italiafile

I sort of take it back. The scooter ban is holding up. In a comparative sense. The main drag is scooterless, every other street is chocabloc with the things. However, tourists seem happier. May of the Monuments is going great guns. Attendance is up hugely on last year, as are museum admissions and all that jazz. It might be because the summer hasn't yet arrived, today has been the first truly cloudless day for a few weeks.
I took advantage of the special opening of the Church of the Sapienza which ahs been closed for the last 50 years. Its an amazing baroque confection with secret passages, a holy staircase for pilgrims to go up on their knees, and all manner of majolica, mosaic, polichrome, gilt, frescoes and wotnot. It needs another 2 million euros to finish the restoration, which is nothing in the greater scheme ofthings, but Naples needs another church like it needs more traffic.
I also took a guided tour round the Palazzo venezia, a shell of what was once a beautiful Venetian embassy. The frescoes the interiors have long since gone, but what remains of the garden is still worth a visit. This city never ceases to amaze me. Almost every time you go through a tiny door into one of the palazzi in the centro storico you find yourself in a 15th or 16th century magnificent cortile, with roof gardens, extravagant stairwells and all manner of architectural frippery. THe buildings are so unprepossessing from street level, and many have fared badly over the years, being divided and subdivided into an astonishing number of flats that very little remains of the original building, but it's still a fascinating glimpse into the Naples of old.