Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. Mattie was in the Hospital for his first round of chemotherapy. Many of Mattie's friends from preschool and kindergarten came to the hospital to visit him. To help with this visit, Linda (Mattie's child life specialist) gave the kids bubbles and other things to do with Mattie. Linda was a life saver because frankly I could hardly manage entertaining Mattie at that time, much less all the kids who came to visit. I do think this photo was very revealing. Mattie was surrounded by his friends, but the person he turned to was Linda. This bond and connection happened early on in Mattie's treatment process.
Fun Fact of the day: (1) Pizza was "invented" in Naples around 1860s. (2) Naples is the largest city in southern Italy. (3) New York City is at the same latitude as Naples. In Naples it only snows briefly once every several years, whereas in NYC snow is very frequent in the winter.
Unfortunately today we were the victims of such a scam! I can tolerate a lot from people but I do not tolerate dishonesty! I also do not care for being manipulated and taken advantage of, it makes me feel awful, and also affects my feelings about the big picture in life. Which is when I get dejected and depressed over how mean people can be to each other.
Today was the first day we did NOT take an organized Ship
tour. We planned on exploring the shore ourselves. Why?!!!! Because when I was
a child, I would travel almost every summer with my mom and grandma to Italy.
One of the places we always visited was Sorrento, which is considered a “hamlet
by the Bay.” There are only 16, 000 people in this picture post card beach side
town and it boasts some of Southern Italy’s most wonderful and breathtaking
views! Sorrento is only a 30 minute boat ride from Naples. For years we bought
tickets from Naples to Sorrento and Sorrento to Naples. It was a common occurrence
for us and we NEVER had a problem until today.
This morning we disembarked the ship at 8am. We arrived at
the water taxi ticket area by 8:15am. We bought tickets for the Aliscalfie
(water taxi) for a 9am departure. In typical Naples style, nothing was
organized or sign posted. Fortunately my dad is fluent in Italian and my mom
can really hold her own as well. However, despite their language skills, we are
still considered TOURISTS. Needless to say, we kept checking in with the ticket
office and even the police who were guarding the port as to when the Sorrento
ferry would arrive. We wanted to make sure we did not miss it. Any case, in
addition, Peter and I walked to every ferry that came into the port to
determine where it was going and if it was the boat we needed. Keep in mind
NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING is sign posted and in Naples many people pretend
not to understand English. Needless to say at 9:30am, the ferry still hadn’t
arrived. So my dad and mom went back to the ticket counter. At which point, the
ticket person told them that we missed the boat, that our ferry left at 9am and
110 people were on the boat. So the problem was with us! That was a lie!!! The
boat never came and it most certainly never docked at gate 10. I know because I
checked each ferry that arrived in port and gate 10’s boat (which is where the
ticket counter clerk said our ferry had left from) was going to Ischia (another
local island). So in essence we were hustled and I just couldn’t believe this
could happen from a ferry service office. This wasn’t just someone off the
street selling us tickets!!! The ferry service doesn’t accept credit cards, so
I have no doubt that our money was pocketed! Needless to say this clouded my
whole opinion of Naples and the people in it.
After our horrible morning experience, it took great courage
on my part to venture back out to this busy city filled with questionable
types. But Peter, my mom, and I did it! Not only did we do it, we walked about
four miles throughout the City. The first stop on our self-guided walking tour
was to The Piazza Plebiscito which is one the largest squares in Naples. It is
named for the referendum on October 2, 1863, that brought Naples into the
unified kingdom of Italy. The Piazza is surrounded by the Royal Palace and the
Church of St. Francis of Paola with colonnades extending on both sides. Occasionally
the square is used for open air concerts in which such artists as Elton John
and Bruce Springsteen have performed.
It was one of the four residences near Naples used by the
Bourbon kings during their rule. In WWII, this building was bombed and
subsequent military occupation of the building caused serious damage. Today the
palace and adjacent grounds house the famous Teatro San Carlo.
In the first years of the 19th century the king
of Naples was Murat (Napoleon’s brother in law). Murat planned the square and
this building as a tribute to the emperor. When Napoleon was finally dispatched
the construction of this building was transformed from its finished product to
a church. The church was dedicated to St. Francis who stayed in the monastery
on this same site in the 15th century. The church is reminiscent of
the Pantheon in Rome.
After walking through the Square and the Palace, we ventured
through Via Chiaia. Which is basically a local district filled with homes and
shops.
Walking the streets of naples
Naples is hilly and we walked through cobblestoned streets
and climbed many steps. Keep in mind we are doing this in 90+ degree
temperatures with humidity. The beauty however of Italy is the weather and there
is not even one cloud in the sky. Pure sunshine! In fact, every picture we take
is aglow with warm and rich tones. Nothing looks grey, depressing, or uninteresting
from my perspective. You almost feel like you are a part of history as you are
walking the streets.
As it is a Neapolitan tradition, we stopped for gelato at an
ice cream shop called Fantasia Gelato. The perfect name really. We have had ice
cream in Nice, Lucca, and now Naples and Naples was the BEST by far. The ice
cream is very rich and creamy. I consider myself an ice cream lover and this
was not just good, it was sinful. I had a chocolate ice cream today that was
almost as thick and rich as FUDGE! It almost made up for the morning’s scam! Peter snapped this photo because he thinks I am fun to watch picking out ice cream. He says it is like watching a love affair!
Naples is the birthplace of pizza! It is also the home of
Neapolitan ice cream. The cafes, bakeries, and ice cream stores we passed each
looked wonderful and enticing! I also need to mention that Italy is the first
Country we have visited in which MUSIC is played in the streets. Live music
performed by all sorts of people. You can hear music everywhere and I do think
this adds a dimension to Italy and makes you understand and appreciate why art
and music are key contributions from the Italians to our world.
As we continued our walking tour, we came across Castel
Nuovo or Maschio Angioino, which is a
medieval castle in the city of Naples. It is the main symbol of architecture of
the city and has been expanded or renovated several times since it was first
built in 1279.
This bakery caught our attention. My grandmother used to
make Tarallis, which in essence are very plain cookies that can have anything
in them from almonds, olives, to chocolate. We purchased several and brought
them back to the Ship for my dad to try this evening.
Today we strolled through the Gallerie D’Italia. We were
intrigued to go in because on the outside of the Museum there was an advertisement
about Caravaggio’s last painting he created being on display. The painting in
question was titled, Martyrdom of Saint Ursula.
Caravaggio created this painting in May of 1610 in Naples, just a few weeks
before his dramatic and lonely death. After 400 years of complicated bequests,
restoration work and critical debate, the painting returned to the city in
which it was conceived and painted. Like in many of Caravaggio’s works, the
episode is represented according to an unusual and unorthodox iconography, in
which the artist portrays the terrible conclusion of the event. In the
painting, the deed has just been done, a cruel and brutal murder – as expressed
by the eloquent title in 17th century documents, Saint Ursula
transfixed by the tyrant. The king of the Huns, irritated by the virgin’s
disdainful refusal of his proposal of marriage, pierced her with an arrow,
which is stuck in the young maiden’s bleeding breast. With astonished serenity,
Ursula looks down at the culmination of her tragic fate. Even the artist “participates”
in this theatrical drama. The subject depicted on the right is the last,
anguished self portrait of the artist, who seems to share a common destiny of
martyrdom and death with the saint. The painting and its indisputable
authorship only came to the attention of critics in the mid 1970’s.
Mt. Vesuvius is a volcano in the Gulf of Naples. It is a
short distance from the shore. Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in 79AD
that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash, and fume to a height
of 20 miles spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million
tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal
energy released by the Hiroshima bomb. An estimated 16,000 people died from
this eruption. Today it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in
the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its
tendency towards explosive eruptions. I
snapped a photo of Peter in front of Vesuvius from our Ship.
Peter snapped a photo of my mom and me in front of the
volcano. Whenever I see Vesuvius, I know immediately that the location is
Naples. It also transports me back in time to my memories as a little girl
visiting Italy. We visited Vesuvius several times back then and we even walked
up to the crater which I assure you is a HIKE and a half. The Italians make
beautiful jewelry out of Vesuvius’ lava rocks and I remember my grandma and me
wearing and loving this jewelry.
Tomorrow we arrive into Corsica, an Island off the coast of
France and Italy. I have never been to Corsica and have no idea what to expect.
Other than I know it will be a night and day difference from Naples. I may
never forget today’s visit to Naples and I am trying not to allow it to tarnish
my many wonderful memories of this region. The highlight of the day was talking
to a store clerk whose name is Mena. Mena is a student and is learning the art
of Italian pottery as well as learning the art of mathematics and accounting.
She says you never know what skills you will need in life. The irony is my mom
was talking to Mena in broken Italian and I was following along. As my mom kept
talking, her conversational Italian was getting better and better. After
talking with Mena for 20 minutes, Peter entered the store and I brought him up
to speed on our dialogue. With that Peter whipped out his iphone which helped to
convert what we were trying to say in English to Italian. Mena also
participated and used Peter’s phone to translate what she was trying to tell us
from Italian to English. Needless to say, we had a mutual appreciation for each
other, and she said in her translation that it is very rare to meet people like
my mom and me. She found us sympathetico! Connections do transcend cultural differences,
I truly believe that and Mena reinstalled this hope within me today.
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