All about Naples, including Capri, Sorrento, et al ...

"When their great-aunt comes to live with Alfie and his older sister Emilia, they learn that food can not only take you places but also bring you back home. In the first book in the series, Alfie and Emilia find themselves magically transported to Naples"--

"Baroque Naples" presents documents on the history, culture, and art of the city during its golden age of prestige and prosperity under the Spanish Hapsburgs and Bourbons. Texts cover the history of the city and kingdom, contemporary travel guides, descriptions of the city's art, architecture and classical inheritance, its literature, music and theater. There are also chapters that offer texts by the famed Neapolitan economists, legal thinkers and philosophers of the age; a survey of religious thought, and of the Neapolitan contribution to the natural sciences. The selections are preceded by brief introductions to the writers and the ideas presented in the texts. Sixty-nine selections include Enrico Bacco, John Evelyn, Salvator Rosa, Luigi Vanvitelli, the Neapolitan Marinisti, Pietro Trapassi (Metastasio), Giovanni Battista Della Porta, Antonio Serra, Giuseppe Palmieri, Gaetano Filangieri, Tommaso Campanella, Giambattista Vico, Fynes Moryson and many others. The volume also includes brief biographies and chronologies. 60 illustrations, 3 maps, introduction, bibliography, index.

It is a city of seemingly irreconcilable opposites, simultaneously glorious and ghastly. And it is Ben Taylor’s remarkable ability to meld these contradictions into a whole that makes this the exciting and original book it is. He takes his stroll around the bay with the acute sensitivity of a lover, the good humor of a friend, and the wisdom of a seeker who has immersed himself in all aspects of this contrapuntal culture. His curiosity leads him to many byways, both real and metaphoric, and his passion for this ancient city and its people becomes, in his graceful prose and amusing anecdotes, irresistibly contagious.

The first volume dedicated to the most complete and outstanding collection of Piqué objects ever assembled, a number of which have never been published before. The volume is dedicated to the art of "Piqué," created in Naples during the first half of the eighteenth century, a technique that combines remarkable inventiveness, virtuoso skill, and astonishing opulence. These extraordinary objects are made of three precious materials: tortoiseshell, gold, and mother-of-pearl. These pieces were made between 1720 and 1760 for the public and the court, especially for Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples. The authors of these creations were known as tartarugari. Among the most famous tartarugari was Giuseppe Sarao, whose studio was next to the walls of the Royal Palace and who created some of the pieces presented in this book. Also included is an extraordinary table from the Hermitage Museum, considered to be the greatest masterpiece created using the Piqué technique, and still retaining its original legs. The catalogue will allow readers to discover both the incredible inventiveness of the artists and the extraordinarily keen interest this art sparked among nineteenth-century collectors, including several members of the Rothschild family. The volume presents more than fifty objects, representing the masterpieces of this technique. The objects are introduced by a study of the subject and a text explaining the historical context.

Norman Lewis arrives in war-torn Naples as an intelligence officer in 1944. The starving population has devoured all the tropical fish in the aquarium, respectable women have been driven to prostitution and the black market is king. Lewis finds little to admire in his fellow soldiers, but gains sustenance from the extraordinary vivacity of the Italians. There is the lawyer who earns his living bringing a touch of Roman class to funerals, the gynaecologist who "specializes in the restoration of lost virginity" and the widowed housewife who times her British lover against the clock. "Were I given the chance to be born again," writes Lewis, "Italy would be the country of my choice."