The Bay of Noon

While I'm overwhelmed by...a lot..I'm mooning over photographs taken this year by a flickr contact, Liivia. Rome to Naples (& more but I'm focused on those presently). The top two are from Napoli, the third from Procida (an island in the Bay of Naples). If you have a love-hate relationship with Naples, welcome fellow maniac.

The Bay of Noon, by Shirley Hazzard is a wonderful book set in Naples. I urge everyone to read her, if they've not. Or to re-read her if it's been ages. I am indebted to a friend's mother who set me to reading Hazzard's books when I was a freshman in high school. Here's an interview with Hazzard in The Paris Review

(For the rest of the Italia 2011 set, see here.)

Drama Queen

No, not me. (How dare you!) Fireworks, tossing appliances out the window, & red underwear. What's not to love? I had to post this link to Aglio, Olio, & Peperoncino's post on New Year's Eve in Italy. Napoli is the 'drama queen of the boot-shaped peninsula'? Oh yeah. [Maria Callas as Norma by Gordon Paris, via LIFE archives]

Fragments, Naples

(Naples, for later) All photographs by Robert in Toronto who so obviously gets it. Please see Robert's larger format photographs, here, here, & here (for the photographs above); you will see much more detail if you go directly to these links. Thanks.

Reading in the Shadow of Vesuvius

Some favorite books, re-read every year. Shirley Hazzard on Naples/southern Italy where she lived for many years with her genius translator husband (mostly Flaubert), the late Francis Steegmuller. [**Please see below for important note re: second & third photographs by Robert in Toronto.]

Hazzard's The Bay of Noon, Greene on Capri. (Deeply admire her other novels, but concerned with this area right now. )I cannot fathom how one could be bored by Greene in Capri--even if they don't give a fig for Graham Greene, Shirley, Francis, or Flaubert. Or Capri. However, if you don't care about any of those things--what the heck is wrong with you?! [Oh dear. I just found a NYRB letter-to-the-editor mini-kerfluffle in 2000 between Greene's last companion, a lovely person, & the reviewer of the Capri book -- 149 pages, you can zip through in a sec & highly diverting-- & then he brings in Hazzard to answer charges. These NYRB back & forth l-to-ed can go on for years. This looks like a one-off. Here's that link.]

Hazzard-recommended Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples by Dan Hofstadter. I don't know how he did it, but he did. The city's antique & curio shops are among the characters in his novelistic-remembrance. Take a break from Paris & elsewhere, please, I beg you. And don't forget about the highly original Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camillieri. I don't know how I'd do without these people. Really.

**Second & third photographs by Robert in Toronto. When I saw his flickr set & what he wrote, I thought immediately of these books. So many who have gone for the first time, just freak out & leave. [Or they pre-freak out & never go., more's the pity.] Update: Robert suggested that I should put links to each photograph so that you might see the full-size; I agree. Here is the fabulous wall; here is the antique shop.

Here's what Robert writes: "Possibly more than any other city in Europe, Naples exudes an atmosphere and sensibility as palpable as its odour: it's not to everyone's liking. I was enthralled by the place, and, at every turn, inspired to shoot a photograph, even though the weather during our four-day stay was cold, misty, and wet. There is a lot to see, all of it accessibly on foot or by bus, and much of it unusual. In particular, the narrow, awninged streets of the old city teem with people and products to rival the medinas of Africa. But remain alert: a man with a camera is a ready mark."

buona notte, gattini & gattine

[Jean Patchett in scarf, Vogue 1950 by the great "lost" Vogue photographer Clifford Coffin via myvintagevogue on flickr. Jessica's tumblr blog is in the right side-bar & her website is looking great. Update 26 June 2009: here's link to myvintagevogue aka Jessica, who is adorable; upcoming post on her as soon as I can ask her, email, & then get back here.]

A Foggy View - Bay of Naples

Screech. How can it be nearly 1pm? I was expecting to fly through errands & laundry & &&...this photograph will not upload properly. I feel as grounded as I did that day in a (lovely) flat, not mine, with three gorgeous views...this one of the Bay of Naples. Which I love. Vesuvius looms over all, of course. Hmmm. OK. Well, that's that for now. Will post someone else's great photo & get ready for more thunderstorms, running through the rain. So the story about this place is on hold. Did I say bleep already? No, bleep. (Apologies for language.) [Update of three minutes later. No I'm not going to waste the permission to use someone else's gorgeous Polaroid so bricolage looks pretty-through-thumbnail. Ugliness-as-virtue? Hmmm.]

On the way to Amalfi

I have no idea how I persuaded the driver (a friend) to pull over so I could take these. He must have been mad to listen to me There's barely room for a chubby mule on this road. We were running errands, I think. Putting self back to bed but wanted to post these poor scanned devils to use later. (I've yet to make contact with Italian photographer in the area...& they are mine, so...) From the same trip as the Afternoon in Ercolano post. Feeding grass to cute bufali, an Italian ginger cat named Peaches, & a trip to Paestum coming up soon. (Even small versions of these come out quite small in the upoad as they are wide; I'll leave the html code in for clicking.)

ciao bambini, will visit your sites as soon as I can.

Two Sisters in Naples

An Original Polaroid Land Camera photograph by a friend's wonderful father, a true Renaissance officer (at the nearby NATO base) & a gentleman. Naples area, same time as the On the edge of Vesuvius photographs. (This photo has aged, yes, but the tones were on purpose, I'm certain, from having seen the photographer's other work.)

These two women, Sorella Louisa & Sorella Chiarina were responsible for an orphanage for girls. It was not an orphanage in the strictest sense as most girls had families; however, mostly for financial reasons, the girls did not live at home. The alternative was prostitution; most were under age 12. It was about as shocking as anything I'd seen or heard & I'd seen & heard plenty before then.

We spent a lot of time with the girls, the local priest, Louisa & Chiarina, & a few others who were about during that time. Many girls went home for a few days during the holidays. We all worried a lot about what might happen if some of the girls' families (read: the father) did not allow them to return. This happened more than occasionally.

One little girl who remained behind during holidays was from Nice. She'd been dropped off unceremoniously about a week before this photograph & of course did not yet know much Italian. I was asked to visit with her. She was adorable, of course, & I don't know what happened to her. It's not all tragic, some hilarious things (intentional & unintentional) occurred. But that's another time. I race against time for now. Louisa & Chiarina were wonderful & took good care of a lot of children with very few resources. They were the very definition of grace. xo

Afternoon in Ercolano

Out of a sow's ear...these photos are awful but a reminder of a day spent at a friend's office. She was charged with renovating a palazzo, outer buildings (including huge stables...all I could think was poor Hercules with that particular chore), & gardens...& starting a graduate business school for the Italian government. In English. And dealing with some sort of flower show or display that day & the bitterly complaining florists (about where each one had been assigned for their arrangement). And, and, and. My friend handled it all quite gracefully, including a depressed friend who showed up for three weeks with one pair of black jeans, three black turtlenecks, a boyfriend's old red pullover, & not much else. Oh, yes, a list of complaints about life. The other pictures from the trip are all in bright sunlight so I'm not sure what happened here. The flash went off, we thought so anyway. This is really for writing purposes & later. I know I always write that but 'tis true. (Ercolano is the Italian name for Herculaneum of Vesuvian fame/infamy.)

On the edge of Vesuvius

Original Polaroid Land Camera snaps from the mid-1970s on an Italian Sunday afternoon. The story is long & short. Presently, it feels necessary to say only that I loathed the person on the left (my right), & liked the one on the right -- very much. My second trip to Italy (from France) but my first to the south & "real" Italy (ten days in Venice a few months before was a world away). The photographer & person I liked lived in the area. The photographs looked this spooky as soon as we saw them...it's not their age now. No tourists were there that day, just a bored guard--delighted to talk to someone. I was excited to be so close to a volcano, I remember. I saw several in Iceland but they didn't have tragic stories, ancient & modern, attached to them. The Neapolitan area inspires both longing & loathing. What a complicated place...