meng's blog: 10/23/18: Naples day 2

Woke up and took a quick walk to or planned morning tour, the catacombs of San Gaudioso. Here, Christians in the 5th and 6th century performed burial rituals on the dead that would today seem quite macabre, to use the tour guide's words. Bodies (and keep in mind these were bodies respected enough to be buried in a catacomb) were decapitated, drained of their fluids in cubby holes by a special mortician class, who were poor and not squeamish about the disease and smells that came with the process. It was believed back then that the head and thus skull was the seat of the soul, so the skull was given special treatment.

Nearly 1000 years later in the medieval age, the catacombs were rediscovered. Dominican monks updated some parts of the catacomb in conjunction with building the church above, using slightly less grim mummy wrapping to prepare bodies kept here.

There are frescos from both periods on the walls, with the 400-500 AD ones quite faint, but fascinating to see in person. Skulls were embedded into the wall (and later decayed into the cavities you can see in pictures) to form these bizarre skeleton figures.

The skulls are in the shadow of the lighting at the top.

This is a composite skeleton forming a guardian figure to protect the other people buried in the catacomb. Yes, that is a scythe it's holding. The guide did not explain how that imagery migrated onto our popular depiction of Death. The words around the blade are lost to time. But these early Christians were pretty matter of fact about death. One inscription reads: "today me, tomorrow you." Another painting shows a skeleton leaving behind a crown and scepter, standing by an hourglass, its message that we are all the same in death.

A couple of the lights in the crypt nurture shall patches of moss growing in the dirt and humidity:

There's one fresco of Jesus that was painted in the 400s and then again in the 500s. Thanks to deterioration, you can now make out both paintings.

There are plans to eventually restore the frescos, but the organization that runs the catacomb tours is privately funded and needs to prioritize their money. It seems to be growing healthily, at least.

[from this afternoon, but inserting here for continuity]

We took a bus up the hill slope north of the old city to the Capomonte, head of the mountain. Here was the Catacomb of San Gennaro, the main patron saint of Naples. This was a much better catacomb, showing the evolution from pagan (so biased of modern history to label the Roman gods that way) to early Christian to Catholic. The builders discovered that tufo, a local igneous tuff rock, was easy to carve and shape. And thus they started digging into the hillside. The lower level of San Gennaro's catacomb from the 00-100s AD were much vaster and more organized than San Gaudioso's (mirroring the main layout of Naples at the time):

The grapes here are a fresco from the upper 400 AD level, and are a retooling of Roman art style and motifs to fit the new Christian ideology. They represent Jesus and his blood. No such Christian symbology exists in the lower level.

San Gennaro's tomb was on display. The vault was built in the 400s, and then Gennaro's artifacts stolen back from a rival city claiming him and interred here in the 500s. Then in the next few hundred years, grave robbers made off with the stuff. Such is archaeology.

The catacomb is open to the outside -- apparently, contact with the outside air minimizes the spoilation of the frescos. Same as in the first catacomb, the organization has way more items to try to take care of than it has money for. The Vatican approved this project in 2001 to run till 2019, and so the org hopes to have shown enough success to get an extension.

Their mission is a worthy one, and the historical and archaeological value of these sites are invaluable.

Lunch was a long walk down the newer post of Naples to the coast. A small restaurant appropriately named Il Restaurantino dell'Avvocato. The lawyer's little restaurant. The tasting course had pork in a couple of dishes, so we opted to order a la carte.

Fried cod in pumpkin puree as an amuse bouche. Fried cod was excellent texturally, but quite salty, which made me nervous, as a few negative reviews of the place had mentioned that.

Caprese salad.

Rigatoni and fish. Simple and good: let the fish flavor show up.

Miscellaneous pasta and potato. Very rich and would have pleased most people looking for a hearty mac and cheese.

Octopus in tomatoes and capers. Some real classic Italian, and it delivered. The octopus was cooked quite well, not tough at all. The sauce was sweet from the tomato and tangy from the capers.

Seared fish of the day. The searing on the filets and skin was perfect.

Overall, a fairly basic spread, with no tricks and executed very well.

In the afternoon, we took a walk along the coast to get to the water bike tour. This area was far more resorty in feel, with upscale brand shops instead of food stalls. Might as well be Monaco compared to the old city. Our guide had said wind might prevent us from doing the tour, and he went back and forth on the weather in the afternoon. When we arrived, he had concluded no go. He did give us a lift partway back, though. Hence why we doubled up on catacombs -- our tickets were good for all catacomb sites.

For dinner, we finally made it to the pizzeria I had wanted to go to the first night -- Attilio. Muslimah put it like this: the quality completely erased our low opinion of Neapolitan pizza from what we'd had at Dal Presidente.

My DOP-grade margherita was light, excellent tomatoes, soft crust, not oily. I have not had a better margherita. The normal margherita was a steal at 4 Euros, which is the going price for one in Naples, while this was 7. Given the short length of our trip, I wanted to make sure to leave nothing to chance, quality-wise.