italiafile

The first day of Spring, and the weather in Naples is less than springlike. Cloudy and damp. All over Italy the Fondo Ambiente has thrown open the doors of buildings for the interested to have a nosy round. In Naples there are just two buildings on the open list. This is mainly because May is the month when tourists and Neapolitans alike can poke around otherwise closed buildings. Today was merely a rehearsal.

Having nothing better to do, I ventured into the Basilica of San Giovanne Maggiore at the bottom of my road. A colossal, typically baroque, church greets the eye, but the high altar shows it to be a colossal typically baroque church, built over a Roman temple and, in turn, a Greek temple. The restoration has peeled back the layers and its fascinating to see a marble pilaster of the high Baroque, next to a Roman corinthian column above a Greek pavement. And its one less to see in May.