Elsien's Traveblogue

Naples, 10th June 2010
I find being a tourist much harder than being an art historian, or a traveller. It's the aimlessness that gets me: as an art historian or a traveller I have a plan, a programme, things I must see and do, information I have to get; as a tourist I just wander about looking at pretty views, buildings, shops ...
Having said that, I did have a nice day yesterday. I took the boat from Naples to Capri, packed full of tourists, most in groups, most extremely badly dressed, taking pictures of the views and each other constantly. I say that, because I almost felt sorry for the rich people who have made Capri their own. Every day their beautiful little island with its expensive shops gets invaded by these hoards of daytrippers who can only afford to buy an icecream at a stall. I sat down in the Piazzetta for a bit, with the most expensive glass of ordinary white wine I've ever had – got a bowl of olives with it, mind – and watched it all. I got tired of the Salvatore Ferragamo shops – at least half a dozen of them; it was quite fun watching a model being photographed in a little road off the beaten track – no idea if she or the photographer were famous or not. Anyone recognise them? There was another couple being photographed on the steps of the Piazzetta, but they didn't look glamourous enough to be famous. Was this all about the 'male gaze'? Or was it 'masquerade'? What was my position, anti-feminist?
Then on another boat, an air-conditioned car ferry this time, very comfortable and without many people – from Capri to Sorrento, where I treated myself to an extensive lunch in a nice garden. Couldn't eat more than the antipasto mixto followed by gnocchi alla napoletana – in tomato and mozzarella sauce, nice, followed by espresso. Wandered the picturesque streets of Sorrento for a bit, looked at some shops, bought some presents, then back on ferry to Naples, along the coast with an excellent view of Vesuvius. Was I tired when I got home!
Leaving this morning, back to UK for quick turnaround, back in Brussels Saturday morning where I'll stay until the end of the month, when I start work in Docklands. Oh, and back to the Art History and its feminist art historians ...

Naples 9th June 2010
Went to Pompeii today – one of those must-do-must-see's. I may be a total Philistine, but I really think that, especially when there is such an abundance of old stones and ruins, there is a case to be made for reconstruction of a bit of it, yes, maybe Chinese style, but even so .... Pompeii may be a priceless archeological treasure and very interesting, but, if you are brutally honest, what can you really see? All the frescoes and mosaics – bar a few piddly ones – have been taken elsewhere; I really enjoyed the frescoes in the Museo Archeologico in Naples and all there is left on site, are crumbling, unpainted, stone walls and a few pillars. I did manage to escape the tourist groups though and find a few houses where something had been left, including the skeletons of the inhabitants. It's hard to escape the notion that this is not only a place where people lived but, much more, a place where people died.
I went on the little train from Naples, thinking there might be views of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples. Yes, there were, but they are thoroughly spoilt by horrible concrete blocks of flats, most not even painted. Some are painted, but very dirty and all are festooned with washing. Unkept wasteland spoils the beautiful lemongroves and lovely flowers: purple bougainvillea, red hibiscus, yellow broom and there are overhead cables and TV aerial everywhere. China yet again springs to mind, where I never managed to take a photo without a cable in it. I remember many years ago, when I passed through Naples on the way back up from Sicily, being surprised at how ugly the surrounding area was... Vesuvius itself was clouded up top. He's smaller than you think, blew his own top off in one of his explosive rages.
I enjoyed my day though, it was lovely and warm and I quite like these 'realities', but you can guess I gave Herculaneum a miss. I have seen quite a few ruins of Roman cities in my life ....

Naples 6th June 2010
Santa Anna, San Gennario, San Paolo, Sant' Angelo, Santa Chiara and Gesu himself ... just a few of the churches I've seen in Naples. I said there were more churches in Naples than in Rome, didn't I? I started early, because it looked like it was going to be a hot day (it was, too!) and I wanted to get to the church with my next Caravaggio in before the groups got there. It wasn't in one of the Saints' churches and I did get beaten to it by a Freench group with tourguide, but they left after a few minutes and left me the church all to myself. This painting was bigger than yesterday's, not as well cleaned and displayed, butb still with pride of place in the little chapel. It's the Seven Acts of Mercy and I haven't found out what they are yet, except for the best-known one, Charity, represented by a young woman who breastfeeds her old father through the bars of a prison .... \Well, yes .... It's a fantastic painting though, with a beautiful flowing composition, luminous flesh tones and remarkable faces, most dimly lit from below. I wonder what would come out if the brownish tints were properly cleaned ...
All my churches were in the Old City, which is lovely, full of crumbling old buildings, little shops, cute little squares and, of course, dozens of churches. I was pretty tired of churches and art by mid-day though, having seen all kinds of wonders, from Gothic, 14th century frescoes, Renaissance paintings and sculpture, a Vasari ceiling – so far I've liked this one the best of all the Vasari stuff I've seen; he's not the greatest of painters - and lots of Baroque. I went to back to my little appartment for lunch and snoozed on the roof terrace on a deckchair for a bit. Then it got a bit cloudy so I did some work on my current art history module, reading about Louise Bourgeois, who died a few days ago. (How creepy is this: I Googled her up, found she was born in 1911, thought I'd do my next assignment on her as she might well die and there'd be lots of articles, flipped back to Google'd results and found a Reuter's headline saying she'd died, posted 5 minutes ago.....)
Finally went for a long stroll along the Bay of Naples and saw Vesuvius and Capri, although it had got hazy again. There isn't a real beach, just huge white blocks of granite, but there were some semi-dressed people stretched out on them, mainly Eastern European, judging from the languages I heard around me. The Italians did what I was doing: strolled, although a lot more were strolling in the shopping streets: they were as packed as any shopping street in China on a Saturday ...