I spend most of today getting organized, because traveling this way requires some planning. But I have reserved a spot with Dominic Cioffi at his family-owned dairy, home and gardens for this evening.
Sharing the experience is a Swedish couple, a woman from Romania, a young man from Egypt and another from Massachusetts. Dominic picks us up at a Metro station and drives up high into the hills above Naples to his family’s complex, which includes their home, their shop, their gardens and their dairy.
Domenic’s father has planted every plant imaginable in his gardens, including the pommodori piennolo that can last up to a year.
Dominic picks many different types of leaves from the garden and asks us to identify the plant. This caper plant produces interesting purple flowers.
Domenic shows us the process of making mozzarella, one of the many cheeses made at his dairy.
He and his mother show how to cut mozzarella by hand.
Then we all get to try. It’s not that easy to get it just right, but the thumbprints show that it’s handmade.
We have delicious supper, all sourced from the garden with the exception of the olives and the fressela, the twice-baked bread, on which this all sits. I enjoyed every bit of the time with Domenic and the interesting people assembled. His parents joined us at supper for good food, wine and conversation. We ended the meal with a lemon tiramisu and liquors, limoncello, nocello (walnuts) and mirtillo (blueberries), made by Domenic’s mother.
The next day I go to Caserta, about a 45-minute train ride. Caserta is the site of the Royal Palace of Caserta, built for King Carlo of Spain beginning in 1734 shortly after he defeated the Habsburgs and became King of Naples.
But before I visit the Royal Palace, I want to visit the Complesso Monumentale Belvedere San Leucio, a vast village built by King Carlo to contain his hunting lodge, a large silk factory and housing for its workers. I had read about the silk museum housed in the hunting lodge (that is, the San Leucio palace) and wanted to see what a silk factory in the 1700s looked like. The impressive portal to the complex leads to the palace. A crane helps with restoration work on one of the once elegant buildings at the entrance.
The complex is a UNESCO Heritage site, along with the Royal Palace in Caserta. King Ferdinand, Carlo’s son, inherited the rule of Naples. He had constructed a hunting lodge about 3 km distance from the Royal Palace. He installed a state-of-the art silk factory on the premises of the hunting lodge. He had a dream of creating an autonomous community of workers based on egalitarian, meritocratic principles and a kind of gender equality. He gave each married couple a house and two looms. All workers had to wear the same uniforms. They had to go to church both before and after work. School was free for both girls and boys.
King Ferdinand wanted to build more than just a village near the hunting lodge. He had plans for a city called Ferdinandopoli on the land between the Royal Palace in Caserta. Ferdinand’s dream never materialized as Napoleon’s advances caused him to flee to Sicily.
The main iron gate to the complex is locked with the palace high up on a hill. An old man selling maps and post cards near the gate tells me vaguely to walk down the road to find a secondary entrance. Reluctantly, I head in his recommended direction and come across an opening in in the fence with a path that looks like it winds up the hill to the palace. I take a chance.
It might be a short cut or it might be the real way in. Either way, it’s hot under the sun.
Or it might lead to a dead-end. When I finally come to a mass of brambles blocking the path, I head back through the Queen Anne’s Lace. They are loving the heat.
Finally I arrive at the hunting lodge/palace which does have a very interesting silk museum. Two massive structures are twisting machines used in the 1700s to combine silk threads and twist them into S or Z curves.
The machinery was powered by water underneath the hunting lodge/palace, causing the wheels to turn and the threads to twist. The machines were completely rebuilt in the 1990s to their original plan.
This warping machine took different colored threads and brought them together to form the warp for the loom.
These nine looms were used to produce damasks, brocades, and other fine silks.
They are jacquard looms operated by foot pedals.
The card punching machine used to punch the holds that produce the design.
The cards.
After the silk factory, we are given a tour of the royal apartments. The mannequins add a context, reminding me that this hunting lodge/palace was most actively used during the time of the American Revolution.
Fabric for the clothing was all woven at San Leucio. It became renowned for its fine silks and came to produce banners and other fabrics for the Vatican and the White House in Washington D.C.
Housing for the workers surrounds the palace. Had the day been clear, the view would reach to the coast.
I’m glad to have visited San Leucio, despite the great effort required to reach it. I took the bus back to Caserta to visit yet another Bourbon palace. This will be my fourth (the Royal Palace in Naples, the Capodimonte, the San Leucio hunting lodge/palace and now the Reggio di Caserta). And yes, I walk across the long, treeless path from the train station to the front door.
A military conference of some type is taking place.
Columns in the chapel show damage from World War II bombing.
The throne room.
Fancy canopy beds.
I think I prefer this one.
Trudging through room after room, I discover that I have lost the little piece of paper given to me when I checked in my bag. I have no pockets, but thought that I could hold onto it with my phone and the audio guide device. I decide to walk quickly through the remaining rooms to make sure no one has claimed my bag.
All in all, a tough day racking up over 15,000 steps. These will be my last palaces, at least for a while.