanying musicians.  It seems that the above-ground urns kept the cremated remains of poor people, while the rich received the tombs.

(Urns in the front.  The hut-like entrance to two underground tombs in the back.) 

Beyond the Tarquinia tombs, visitors can look out to the Tyrrhenian Sea where the Etruscans once sailed their ships.  According to Roman writers, the Etruscans were also notorious pirates.

The Etruscans liked to send their dearly departed into the next world with an abundance of goodies.  What remained in them by the nineteenth century was taken out by the city of Tarquinia and placed into the city's own Etruscan Museum:

Our last stop was Orvieto, a city perched up on sheer cliffs. The Etruscan necropolis sat right below the city and had a very different look from the Cerveteri and Tarquinia cemeteries:

I must mention, as an aside, that the Duomo in Orvieto's central square dazzled:

Starting at the visitor's information center in this piazza, a tour of the underground showed how monks during the medieval ages created wine-cellar-like spaces that, in fact, housed pigeons for cultivation and eating:

The monks also used a stone olive oil press in this underground:

Most impressive for our Etruscan tour was the one-hundred meter deep well, replete with carved footholds. Archeologists ask many questions about what kind of technology the Etruscans had in order to build this well. What did they use to dig it?  How did they survive once they got to the bottom since 100 meters down there is only carbon dioxide and no oxygen?

(The footholds are at the top of the picture.)

The Etruscans were wiped off the map of existence when the Romans annexed their territory during the 1st century B.C.  The Romans probably looted and burned most of their cities and ancient writers then recounted only stories about Etruscan ruthlessness in war and reckless piracy.  Today, what little remains of the Etruscans incites in us an intense curiosity as well as a hopeless desire to uncover their mysteries.


Getting There:  We drove to these cities with the help of a GPS.  Once we came close, signs were everywhere and easy to follow.


Book Recommendation:  I read two layperson books along the way.  The Etruscans by Michael Grant and D.H. Lawrence's Etruscan Places.


Website Recommendation:  The Mysterious Etruscans has pictures and comprehensive data on the twelve dodecapoli.

Napoli Sotterranea

Nook of Naples: Every visit to Naples should include the Napoli Sotterranea.  The guides are fun and the underground offers tours daily in both Italian and English.  (You can also make reservations for French and German tours.)  Located along a side-street in the heart of Spaccanapoli, don't confuse this comprehensive tour with the smaller, but similarly advertised Napoli Sotterranea one block down at the Church of San Lorenzo.  (The Church has its own interesting underground and I'll post about it next month.)


The tour begins with a walk to an apartment building.  Some years back, archeologists noticed a Romanesque marble slab used in the construction of the edifice's top corner.  They guessed that Roman ruins lay underneath and knocked at the door of an apartment owner on the bottom floor.  The owner told them his apartment included an underground cellar as well as a parking garage for motorinos.  Archeologists climbed down to take a look, then asked if they could start digging.  Sure enough, they hit upon a Roman theater built during Emperor Nero's reign.

Our guide brought us inside the apartment, today decorated with 1950's furniture.  He lifted up a bed, revealed a trap door, and led us down stairs into the cellar/parking garage.  Diagonal lattices against some of the walls demonstrated how the Romans built their structures in such a way as to make them earthquake proof.

 

Leaving the underground through a side door, the tour guide led us back to the ticket entrance and took us down a long stairwell.  At the very bottom, we came to a vast underground of hallow areas and narrow passageways.


This underground was first used as an aqueduct during Greek and Roman times and dates back to the 4th century B.C.  The water system continued to be used until 1825 when officials shut down it down due to the cholera outbreak.  The aqueduct was re-opened and used as a bomb shelter during World War II. 


Napoli Sotterranea has created a kitsch-like museum in several hollow areas, including World War II displays of army tanks, military uniforms, and toys left by children.  Over 20,000 people waited out the war here and grafitti can still be seen on the walls, from the words 'Help' (Aiuto) to pictures of bombs drawn by children.

 

In another room, a display of fake rocks and an electric pulley showed how the ancient Greeks and Romans once used these cavities to cut tufo stones with large axes, hauling the pieces through holes in the ceiling.  The materials were then used in the construction of buildings.

Down one corridor, biologists have set up a bed of experimental plants.  Because the underground has eighty percent humidity, these plants never need to be watered.  The guide told us to notice that when we exhale within the temperate climate of the underground, we can see our breath.

 














Next we trekked through thin passageways with candles in hand.  Not for the claustrophobe, we followed our guide through hallway circuits until we reached a water cistern.  During Roman times, the public used the larger cisterns for drinking water, while wealthy families would buy a cistern for their private use, pulling up water through wells and into their homes.

Our tour ended in a cavity that sits below the San Gregorio Church.  Here, the Santa Patricia Order of Nuns store their homemade wine.

The tour did not include a taste of the wine (believe me, we asked) and the church remains closed to the public.  A sobering tidbit about the underground (and possibly the nuns):  its collapse is believed to be imminent.


Getting There: Piazza San Gaetano, 68 -- Napoli  http://www.napolisotterranea.org/en/index22352.html

Witches After Christmas?

Happy La Befana Day! On the eve of January 6th, the witch La Befana swoops down into the chimneys of little children and fills their stockings with either gifts or coal. She travels on a broom, wears a black shawl, and is covered with soot. Once children have received their presents on the morning of the 6th (and usually also candy coal because no child is solely good all year long), parents shuttle them to school in costume where the festivities continue.

Many believe that La Befana dates back to ancient times when the Romans gave each other gifts for the New Year in celebration of the festival of the goddess Strenia.  (Interestingly, the word 'strenna' in Italian means 'Christmas gift'.)  The actual word 'Befana' derives from the Christian word 'Epifana' or 'Epiphany'. 

Folktales say that when the Three Kings set upon their journey, they stopped to ask La Befana directions.  She didn't know where the baby Jesus might be, but provided them with shelter and was noted to have been an excellent houskeeper.  (Hence, the broom.)  The Three Kings asked if she wanted to accompany them on their journey, but La Befana declined, explaining that she had too much housework.  After they left, she regretted her decision and set out to find the baby Jesus by herself.  She was, however, unsuccessful and continues to search for him to this day.

On the night of the 5th, it is customary to leave out a glass of wine along with some food.  Parents tell their children that if they catch a glimpse of La Befana, she will thump them with her broomstick.  Consequently, this post goes out to everyone as a warning -- don't leave your beds tonight or you'll catch the tail end of a housekeeping woman's stick!