Nisida (1);  Carlo Poerio

Quite by accident, I discovered a connection between two unrelated items (or so I thought) in Naples today. The tiny island off the tip of the cape that separates the bays of Naples and Pozzuoli is named Nisida. The original Greek settlers of the area called this small island Nesis. The Romans called it Nisida. It is here that Brutus plotted the assassination of Julius Caesar, and it is here that Cicero says apud illum multas horas in Néside—that he had a long talk with Brutus after the assassination to discuss the future of Rome. In the 1800s Nisida was the site of a Bourbon prison, then an Italian state penitentiary, and, now, a reformatory for juvenile offenders. 

In the early 1900s Nisida suffered two indignities: one, it was joined to the mainland by a causeway, and, two, it was encroached upon by the unsightly steel industry in Bagnoli. That patch of industrial blight is (as of 2002) a thing of the past, as the Campania region and the city of Naples pursue plans to rejuvenate the entire Bagnoli area. Most of the physical plant of the ex-steel mill has already been torn down, and there is already a thriving "Science City" fair ground on the premises in Bagnoli. Currently, part of the island of Nisida is also home to the administrative headquarters of NAVSOUTH, the naval forces for NATO's Southern Command. Also, there is currently some hope of luring the next America's Cup to the area. That would require major investment in port facilities. At present, there is a small port for pleasure craft, and that is where I found myself this morning, helping my friend, Bill, get his splendid sailboat, Down East, into the water and noticing how uneasy I am with such phrases as "Avast!" "Belay that!" and "Batten down the hatches!" ("Stand by to repel boarders!" did give me a thrill just to pronounce, though. I think it even shivered my timbers.)

Later in the day, I was looking for an address on via Poerio in Naples. Now, just as you can get lost in Naples by going to the wrong via Caracciolo (see here), so, too, can you wind up on the wrong via Poerio. There is one named for Carlo Poerio (1802-67) and another for Alessandro Poerio (1802-1848). They were brothers, both intimately connected with the Risorgimento, the political movement to unify Italy. Interestingly, their father, Giuseppe Poerio (1775-1843) was a supporter of the Neapolitan Republic of 1799, for which he was sentenced to life in prison. A family of trouble-makers, clearly.

On the slopes of the Nisida crater are the ruins of what is thought to be the villa of Brutus.  In the background are the town of Bagnoli, then Cape Posillipo, then Mt. Vesuvius in the distance.

In 1849, Carlo Poerio was sentenced by the Bourbon court of Naples to 24 years at hard labor for his part in the political turmoil in Naples of the previous year. He was sent to—here is the connection—Nisida. He and other prisoners were confined in such miserable conditions that William Gladstone, after a visit to the prison in 1851, felt compelled to write his two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen on the State Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government. In these letters, Gladstone coined the now famous description of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies as "the negation of God erected into a system of Government." Indignation throughout Europe was partially responsible for Poerio's release in 1858. He was exiled but returned to Italy in 1861. He died that year in Florence.  [For more on the Gladstone "Letters...," click here.]

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