Category Archives: Naples

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Easter chocolate at ‘Cioccolato Foresta’ in Naples

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A look back (first published 2 April 2015): I wrote this on impulse after we stumbled into this gleaming chocolate store. The staff were so friendly and the chocolate so delicious I could not resist.

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Salvatore Polito and Valentina Guarino of 'Cioccolato Foresta' (Gay-Odin) in Naples Salvatore Polito and Valentina Guarino of ‘Cioccolato Foresta’ (Gay-Odin) in Naples

Naples, Italy is famous for many things – but not everyone knows that chocolate is one of them, nor that the city’s champion chocolatier is Gay-Odin.

I first heard the name in an Italian class at the Centro Italiano followed by the words “… molto famoso “.

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Herculaneum Papyri in the National Library in Naples

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A look back (this was first published on 30 March 2015): I’m new to papyrology but I’ve never seen anything as brain-crackingly slow or detailed as the work being done by these academics.

thephraser's avatarThe Phraser

Herculaneum papyrus Naples A papyrus scroll – not quite destroyed by Vesuvius

The photograph above is of a papyrus scroll from a private library buried by Vesuvius in AD 79.

There are hundreds of scrolls like it, all scarred keepers of ancient thought.  So far it has taken almost two thousand years to unpick a fraction of their secrets.

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2015 – my day in Naples with Pope Francis

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A look back (first published 23 March 2015): I walked miles across a quiet, traffic-free Naples on the day the Pope came to visit. The weather was sunny and still … the city apprehensive. Tension tightened everything.

thephraser's avatarThe Phraser

Why the Pope's visit to Naples matters Why the Pope’s visit matters: “Acerra terra di morte … ma di speranza con Papa Francesco.”
(Acerra land of death – but of hope thanks to Pope Francis)

Papa Francesco spent this year’s ‘first day of spring’ with the people of Naples.  He was warm, and brave and made thousands smile.

His first stop was Scampia – I never got there but I knew, and those watching knew, that the Pope was taking his message of hope and of ‘resistance to evil’ right into the heart of difficulty.

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