DOI Kapitel:
Chapter III: Past and Present - Santa Lucia, etc.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0106
Past and Present—Santa Lucia, Etc.
take refreshments. On Thursday and Friday in Holy
Week the Via Toledo is reserved for foot passengers,
who swarm there in vast numbers. The sweeping of
the women’s silk dresses, which they let drag in the
dust, gave rise long ago to the now historic name of
“ Struscio.” In the evening, between five and six, the
crowd becomes “ smarter.” Private carriages fill the
narrow street; the pavements are packed with Nea-
politan ladies and their escorts ; Cafliesh, the popular
cake shop, is filled to overflowing. What strikes the
foreigner is the freedom with which the men make
audible remarks about, or stare at, the women. It is
a fashion, rather than any deliberate rudeness. A very
pretty Frenchwoman, walking down the Toledo with
her husband, was so persistently annoyed by an army
officer following and staring at her, that her infuri-
ated husband suddenly took some coppers from his
pocket and flung them at the admirer. The un-
fortunate man was deeply chagrined, having supposed
that his behaviour was doing the lady the greatest
honour.
Across the Piazza stands the Palazzo Reale, which
the first Bourbon king restored, decorating it with
frescoes and arabesques from his new toy, Pompeii.
In the facade of this palace may be read the whole
history of Naples, for from its niches not a single
Neapolitan looks down from among the statues of the
many sovereigns. Looking up at the windows, it is
natural to remember that it has been the haunt of
fleeing and returning sovereigns, and to recall the days
45
take refreshments. On Thursday and Friday in Holy
Week the Via Toledo is reserved for foot passengers,
who swarm there in vast numbers. The sweeping of
the women’s silk dresses, which they let drag in the
dust, gave rise long ago to the now historic name of
“ Struscio.” In the evening, between five and six, the
crowd becomes “ smarter.” Private carriages fill the
narrow street; the pavements are packed with Nea-
politan ladies and their escorts ; Cafliesh, the popular
cake shop, is filled to overflowing. What strikes the
foreigner is the freedom with which the men make
audible remarks about, or stare at, the women. It is
a fashion, rather than any deliberate rudeness. A very
pretty Frenchwoman, walking down the Toledo with
her husband, was so persistently annoyed by an army
officer following and staring at her, that her infuri-
ated husband suddenly took some coppers from his
pocket and flung them at the admirer. The un-
fortunate man was deeply chagrined, having supposed
that his behaviour was doing the lady the greatest
honour.
Across the Piazza stands the Palazzo Reale, which
the first Bourbon king restored, decorating it with
frescoes and arabesques from his new toy, Pompeii.
In the facade of this palace may be read the whole
history of Naples, for from its niches not a single
Neapolitan looks down from among the statues of the
many sovereigns. Looking up at the windows, it is
natural to remember that it has been the haunt of
fleeing and returning sovereigns, and to recall the days
45