main index © Jeff Matthews
2002-2012
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, too. 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 (photo, right). The castle
was originally a
medieval fortress from the year 1000, was
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. Go
figure.) The
display brings together works by Caracciolo, Giordano, Solimena,
and many others from the 1600s and 1700s,
collected 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
presence of 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 the
"Concerts on the Water"
series—delicate music dedicated to the ancient
siren, herself. "On
the Water" because, logistically, the event
entailed setting up
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 on
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) And 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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