Naples Miscellany 32 (start late-June 2010)
- (June 20) Update on
iSanGennaro! (from previous page, here).
This comes from Larry Ray:
"
I
just got off the phone with F. Even more
bizarre is the back story to the iPhone
Miracle App … F.'s computer engineer son, S.,
is the one who produced the thing! The
newspaper used the names of the CD Music store
who commissioned S. to do it... Basically at
the first meeting with the client (S.'s first
paying gig since he graduated, outside his
regular job with a video game design company)
the owners were casting about for something
really catchy. One of them mentioned that they
had a friend in France who made an iPhone app
that featured the patron saint of Paris. So
S., without saying a word, designed the whole
app as a joke to show them what he was capable
of creating...He got one of his graphic
buddies from the video game team to do some of
the visuals. S. wrote the whole computer
code that makes the prayer voices change and
speed up, and the blood to go through all its
changes. Next meeting, S. gathered them around
and did the proper shaking and moving, and
when the MIRACLE! came up it wowed the
clients. They went nuts, loved it, and paid
him pretty well for the effort... And S. had
no intention whatsoever of actually using the
'sample' he created."
- (June 21) A recent episode
of the crime drama, White Collar, was about
recovering a bible stolen from a church in New
York. The set-up describes the bible as having
belonged to the "church of Saint Camillus de
Lellis in Naples," and "brought to the United
States in 1903." The bible is also called "the
healing bible" because of its reputed powers. The
writer is listed as Tom Garrigus. It's hard to say
how much fact/fiction is involved. To my
knowledge, there is no church of Saint Camillus
de Lellis in Naples, although there are a number
of church-run hospitals in both Rome and Naples
connected with the very real person of the
soldier-turned-cleric, St. Camillus de Lellis
(1550–1614). He founded the order of the
Camillians, or Ministers to the Sick, whose
traditional garb even today is a red cross on a
black cassock. Camillus spent his life caring for
the sick and is said to have had supernatural
healing powers. He was canonized by Pope Benedict
XIV in 1746. In the Roman Catholic faith, he is
the patron saint of nurses.
In Naples, besides the various hospitals linked with St. Camillus, there is a small church, S. Maria del Divino Amore, not far from the Duomo, that displays relics connected with the saint. The church was originally a large convent/church built in the mid-1600s. The premises were totally transformed (or obliterated) by the urban renewal of the 1890s and early 1900s, which—getting back to the 1903 date in White Collar—would account for people leaving their homes, "saving" something from their local church, and emigrating. I don't know if anyone took the "healing bible"—or, indeed, even if there is or ever was a "healing bible"—but if it's fiction, it's not bad. At least the writer did some homework.
- (June 23) Italy has just begun a series of national events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the modern nation state of Italy. If you think, however, that national unity —a sense of "oneness"— prevails in Italy, you have not been paying attention. If you are a descendant of Italian emigrants and live in some "little Italy" somewhere in the world, maybe all this is irrelevant to your life, and that is understandable, but it has a great deal to do with what made your ancestors leave the old country. Consider that the president of the Veneto region of Italy recently said that "we are tired of hearing Roman" and Neapolitan dialects in TV." This, followed by various You Tube clips of northerners singing, "We aren't Neapolitans" and praising the virtues of the pseudo-secessionist Northern League. Now, a Neapolitan pizzeria has put up a sign saying, "After so many insults against us, Northern Leaguers are not welcome!" The proprietor claims he has had a number of northerners come in and ask for copies of the sign so they can put them up somewhere in the north where they live. It seems that they are embarrassed by the League and make no apologies for their adherence to the idea of National unity. Whoever said, "These things take time" wasn't kidding.
(June 24) Many public buildings
in Naples, and even some hotels, are converted monasteries and
convents. That much is not controversial.
Inspectors from the Ministry of Culture, however,
acting on an anonymous tip, did find controversy
at San Lorenzo Maggiore,
the church/monastic complex in the center of town
and a popular tourist attraction in the city. The
brothers-in-charge, it seems, have been building,
without a permit, what looks suspiciously like a
luxurious Bed & Breakfast on the premises
above the central courtyard (photo, right): rooms
with private baths, air-conditioning and —this is
what aroused suspicion even in the face of claims
that it all amounts to a bit of "sprucing up" for
visiting clerics— king-sized matrimonial beds. The
city has closed and sealed the two floors that
were being worked on until it all gets
straightened out.
(July 1) Filangieri
Museum. The good news is that this
small jewel of Neapolitan museums may reopen soon.
It has been closed for 10 years for many reasons,
some bureaucratic and some having to with the fact
that it is adjacent to major eternal construction
on the new Naples metro lines. Some of the
displays were moved to the Maschio
Angioino and some just sit in the closed,
dark museum. The displays include a large
table-top model of Naples from the 1600s,
sculpture by Antonio
Canova and Francesco
Jerace, a collection of weapons from the
Orient, presepe
figures, paintings by Luca Giordano, Ribera, and
Mattia Preti (among others) and musical and
theatrical manuscripts from the 17-, 18-, and
1900s. The bad news is that I am always skeptical
of notices that tell me that something is going to
"reopen soon."
(July 3) TAV stands for treni alta velocità—high
speed trains. They are common now in many parts of
Europe. Considering the time wasted getting to and
from airports and being herded around inside of
them, travel times by TAVs are competitive for
mid-range distances of, say, 500-700 km (300-500
miles). The prices are competitive. The Italian
TAVs provide service, for example, from Milan to
Naples in as little as 4 hours and 10 minutes and
from Rome to Naples in 1 hour and 10 minutes. The
goal is to span the entire boot of Italy with a
high-speed train corridor from Milan to Reggio
Calabria. The high-speed corridor is largely
complete as far south as Salerno. Crucial
to the completion of the network in the south
is the planned interchange station at Afragola
(image, right), near the main Naples train
station. It will hook northern and southern Italy
together, be linked to municipal Naples train
services, and also provide easy access to the main
north-south autostrada
highway. That Afragola transfer station was
started about five years ago, but work was
interrupted almost immediately for financial
reasons. Work is to start again on July 16 and
will take 852 days to complete. (When they put the
time in days —meaning "working days," so forget
Sundays and holidays— it tricks you into not
thinking of it as three years!). It will be a
high-class "signature" station as they say when a
high-class architect is called in, in this case,
Iraqi-born futurist Zaha Hadid. She has about 20
completed structures throughout the world, and
they are stunning, including, in Italy, the
National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome.
The Afragola station will cover an area of some
38,000 sq, meters (about 9.3 acres) and include a
large park and hotels. [update here]
- (July 7) Mt. Vesuvius National
Park is obviously centered on the volcano,
Mt. Vesuvius. The park is rated as a Category II
protected area by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature, a category reserved for
areas designated "national park" within their
respective nations. The Vesuvius park was founded
in 1995 and covers 7,000 hectares, about 17,000
acres. Within
the park there are nine trails or footpaths for
visitors; they have a cumulative length of 54
kilometers (33 miles). The administration of the
park is housed within the Medici Castle in nearby
Ottaviano. The castle was originally a medieval
fortress from the year 1000, destroyed in the
1300s, and was transformed into a residence by
Bernadetto de' Medici in the 1600s. By the 1990s
it had come into the hands of local organized
crime. It was seized by the state in the early
1990s and earmarked for the Vesuvius park. In
spite of irritating difficulties such as
unscheduled closures, strikes and what-not, the
park remains a popular tourist attraction. Contact
info: Palazzo Mediceo, Via Palazzo del Principe –
Ottaviano 80044 (Napoli); tel. +39 0818653911.
(July 11) "All hope abandon
ye who enter here..." —the sign posted
somewhere at Lake Averno—
has served well over the centuries to keep
busybodies away. The lake came into possession of
the Pollio family in 1750 as a gift from the
Bourbon king of Naples. They kept it until 1991
when they sold it to a mob boss. Right, the entire
lake. The state has now seized the lake and
attendant establishments —a farm, a restaurant,
and a disco on grounds that it was all acquired
with ill-gotten gains and the owner was on the
lam, anyway. One of the ill-getters of the
ill-gotten says in protest that they had really
fixed the lake up. The lake hasn't looked this
good since Dante put that sign up.
- (July 20) A signficant exibit—"Montevergine
Baroque"—is underway on the premises of the Montevergine Sanctuary
and will run through October 30. The
sanctuary/church/abbey is in the mountains above
the town of Mecogliano near Avellino about 35
miles east of Naples. The sanctuary is near the
summit (itself at 1400 meters/4600 feet) and is
spectacularly visible from the entire valley to
the east. (You really can't miss it, although I
did manage to get lost on my way back to Naples.)
The display brings together works by Caracciolo, Giordano, Solimena, and many
others from the 1600s and 1700s from "Marian"
churches throughout the Campania region. The
sanctuary, itself, displays the decorative design
and construction of the likes of Fanzago and Vaccaro from that same
period.
- (July 25) It took a few years, but I finally managed to stay for a weekend at the Camaldoli monastery. It was a peaceful and pleasant way to beat the sweltering heat and humidity of Naples. I was pleased to see that a new park has been opened just below and to the east of the monastery: the Camaldoli Urban Park. There are plenty of trees, footpaths and even a small amphitheater that overlooks the gulf.
(July
27)
Punta Licosa—no sirens this year. For the
last nine years there has been a small, almost
unnoticed series of classical musical concerts
held for a few days in the summer at Punta Licosa,
the promontory that closes the gulf of Salerno as
you sail south down the Campanian coast. Strabo (Geography, book VI)
tells us that the point is between the cities of
Poseidonia (Paestum) and
Hyele (Velia); he notes
the small off-shore Isle of Leukosia off the point
(photo, right). Both Point Licosa and the
Isle of Licosa are named for one of the mythical sirens who gave
Ulysses such a hard time. The area is at the
beginning of a long stretch of woods and pristine
beach on many lists of the "best beaches" in Italy
and even in the world. So, they started "Concerts
on the Water," delicate music dedicated to the
ancient siren, herself. "On the Water" because,
they put pontoons and platforms off the beach for
musicians to set up and play for an audience not
just on the beach but on boats. Word spread and,
indeed, some of the boats came quite a distance
for the unique event. The bad news is that this
year's concerts have been canceled. Organizers say
that the event, itself, wasn't forbidden, but
since the entire coast is now a protected marine
area, "we just can't put out pontoons or moor
boats offshore." Rather than put on "Concerts on
the Beach," they called off the event this year
and hope to have the bureaucratic wrinkle smoothed
out for next year.
(July 31) The board game,
Monopoly, was licensed for an Italian
version in the 1930s. The names of the squares
(the "properties") that you bought and sold have
used the traditional names sanctioned by the
Fascist regime of that period; thus, instead of
"Boardwalk" or "Park Place, you might have
"Victory Gate" or "Via Verdi," for example. That
is about to change. The 2011 version of Monopoly
will feature the names of cities and towns chosen
by an internet vote. As is common with this kind
of voting, the results were "mobbed" by fans of
one place or another, but out of 22 names
selected, two local ones made the list: Caserta
(in 11th place) and the island of Ischia (9th
place). First place went to Chieti, 200 km NE of
Rome on the Adriatic. Only two large Italian
cities will be on the new Monopoly list of
properties: Milano (16th) and Torino (18th). A
number of southern Italian towns made the cut,
including Reggio Calabria, Messina, and—poetically
and justly—in the province of Bari on the southern
Adriatic coast, the town of Monopoli, itself!
- (July 31) Back in the real word of buying and selling, the state-owned Tirrenia shipping firm, which runs the popular routes from Naples to the offshore islands and even down to Sicily has just been acquired by General Mediterranean Holding. I'm not sure what this means except that it may be another manifestation of the current Italian government's rush to "privatize" and get out of the business of running the state. (As in this item.)
(July 31) From MIT's Department
of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences comes
some interesting information on Stromboli (photo,
right), the volcanic island in the Aeolian group
north of Sicily. It has been erupting, usually in
a sputtering fashion, every few minutes for as
long as anyone can remember. The traditional
explanation has held that large bubbles rise
through a few hundred meters of molten magma and
pop at the surface. That explanation may be wrong
and, according to one researcher, "conflict with
the basic principles of fluid dynamics." The real
explanation is that "...the eruptions are caused
by a spongelike plug located within the conduit,
similar to a cork in a champagne bottle, that
fractures every few minutes as a result of
pressure created by significantly smaller
bubbles." Again, I am not sure what this means,
but since I live next door to a volcano, I like to
keep abreast of these things.
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