When the Neapolitans moved abroad: the historical evidence exhibited at the Museo Napoli

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If you want to take a step back in time, the Bonelli collection offers you a glimpse of Naples that was through over twenty thousand testimonies. Letters, posters, clothes and wonderful objects that are preserved with love in the so-called “wonder room”.

“This is the only anthropological collection ever made and is the result of a passion for Naples, in every respect”, says the collector and historian Gaetano Bonelli. The private collection is the result of tours for markets, auctions and donations during the course of his lifetime and, as Bonelli is still far from 50 years, the number of twenty thousand pieces in the catalog could grow again. The twenty thematic areas would

make it possible to do an exhibition a week: transport, urban planning, hygiene (with the first bidet of 1800), trade, entertainment (cinema, circus, theater) with finds from the 16th century to the first half of the last century, whose corpus main is between the years’ 700-‘800.

Bottles of beers and perfumes, ties, clothes and shoes. Not to mention the historical testimonies concerning mobility and even immigration. Posters, letters and testimonies of when the Neapolitans were leaving for the other countries. Even the Titanic company sailed from Naples at the beginning of the last century. And Bonelli exhibits the poster in the space dedicated to Naples inside the building of the Casa dello Scugnizzo, in Materdei, a few steps outside the walls of the historic center of Naples. The Bonelli collection comes to us after more than 10 years of pilgrimage between various structures and a thousand promises never realized. From the closet to the Museo Napoli, the first goal of the Bonelli collection cut in October 2017. Since then, the venue has become a destination for many tourists and school children.

Tonia Limatola

My blog tonialimatola.wordpress.com/

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Rione Sanità, walk underground to fall in love with the neighborhood

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Not all neighborhoods are the same. Just outside the walls of the historic center of Naples, leaving behind Porta San Gennaro we go to the permanent market of Borgo Vergini. We can pass under the lights that draw in the air the verses of a beautiful love poem “Core analfabeta” (illiterate heart) by Totò. It is a warning: here you will learn to love! In these spaces you will still find the true Naples well preserved. To understand it, just listen to the sound of the Neapolitan language among the traders of fish, bread, clothes and spices that come from all over the world. In the parties of the Sanità district you will find live music and all the shops open even at night.

You can visit the Basilica Santa Maria alla Sanità and go underground through the path of the Catacombs or let yourself be thrilled at the Cimitero delle Fontanelle, but also admire the evocative transformation of the space that the association Vergini Sanità (in collaboration with the Celanapoli Association) operated in a stretch of the Augusteo del Serino Aqueduct, a space that houses prestigious artistic installations. The site is from Roman times.

Where do you enter this world that is invisible to most people? “In June 2014, the Associazione VerginiSanità, in collaboration with the Celanapoli Association, was entrusted with certain spaces on the ground floor of Palazzo Peschici-Maresca, in via Arena Sanità, with the goal of promoting cultural projects and activities, starting with the development of the Aqua Augusta, or Serino Aqueduct, archaeological site, now made accessible by a route leading to the underground layer”, says the architect Pippo Pirozzi. The site hosts Underneath the Arches, under the artistic direction of Chiara Pirozzi and Alessandra Troncone.

What is it?
In the fascinating space of the ancient Roman international artists selected for their inclination and talent in engaging with meaningful spaces are invited to create temporary and site-specific installations in dialogue with the space itself and the surrounding area.

Tonia Limatola

My blog tonialimatola.wordpress.com/

 

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Spaccanapoli : a place where you can find a beautiful books at 1 euro!

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You can read book free by scratching it by the friend, you can read on a digital device, you can read rubbing pages, drawing notes and maps around the words that we like, that we do not understand, that we would like make ours. Then, there are those who buy books just to smell the paper. Everyone reads for a reason. Woody Allen, for example, reads in self-defense.
And in Naples? In the city we read to bring the soul to another place or to explore and learn more about the place where we live. Thus are born novels set in the various neighborhoods, funny guides, stories about the legends of churches, paintings and statues of the old town.

But where can you find old and new books at a good price? In Naples there is a unique character. Former clerk of sacred articles unemployed, he turns into a bookseller with a stall in Spaccanapoli. He became Lello Feltrinelli thanks to his friend: a bit ‘to tease him in the Neapolitan way and a little’ to wish him to do a lot of business, he gave him as a surname (alias) that of a famous Italian brand of publishers. His mobile bookcase (in the evening he dismantles it) is now a fixed appointment for those who walk in the heart of the city. Lello has become famous: he has lent his face to the cinema and has a Fb page with many followers. “What do you think good about today?”, customers ask him. And Lello indicates the last arrivals. His books come from private collections and therefore they are of all kinds. History, art, philosophy, novels, essays. In short, just have the good eye and the passionate reader takes home a treasure with a few pennies.

Tonia Limatola

My blog tonialimatola.wordpress.com/

 

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