My City on the Bay...Just a Different Bay

As round two of Italian class comes to an end, it's field trip time! The various classes met up early last Saturday despite the dark sky to gain even more culture and history of the place we're currently calling home.  Although we treked through many areas I've already seen, this time around we were lead by locals that new the history of the city. Instantly the buildings and streets came alive with stories from the past. And don't get me wrong...when I say "past" I really mean past...like 2,500 years ago!

Our first stop was a castle, now transformed into a B&B, to see what a typical Neaopolitan house. Once again I had the feeling that I was born in the wrong country, in the wrong time period...

The outside of the building was being restored and as we walked under the scaffling into the entry way it looked just a little sketch. Just for a moment though because as soon as we climbed the stairs, faded frescos and mosaic tiles greeted us before one of the members of the family that owns it. We toured the beatiful building while being told the history and on several occasions that it was used for a scene in a Jack Lemon film.

Our next stop lead us through Piazza Dante where the statues overlooking the piazza were explained and also how the different parts of the city used to be separated by walls and gates. We stood in a parking lot where they unification of Italy was announced. After hearing history, we then proceeded through one of the old gates (now Book Alley). Orderly. Not breaking down the gate like they did in the old times when the plague hit the city.

It this square we stood next to a 2,500 year old Greek wall (Greek because they stack stones on top of eachother like that) while being surrounded by modern buildings.

Then it was off to a church. A church that I honestly can't remember the name of but someone really famous in church history used this place as his library. I want to say it was St. Agustine, but don't quote me on that! We snuck inside the church moments before a wedding was starting and truth be told, the red ball gown being worn by one of the guests is still what I remember the most. That and a NY Catholic official in burried there as he apparently died when in Italy, with his Italian girl friend. Oops.

Through the exit of the chuch we ended up near the Univerity and stopped for coffee. We stopped for coffee and the rain started to pour. Within minutes the semi crowded streets cleared out, and my to my regret even the two Santas playing African drums moved out. We booked it up the hill to the Museo Cappella Sansevero where some of the most amazing statues I've ever seen were. Check out the link because pictures aren't allowed so you have to look at the professional ones. The ceiling of the chapel was beautiful in brillian greens, blues, reds. Legend has it that the artist Raimondo de Sangro  used bile, blood, and other biological "pigments." Like I said, the art was amazing. Symbolism, technique, all of that but the most interstesting thing? As we left there were two skeletons, a male and female that still had their vascular systems. Again, legend says that an imbalming agent was injected into the live subjects to preserve the system while the flesh decayed. Well, I explored a little more (since it didn't look quite right) and I guess a study back in 2009 found that parts of the skeletons were actually contructed of silk and wax.

Another great day in Bella Napoli and even more fabulous new places to take visitors! Best part? I didn't even have to speak Italian.