A Dragon in Disguise

September 28th

Today I spent about three hours trying to find the Piazzetta Mondragone which I could locate fine on the map but was unable to connect the streets up to it until one person who I asked re-directed me up to a lift on Via Chiaia which he said I needed to take to get up there. “Holy, Toledo!” I thought after I found the lift – there must have been at least 75-100 people waiting for an elevator that obviously would hold only 10 or 12 people. I elected to walk and in an hour found that I had gone a bit above it and was told where to go down one street back, which I did, and then asked a pair of 10 or 12-year-old boys “Piazzetta Mondragone?” and they pointed me to the end of a street which was just a tree surrounded by buildings. Into the one that was No. 18, I went and asked a young woman sitting in a glass enclosure whether this was where the Museo del Tessile e dell’Abbigliamento Elena Aldobrandini was to which she nodded in affirmation and took me up to the second floor. Containing sacred furnishings, linen, lace and embroidery of the post-unification of Naples, this collection also shows photographs of the young girls who created some of the work at the beginning of the 20th century… There were a few bishops’ caps and robes with exquisite embroidery and a few baptismal gowns of fine batiste but my favorite piece was some corded macramé lace. There were only five rooms in the collection and it took, roughly, 45 minutes to cover it. … and, another hour-and-a- half to walk back to the hotel.

Since food is expensive in Italy, as it is in France, I usually get a pizza for about 1.5 euros but tonight I splurge on a plate of spaghetti with Putanesca sauce and a few glasses of wine for about 8 euros.