DOI chapter:
Chapter III: Past and Present - Santa Lucia, etc.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0102
Naples
wrote the Sappho of that day, Laura Terracina, in her
flowery appreciation of Don Pedro and his many
works.
Since then the Toledo has been the heart of the
gaiety of Neapolitan life, the kaleidoscope of all its
human movement and colour. Madame de Genlis,
in the eighteenth century, likened it to the rue St.
Honore, which is certainly one of the noisiest streets in
the world. It was improved in the time of Murat,
during whose energetic but too brief rule the Piazza
Ferdinando, which closes the Toledo, was enlarged.
Since then the pretentious Galleria Umberto, modelled
on the same plan as the galleries of Milan and of
Florence, has still further changed this end of the
street. The gallery covers the site of the old
Largo del Castello, where once stood the Locanda
del Signor Monsoni, at which Goethe stopped in
1787.
The sunny and dusty Piazza Plebiscite, with all the
parts about it, is full of interest, though not a single
feature of the days prior to Charles III. remains un-
changed. A statue marked the centre, where now stands
the fountain. The Via Chiaia did not exist. On the
right, where to-day stands a magasin de nouveautes,
“ La piccolo Guagagna,” stood the once famous Cafe
Europa, where Altavilla, the author of a hundred
comedies, wrote his play of that name. Opposite
it, where now is seen Gambrinus, stood the warehouse
of one Savarese, patronised by Ferdinand II.; and there,
on the Giorno dello Struscio, the king used to come to
44
wrote the Sappho of that day, Laura Terracina, in her
flowery appreciation of Don Pedro and his many
works.
Since then the Toledo has been the heart of the
gaiety of Neapolitan life, the kaleidoscope of all its
human movement and colour. Madame de Genlis,
in the eighteenth century, likened it to the rue St.
Honore, which is certainly one of the noisiest streets in
the world. It was improved in the time of Murat,
during whose energetic but too brief rule the Piazza
Ferdinando, which closes the Toledo, was enlarged.
Since then the pretentious Galleria Umberto, modelled
on the same plan as the galleries of Milan and of
Florence, has still further changed this end of the
street. The gallery covers the site of the old
Largo del Castello, where once stood the Locanda
del Signor Monsoni, at which Goethe stopped in
1787.
The sunny and dusty Piazza Plebiscite, with all the
parts about it, is full of interest, though not a single
feature of the days prior to Charles III. remains un-
changed. A statue marked the centre, where now stands
the fountain. The Via Chiaia did not exist. On the
right, where to-day stands a magasin de nouveautes,
“ La piccolo Guagagna,” stood the once famous Cafe
Europa, where Altavilla, the author of a hundred
comedies, wrote his play of that name. Opposite
it, where now is seen Gambrinus, stood the warehouse
of one Savarese, patronised by Ferdinand II.; and there,
on the Giorno dello Struscio, the king used to come to
44