Born 14 years ago from the visionary insights of Giuliana Conte and Tono Cruz, Fate Festival has been carried out with enthusiasm from everyone living in San Potito Sannitico, a remote mountain village at the foot of the Matese Regional Park.
Happy Pizza Day! (Yes, it’s a thing).
I’m celebrating with a post I’ve meant to write for such a looong time, but it took me months of terrible research and supreme sacrifice to write it down because, when in Naples, you can’t simply say “pizza”: you have to try ‘em all. The history of pizza begins a long long time ago, but “modern pizza” developed in Naples in the 18th century when tomato was put on top of the Roman “focaccia” (flat bread).
I walk through the curtain that separates, but –at the same time- links, the genuine neighbourhood of San Lorenzo from Palazzo Donnaregina, the 19th-century building that is home to the contemporary art museum of Naples. It’s a garish curtain, which without a big preamble leads into a visionary space designed by Daniel Buren. The French artist has, in fact, transformed the rigid architectural lines of this elegant palace into a wonderland of colourful panels, mirrors and disorientating perspectives that create infinite reflections, deconstructing and inverting the usual look of the entrance to the museum.
In the wide entrance of the Archaeological Museum, laughter from classes on a school trip echo and tourist groups gather.
I duck out from all the shouting and enter the first wing on the right, where I find the Collezione Farnese, originally located in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, this collection of ancient sculptures put together first by Pope Paolo III and later by his descendants.