The hair problem
The day arrives, a day that sends shivers through my toothbrush … it’s the day of the haircut. This dreaded day I am in Naples, Italy and about to pay my first visit to one of the city’s hairdressers.
In a froth of toothpaste I imagine a salon crowded with suntanned, Latin loveliness … icy, manicured fingernails stab down my spine.
A look back (first published on 24 December 2015): Christmas in Naples – different but not so different.
A Christmas light by the San Paolo football stadium in Naples, Italy
The sun shines in Naples and the streets are full. Many are just out for the occasion, to watch and be watched, and others to shop, to sell, to beg, to walk the dog.
It’s definitely Christmas but it never stops being Naples – nothing is drowned in jingles or jolliness.
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A look back (first published on 13 December 2015): I have made quite significant changes to this post – the skeleton is the same as the original but I have replaced much of the Angevin history with photographs. By the end of our two years in Naples I had visited this charterhouse so often that my library of photographs is more than my blog can hold. I hope you enjoy them, and that one day you’ll be able to visit the Certosa di San Martino yourself, because I know that my camera and I can’t do it justice.
The Certosa di San Martino and Castel Sant’Elmo dominate the Naples skyline
There are two chunks of prime real estate in Naples, two properties that swagger largest when you look up at the city from the sea. They’ve been together for centuries.
The highest of the two is Castel Sant’Elmo – the star-shaped fortress that looks like it’s been carved out of rock by a gifted sledgehammer. Right next to it is the Certosa di San Martino, proud when seen from below, but less obvious when approached by road.
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The Phraser 