Il Duomo in Naples and Salerno

For All Hallow's Eve and in anticipation of All Saint's Day, I would like to post  a few fascinating images I found at the Il Duomo in Naples and Salerno:

Found at the Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro

The Bones of San Gennaro at Il Duomo, Naples

Relics of Saint at Il Duomo, Salerno

Image of Saint Pierced With Swords at Il Duomo, Salerno

For More information about the Duomo in Salerno, click here.

The Elevators

Nook of Naples:  ANM is the company that runs the bus service in Naples.  It also offers a transportation oddity -- three public elevators.  Each elevator takes pedestrians from a top level street to a bottom level street.  The best thing about them is that the fare is free.


Across the street from Piazza del Plebiscito, the Acton elevator takes you down to the port:

The pedestrian walkway along Via Chiaia connects Piazza Trieste e Trento (by the Teatro San Carlo) to the upscale stores near the Bay of Naples.  Smack in the middle of this walkway is an arch:

Inside, an old staircase as well as an elevator takes you up to a less visited part of the city.  Here, you can see the Palazzo Serra di Cassano (owned by a Prince whose son Gennaro was executed during the 1799 revolution), the Museo Artistico Industriale, and Pizzofalcone (the birthplace of the siren Parthenope).  The elevator itself is manned by friendly operators, so there is no need to press any buttons yourself.

Finally, in the seedy Sanita section, a bridge going toward Capodimonte has an elevator that goes down to the Church of Santa Maria della Sanita.  This spooky Church has translucent angels at the altar and the San Guadioso Catacombs.  

But watch out!  The elevators also have hours of operation.  When the green light is on, the elevator is open.  When the red light flashes, the elevator is closed.

Halloween Treats in Naples

Paying tribute to the deceased can be a Halloween treat in Naples.  A few sights, in particular, stand out.

Where to see the macabre:

• The San Guadioso Catacombs have frescoes painted by Dominican monks who wanted to honor their wealthy deceased patrons by creating their images (skirts for women, pants for men) and using their skeletons and skulls for decoration.

• The Santa Maria Church of the Souls of Purgatory has an underground catacomb which burgeons with unburied bones.  Neapolitans still leave flowers and notes under the skull of virgin-bride Lucia who died of consumption before she was to wed the Marquee Giacomo Santomango in 1789.

• The Sansevero Chapel has an underground chamber displaying two anatomical machines -- a man and woman skeleton with vein and artery structures.  Raimondo di Sangro -- an alchemist, freemason, and excommunicated scientist -- built this church, which houses the Veiled Christ, but also these gruesome machines.

Where to see the eerie:

• The English Cemetery is all that remains of Eusapia Palladino's legacy.  The graveyard is located off the street where the medium and levitator once lived.

• Execution Square has a spacious, yet hollow feel that matches perfectly with the number of executions that took place here, including of Eleonora Pimentel Fonseca.

• The Garden of the Fugitives is the eeriest attraction in Pompeii.  A row of men, women, and children lie eternally frozen, victims of the Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D.

Where to see the just plain gross:

• Any Tripperia will do, but the one on Via Pignasecca is particularly gorey, with its hanging tripe outside the restaurant dripping with water and lemon.  Mmmmmmm.

The Arbereshe

The Arbereshe town of Civita (Cifti), Calabria

The Sunday Skip:  Drive into the mountains of Calabria near the Ionian sea and signs start to be written in both Italian and Arbereshe.  A pre-Ottoman language still preserved by these small village communities, linguistic enthusiasts come here to study how a Christian folk escaped the pagan Turks and retained a tongue replete with 500-year-old archaisms no longer understood by their cousins across the sea.


The Arbereshe today comprise the largest ethnic minority in Italy, their towns mostly located in southern provinces, such as Calabria and Basilicata.  They sailed from Albania to these shores in the 15th century, on one notable occasion, at the request of King Ferdinand I of Naples.  Albania's national hero, Skanderbeg, created an army and fought with a combined Neapolitan-Albanian force to crush the French insurrection, effectively saving Naples.  The King rewarded Skanderbeg's troops with land in Apulia where they settled in 15 villages.


After the death of Skanderbeg, the Ottomans overran Albania, forcing the Christian inhabitants to convert to Islam.  Many refused and fled to the Italian lands.  Legend has it that Skanderbeg's son spearheaded the immigration.  For centuries thereafter, waves of immigration and intercultural interactions continued between Italy and Albania.  By the 1990's when a pyramid scheme sent the Albanian economy toppling, more than 300,000 Albanians fled to Italy, sometimes settling in Arbereshe villages where they clashed with their medieval countrymen in both language and customs. 


To visit the Arbereshe, two towns in particular stand out.  Civita (or Cifti) has an Arbereshe Ethnic Museum and a Devil's Bridge that is part of the Pollino National Park.  The town itself is cut into the mountain with beautiful views and tortuous cobblestone streets with a piazza, Bed and Breakfasts, wine makers, and restaurants.  (The Arbereshe also have their own cuisine, such as Strangujet, a kind of Gnocchi with tomato sauce (lenk) and basil.)  

Civita Piazza

At the edge of the town, a monument to Pal Engjelli (1417-1470) perches above a valley.  A priest and close counsellor to Skanderbeg, he wrote the first known sentence in Albanian.  

The Arbereshe language derives from the southern Albanian Tosk dialect, but still retains all the archaisms of the 15th century.  Interestingly, Arbereshe was only a spoken language until the 1980's.  (Albanian itself only became a written language in the 20th century.)  So Pal Engjelli's written words in 1462 are particularly significant.  His written sentence is about baptism, probably the phrase used for Albanian people in the countryside who were unable to take their children to church to be baptized.


Another town nearby, Frascineto, has a Church and an Arbereshe Library founded by a Byzantine-Catholic priest, Antonio Bellusci (1934- ).  Today, the majority of Arbereshe have a unique religion -- they are Christians of the Eastern Rite, but adhere to the authority of the Catholic Pope.


Frascineto also has a Museum of Albanian Costume and a Museum of Byzantine Iconography.

Arbereshe Church in Frascineto

Arbereshe Library in Frascineto

Once remote, these villages are still sleepy.  There's much to explore, but you'll find that strolling through the streets and waving at the locals is the way to experience this slice of a dual-cultured world.

Cappuccino Frothante

The Espresso Break:  For those who want a sweet cappuccino delight at all hours of the day, the cafe-bar across the street from the San Lorenzo Maggiore Underground makes this cappuccino twist:  The Cappuccino Frothante

• Swirl caramel or chocolate syrup along two beer glasses.
• Sprinkle powdered sugar on the sides here and there.
• Add a shot of espresso.
• Add milk and silky milk foam to the top.
• Sprinkle cacao on the top.

Caffiertiere di San Lorenzo

Via Tribunali

Napoli

Cappuccino in Naples

The Espresso Break: Some claim that Domenico Barbaja invented the cappuccino.  While far-fetched, we do know that the name stems from the Order of Capuchin Friars who broke away in 1520 from the Catholic Church, considering the Church lifestyle too opulent.  Under Matteo da Boscio they created their own sect in the Marche region.  The order spread and by 1538 a group of nuns, known as the Sisters of Suffering, founded a cloister in Naples.  

The friars wore brown robes and white hoods called capuccio.  When the beverage was invented, a man like Domenico Barbaja who loved expletives, gambling, and the high life might not have wanted his drink to sound so... austere.


Whatever the truth, the Neapolitans do have their cappuccino.  They drink the beverage only until 11 o'clock.  Cappuccino is served in a porcelain teacup with milk that is frothed silky, not foamy.  Food here is simple, so for goodness sakes don't make any heart, leaf, or elephant decorations on top!  


Italians also don't eat breakfast.  Instead, they choose from an assortment of pastries to eat at the counter along with their cappuccino.  The most common are:

Cornetto: croissants either plain or filled with cream or chocolate.

La Grafa or La Bomba: La bomba is also a colloquial expression meaning something fantastic. This is a large donut covered on both sides with granulated sugar.

Brioche: often warmed, this is sweet bread that is round and has a small cap on the top.

And finally, the Neapolitan original pastry, rarely made at home due to the intensity needed to bake – the sfogiatelle: made from layers of thin dough, the inside is filled with ricotta cheese perfumed with vanilla beans and orange rinds. The sfogiatelle are baked until the many layers of dough turn a golden crispy brown.

And there you have the art of drinking cappuccino in Naples!

Caffe Con Panna

The Espresso Break:  The great Neapolitan impresario, Domenico Barbaja, started out as a simple waiter in Milan.  He went on to build an empire of cafes in northern Italy that often became fronts for his gambling parlors.  His money brought him to Naples where in 1809 he became the director of the internationally renown Teatro San Carlo.  He brought opera singer Isabella Colbran to the theater as well as Giachino Rossini (Barber of Seville).  Domenico lived in a Palazzo along Via Toledo, today only a few steps from the Galleria Umberto:

Folklore has it that Barbaja made his first big windfall of money through the creation of a signature beverage called the Barbajata.  Today, the Teatro San Carlo only serves espresso and capuccino.  Throughout Naples, as far as I can find, nobody has ever heard of the Barbajata.  The drink, however, still survives.  Some claim that Barbaja invented the cappuccino.  I think this is far fetched.  More likely the beverage still survives in a modern day form called the Caffe con Panna or Coffee with Whipping Cream.


Simple and elegant, I made this one at home (see picture above).  Tribute to Barbaja can also be found at the Teatro San Carlo where his bust stands inside an intermission hall:

(A Note about the Espresso Machine:  I made the above beverage using my Saeco Via Veneto machine.  The espresso machine was invented only in the early 1900's.  The machines were created by Northern Italians.  More than 75% of caffe in Naples is still drunk at home, usually made heating up a Moka on the stovetop.  Today, Bosco is the company that makes vintage espresso machines in Naples for use in cafe-bars.)

Oracle of Delphi, Greece

The Sunday Jump: I have a confession: I'm crazed about the Sybils. So crazed that I've dashed through the Vatican just to get to the Sistine Chapel, where I have gazed endlessly at Michelangelo's depiction of, yes, the Sybils. I've wandered through Cuma and Lago Averno many times. I also traveled to the center of the earth, so-called precisely because it was once the seat of the Delphic Sybil.

Why the fascination? Is it because I have a fuming question, one that could restore or save humanity's future?

Delphi is about a two hour drive from Athens, located close to the Corinthian Gulf. According to legend, Zeus released four eagles from the four corners of the Earth and they all met at Delphi, which then became known as the navel (omphalos) or center of the world.

Another myth claimed that Apollo wandered to the slopes of Mount Parnassus where he found a terrible python. The god slew the animal, throwing its body into a crack in the earth. He then established his temple here. Apollo's feat earned him the epithet Pythian and the women who guarded over his temple became the Pythias.

The Pythias should not be confused with the mythic Delphic Sybil. While Michelangelo depicted the Delphic Sybil on the Sistine Chapel, her existence is questionable. It is said that she made prophecies at the Temple of Apollo before the Trojan War. She is also said to have seen the coming of Jesus Christ.

The Pythias, on the other hand, were priestesses of the Apollo temple who gave oracles to men who came from across the Greek world to ask her questions. The existence of the Pythias are extremely well documented, with dozens of Greek and Roman writers mentioning the oracle. Our best source of information about them comes from the Greek historian Plutarch who was also a priest at the Delphic oracle. He explained that the Pythia was originally a young woman, but after a young virgin was raped in the 5th century B.C., an older woman was chosen. During the height of the Delphi oracle's prosperity, three Pythias could be consulted several days each month. They owned property, were exempt from taxes, received room and board from the state, and made a handsome salary. Their work also left them as depleted as athletes after a race.

Plutarch said that before prophesying the Pythia purified herself in the nearby spring. She then closed herself in the adyton of the temple and chewed laurel leaves. She seated herself on a tripod near the omphalos (navel of the earth) and breathed in gas vapors emitted from a chasm in the earth. The Pythia fell into a trancelike state, in which she saw the future. She pronounced her words in hexameters and priests (hosioi) interpreted her words. At times the future-telling work taxed the Pythia so much that she died in the act.

Scholars have been particularly mesmerized by the descriptions of vapors fuming up from a crack in the earth. Legend says that Apollo threw the dead python into the chasm of the earth and its rotting carcass gave off vapors that endlessly rose up from the chasm. Modern scientists maintain that ethylene gases indeed are emitted from the earth here. Whatever the truth, the question has rankled so many that pulitzer-prize winning author, William Broad, wrote a blockbuster book called The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Messages of Ancient Delphi.

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

The Pythias became so famous that emissaries of Greek cities came to leave lavish tributes to the gods. They stored their riches in treasuries along the Sacred Path leading to Apollo's Temple. Thanks to the treasuries, Delphi became the de-facto bank of the Greek world.

Treasury of the Athenians built to commemorate the Battle of Salamis

Gold, silver, and ivory items were stored in these treasuries. One example is this life-size chryselephantine statue, probably a depiction of Apollo. The anatomical parts were made of ivory and the garments and hair were made of gold leaf applied to wood:

Housed at the Delphi Archeological Museum

Delphi during the 5th century B.C. also became the site of the Pythian Games, the forerunner to the Olympic games. Every four years athletes from throughout the Greek world competed with one another in Delphi's large gymnasiums. The city also hosted musical competitions and the Delphi Archeological Museum currently houses the first known recorded musical melody.

Walking down the highway a little further east from the Temple of Apollo, a smaller sanctuary dedicated to Athena with two treasuries shows how vast this complex of religious sites must have been:

Athena Pronaia Sanctuary And Two Treasuries

The sancutary fell into decline when it became a Roman province after 146 BC, mostly due to looters and sackers who stole goods from the treasuries. After the 7th century A.D, Christians settled the area and created a small city called Kastri. By that time the ancient city had been buried through landslides. Only in 1893 did the French begin excavation of the area after displacing the local community.

Today, it's a mystical place of razed stones and winds that I believe carry fortunetelling voices. While standing by the Apollo Temple, I was so overcome with the expansiveness of the place that I had to create a question. My mind whirling, I thought quickly and hoped that the Sybil's prophesy could once again save humans from their errors. I stuttered: "Will the European man-bag ever go out of style?"

The answer, I believe, blew down into the valley from Mount Parnassus.

Via Anticaglia

Nook of Naples: Via Anticaglia is the street at the heart of Greco-Roman Naples. The walls on either side are part of what once was a bathhouse and a theater that could hold up to 8,000 spectators.


Walking by shops and apartments with overhead laundry, I found a store that sold precepe as well as a map of ancient Greco-Roman Naples. The paper looked old, but the cartographer clearly took modern artistic license; nobody knows exactly what the ancient city looked like.

The Crazed Fortuneteller: The Sybil

The Odious Women Tour: The Sybil of Cuma foretold of wars, writing her oracles on palm leaves which would often blow away. Known for their trancelike states and shuddering voice, Michelangelo thought that the Sybils were so important that he seated five on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Cumean Sybil, in particular, was depicted as a dark complexioned woman with wrinkles and burly build. She read a large manuscript, perhaps the Sibylline books.

The fourteenth century humanist, Giovanni Boccaccio, devoted a chapter to the Sybil in his Famous Women in which he called her a maiden named Almathea or Deiphebe. Boccaccio said she was born in the city of Cumae and lived many centuries until the reign of the Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus. He claimed that she preserved her virginity and had a sanctuary near Lake Avernus where she made many predictions.

Boccacio took his legends from the Roman writer, Varro (116 B.C. – 27 B.C.) who collected a compendium of extant knowledge about the Sybils. Varro wrote of the legend that the Cumean Sibyl went to Rome with nine Sibylline books, which she wanted to sell to Tarquinius, the Etruscan king of Rome. When he refused her price, she burned three of them in his presence. She came back the next day to burn another three until he paid the full price for the remaining three books. He acquiesced because the books contained the entire destiny of Rome.

The Roman writer Ovid also mentioned the Cumean Sybil in his Metamorphsis. Here, the Sybil spoke in her own voice, explaining that she was not a goddess, but a mortal woman who asked Apollo that she remain a virgin and gain eternal life. Apollo granted her eternal life, but forgot to add eternal youth. As a consequence, she lived for seven hundred years, shriveling into grains of sand.

Interestingly, Pausanias, the Greek traveler and geographer of the 2^nd century A.D. said the temple guides at Cumae showed him a stone water-jug (hydria) of small size in which, they said, lay the bones of the Sybil. This was considered proof that before her death, the Sybil had shrunk to diminutive size. Petronius also told a folktale that she hung in a bottle (ampula) in Cumae wishing to die.

The highest respect to the Sybil was given by Ovid’s predecessor, the Roman poet Virgil. In his fourth book of the Ecologues he mentioned her as having foretold the coming of Christ. Virgil also described the Sybil in The Aeneid when Aeneas, after leaving Dido at the shores of Carthage, landed at Cumae. He wrote: “…her face was transfigured, her color changed, her hair fell in disorder about her head and she stood there with heaving breast and her wild heart bursting in ecstasy. She seemed to grow in stature and speak as no mortal had ever spoken...”

Antro della Sibilla with shafts on one side pouring light into the trapezoidal tunnel at Cuma

The Sybil's Cave at the end of the trapezoidal tunnel at Cumae

In 1932, Amedeo Maiuri (January 7, 1886 - April 7, 1963), the Neapolitan archeologist who was installed as chief archeologist for Pompeii, said he re-discovered the entrance to the Sybil’s cave that corresponded to Virgil’s account. But today, a mystery continues. An 'Antro della Sibilla' exists at Cuma whereas a 'Grotto della Sibilla' exists at Lake Averno.

Which is the real Sybil's cave? In the book Sybils and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity, H.W. Parke explores this very question. Virgil’s Sybil lived at Cumae, but scholars theorize that perhaps there was another, far older Cimmerean Sybil who gave her oracles at Lake Averno.

Parke says that the Roman writer, Varro, identified ten Sybils in the ancient world. Two were located in Campania – the Cimmerean and the Cumaean. Varro took his evidence of a Cimmerean Sybil from Gnaeus Naevius who stipulated that the Cimmereans inhabited the area around Lake Avernus before the Cumaean’s.

This Roman legend would have been essential for the Romans to believe. Why? Although Cumae was recognized as the oldest Greek colony on the Italian mainland (established around the 6th century B.C.), the settlement did not antedate the Trojan War. For Naevius, legend had it that Aeneas fled from Troy after the Trojan war and reached Italy where he consulted the Sybil who “prophesied the future to mortals and lived in the town of the Cimmereans.” So if Aeneas came to this lake, then a colony must have existed already around 1000 B.C. The Sybil would have been Cimmerean, not Cumean.

Dirt Path Leading to the Grotto della Sibilla at Lake Averno

The Entrance to the Sybil's cave inside the Grotto della Sibilla at Lake Averno

Of course, by the time Virgil and the Romans wrote legends about the Sybil, she no longer existed. So the Romans themselves were already stipulating and creating fictions of their own.

Which legends about the Sybil do you believe?

Book Recommendations: Sybils and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity by H.W. Parke and Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

The Paper Makers of Amalfi

The Sunday Skip: Hiking trails abound along the Amalfi Coast. Today, Mr. Don Gawlik writes this guest post about a hike that meanders through ruins of paper mills, ending at the Paper Museum in the town of Amalfi. Don is not only an avid explorer of this region who did extensive research for this post (and took all the pictures included here), but he is also an exceptional science teacher. He happened to have created and customized this hike for my daughter's sixth grade class field trip. There is so much to explore along the route that this espresso break only touches the surface. He writes:

A Brief History
Papermaking first began in the Orient around the 700's A.D. Five hundred years later, the sea empires of Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa, and Venice all traded extensively with the Middle East and the Orient. This network of trade gave rise to the need for documenting transactions. In the 13th century, Amalfi was not only the oldest Sea Republic -- with bases all the way down to what is now Sicily -- but it also became famous for its paper production.

The need for paper increased particularly in 1220 when King Frederick II produced an epic-making decision by imposing the use of paper for all public acts. The mills for producing the paper were located in the Valle dei Mulini (Valley of the Mills) and people came from throughout the Mediterranean to buy and record documents on Amalfi paper. The quality was so particular and the production so reliable that even the Vatican was said to have contracted with Amalfi to produce all its official paper. Mozart also received a supply of Amalfi paper in exchange for a concert in the home of a wealthy Neapolitan nobleman.

The Hike
The trail begins in the small town of Pontone along the Via di Ferriere. Hiking beyond a stream, you can see ruins of the Iron Works that once produced the metal parts needed by the paper mills. From there, a trail diverts upstream to a cascade. This is the waterway that many mills used to manufacture their paper.

Returning to the Ferriere, the path forks. Another trail goes down to the Valle dei Mulini. This route takes you past eleven mills that operated in the valley during the 18th century.

The hills all around are the Lattari Mountains. They produce the water that flows into the Canneto River. In many places along the trail, you can see where man channeled the water into canals to help run the paper making machinery. The valley, ironically, helped the decline of the paper mills in later years because these roads, railways, and communication systems weren't easily accessible, making the shipping in and out of raw materials difficult.

The First Paper Making Techniques
A document from the year 1700 states that this valley had eleven paper mills with a total of 83 "pile" troughs made of rock. Here, rags were crushed into fibers using large levers with hammers. Some of the mills were huge buildings that had rooms with open windows and large racks to dry the paper, while others were smaller.

In the beginning, old rags from Amalfi and other areas were used to produce the fibers for making paper. Rags were hard to come by. Ironically, when the Black Death killed millions of people in Europe, tons of clothing and rags became available -- at just about the time the printing press was invented. Suddenly, more books were printed, people became better educated, and these better educated people scratched their heads, trying to figure out a substance that might provide even more paper making material. In the 1700's a Frenchman studied the paper wasp and discovered that wood could be broken apart and made into paper -- this is how paper is manufactured today.

The Paper Museum
At the end of the trail is Amalfi's Paper Museum.

The Italians started the first steps toward the process of "industrializing" paper making by mechanizing many jobs once done by hand. In later years, however, the Industrial Revolution struck this region hard. Many paper mills couldn't modernize to keep up with competitors and they went out of business. In spite of the difficulties, some Amalfi paper makers continued to produce paper using their traditional methods; father passed the trade on to his son and generations continued making paper in traditional ways.

Because of their geographic location, the mills were always subject to flooding during the rainy season. This flood water, if used in the mill, carried with it rubble that damaged equipment. In November 1954 a massive flood destroyed 16 paper mills, leaving only 3 standing.

Because of the size of this valley, these mills have never been, and will never be, large or even middle-sized operations. They will always retain an "artisan" character. The museum displays some of the artisan techniques used throughout the centuries.

The Paper Making Shop
Don's wife Leesa sent me additional information about a shop in the town of Amalfi where the owners demonstrate how to make paper. Hospitable and funny, they love to have the kids make their own paper also. She writes:

Continuing downhill from the museum, just on the right, you'll find Arte e Carta di Rita Cavaliere at Via Casamare. The structure, housing the paper shop, has a mill stone near the entrance. Built in the thirteenth century, it retains its original stone basin for paper pulp and contains many paper making artifacts. The Cavaliere family has been making paper from the sixteenth century onward, an art passed from one generation to the next. Visitors are invited to make a single sheet from wet pulp of 100% pure cotton and peruse the shop with its fine quality paper. Available for sale are single sheets for watercolor or limited edition prints, textured paper embedded with dried flowers and plants, small booklets, blanks for business cards and historical images of Amalfi. The shop is only about 10 meters from the museum as you head downhill toward the town center.

Thank you Don and Leesa for sharing a true gem of Campania with us!