Unearthing legends in Naples

However, a tourist visiting the historic sites without aguide wouldn’t find them so interesting. You need to have someone to provideyou with an interesting account of the various incidents associated with theplaces. Here’s an example. When you visit the seaside Castel dell’Ovo, at firstappearance it didn’t look so enchanting until we were told that the name means ‘EggCastle’ which comes from a legend about the Roman poet Virgil, who had areputation in medieval times as a great sorcerer. In the legend, Virgil put amagical egg into the foundations to support the fortifications.

Another such place with a legend is the Cathedral of Naples,the city’s premier place of worship. We missed the day by just a week or elsewould have been witness to the miracle of Saint Januarius on September 19. Itis said that on this day the dried blood of Januarius is said to turn to liquidwhen brought close to holy relics.

However, to turn to lighter things, Naples is also thebirthplace of the pizza. Cooked traditionally in a wood-burning oven, theingredients of the Neapolitan pizza have been strictly regulated by law since2004, and must include wheat flour type ‘00’ with the addition of flour type‘0’ yeast, natural mineral water, peeled tomatoes or fresh cherry tomatoes,marine salt and extra virgin olive oil. Once you have tasted this pizza, what’sserved in our pizza joints may seem to be nothing but a fancy Indian parathawith an Italian name.