In Napoli

One thursday morning we took a train from rome to naples. I had packed light and the more we walked the more thankful I became that I took only, a very heavy, backpack.

I fell in love with napoli right from the moment we got in the cab on our way to our hotel. The city itself was a lot more real, busy, and less touristy than rome. The people were so friendly and spoke little english, giving me a chance to practice my broken italian.

These two men were perhaps the most friendly of all. They were standing on the street near their apartment and when they realized that we were Americans they rushed up to the apartment and brought down this american flag towel and a picture of one of them with former mayor guiliani and bill clinton. They were excited, the said, at the chance to change the negative american perceptions of people from napoli and wanted us to know how much they loved americans.



We sketched the facades of the narrow residential streets in the spanish quarter, focusing mainly on the balconies which extended from each apartment and became the place for the locals to hang their wet laundry. (now would probably be a good time to mention that the act of doing laundry is somewhat different here, starting with the fact that dryers are sparce and thus many people must hang clothing to dry.) I have seen many clotheslines in use before, but never in such a carefully, tractfully crafted way.

Next we when to the Galleria. With was designed to be an enclosed open space within the city blocks of the spanish quarter. The enormity of this space was unpredictable from the street facade. As I walked by to meet up with the group to sketch here I nearly passed it.











That night a few of us went to the opera, in the oldest opera house in Europe. We saw "CANDIDE" by Leonard Bernstien. It was interesting to say the least. Luckily, the opera was in English, with a screen displaying Italian subtitles. Unfortunately is was hard to understand anyway and I often had to combine what I heard and what I read in Italian to understand what was going on.









After the opera we joined the rest of the group at a resturant which had created the first margherita pizza (the first pizza and we know it). It was the first truely amazing pizza I have had in italy. The atmosphere was also amazing, the people we ate near were so welcoming they even brought over their baby and to say goodbye. There were also musicians who entertained us during dinner.











TI AMO NAPOLI