Certosa di San Martino

Our first stop of a busy day was up on the hill at the charterhouse of San Martino. The view from the top was vast, though the pictures contain a lot of haze. I've included one closeup of the city below that gives you a pale idea of how crowded a city it is, though of course, it's best if you're on the streets along with everyone else to get the real idea of the closeness of it all. The adjoining museum had a selection of great objects, including a few late 18th century ships. There are two cloisters there. The big one was lovely, with skulls decorating the railings. (There's quite the cult of death in Naples, even though the church has spent centuries trying to snuff it out, no pun intended.)

Also in the museum is a collection of creche figures, which is a Neapolitan specialty. They had rooms full of them, mostly showing Neapolitans from the lower orders in customary costume. They're made out of clay so that the figures could be posed. The head, hands, and sometimes legs were made out of painted terracotta. There's an enormous creche scene that spans about 23 feet wide. I've put in a picture of the top of it, but it really doesn't give you an idea of the size of it. It's in a cavelike setting, exactly the way the designer, Michele Cucienello intended it be seen.

The church at San Martino was incredible. We walked into this absolute fantasy of paint and marble. Ira said, "Well, now you don't have to go to Sicily, because this is what the churches look like there." It had a unity that elaborate decorations like this often lack, however, and it was just a delight to sit in the grand space and enjoy the colors. We walked one of the interior rooms to see some amazing intarsio work, inlaid wood panels depicting scenes from the Bible like Jonah and the whale and Daniel in the lion's den.

We took the funicular down the hill to have lunch at the Galleria d'Umberto I. Because of the lack of tourists, we ate in kind of a workingman's cafe/bar. Pasta? Yeah, you can have that. No, we don't make different kinds, just the kind we make for today. It turned out to be a delicious spinach and veal orchiette. Ira had mixed vegetables and we sat and admired the 19th century ironwork and all the glorious light.