Originally posted on July 8, 2012Canicus

Naples: Duomo

Today, being Sunday I attended Mass at Duomo, the cathedral church of Naples. It is very much in the style of the Italian Renaissance. Somehow I still prefer the Gothic perpendicular of northern Europe and England. Mass was in Italian, with a longish Italian sermon. The “Shape of the Liturgy” is the shape of the liturgy, which enables one to know what is being said even if in a strange tongue; Dom Gregory Dix was right about that. Still a short sermon is even more appreciated if one has no idea what is being said.

After Mass I took a few pictures of the church which are today’s photo journal.

Then to one final lunch of Neapolitan spaghetti. I’ll probably do my last pizza before returning to Dallas. Tomorrow I leave for a week in Rome. I learned last year that Rome is not the city for pizza – there is better pizza at Alfredo’s in Dallas a couple of miles from where I live. This year’s lesson is Naples is not the place for gelato. That’s better in Rome, or at least easier to find.

After lunch I shopped for a newspaper. Seems the news stands do not carry English language newspapers, so I settled for a copy of Le Monde. There is absolutely no mention of Mitt Romney.

There is one page about Le Tour de France, but virtually the whole thing is about Lance Armstrong, his associates and doping.

In front of the Napoli Centrale station there is a plaza dedicated to Garibaldi, the patriot revered for modern Italian independence and unity. My hotel is located on one side of the plaza. The plaza is totally torn up. Part of it will become an underground shopping mall, the other part a park. But right now it is a mess.

Canicus Modius