Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/146

 138 NAPLES with barriers for the purpose of collecting the gdbelle or duties on provisions. It retains only a few fragments of its mediaeval fortifica- tions. Its three castles and modernized gates are surrounded by streets and houses, and are now within the city. It is divided into two amphitheatre-like crescents by a ridge, running N. and S., which forms the hills of Capodi- monte, Sant' Elmo, and Pizzofalcone, termina- ting on the south in a small island occupied by the castel dell' Ovo, and joined by a cause- way to the mainland. The crescent E. of this ridge includes the bulk of the population, the most ancient part of the city, and the principal edifices and public institutions, extending E. to the river Sebeto, and intersected from N. to S. by a long thoroughfare, the lower portion of which forms the strada di Toledo. On a de- pression between the Oapodimonte and Sant' Elmo hills are the suburbs La Sanita and L'ln- frascata, and on the slopes of the former the suburbs Dei Miracoli and Le Vergini. The crescent W. of Sant' Elmo is the modern city, known as the Ohiaia or quay, connected with the E. portion by the streets occupying the depression between Sant' Elmo and Pizzofal- cone, and by a broad avenue which bears suc- cessively the names of Gigante, Santa Lucia, Ohiatamone, and Victoria, and which runs along the shore at the foot of Pizzofalcone from the palazzo TCeale on the east to the villa Nazionale, formerly villa Reale, on the west. Another broad street, Riviera di Chiaia, passes along the whole length of the Chiaia ; and at its W. extremity are the suburbs of Piedigrotta and Mergellina. The length of Naples, from the Sebeto bridge on the east to the Mergellina suburb on the west, is 4 m. ; the breadth, from the Capodimonte hill on the north to the castel dell' Ovo on the south, is 2-J m. The streets are generally straight, and paved with square blocks of lava; the large thoroughfares are lighted with gas, but only the principal of them have a sidewalk. The majority of the houses are divided into separate tenements. The ground story consists of a series of arched cells, all of the same shape and size, occupied generally by tradesmen or for cafes or restaurants ; and on the upper floors lodge numbers of families. The Neapol- itans live much out of doors, and it is nothing unusual to see the children washed and dressed, and other domestic scenes of a more or less delicate nature enacted, in the open street. The strada di Toledo, the main artery of Naples, was built in the 1 6th century by Pedro de Toledo, on what was the western fosse or ditch of mediaeval Naples, which it separates from the modern city. It runs N. and S. for about 1^- m., from the end of the strada di Santa Lucia, near the royal palace, to the museum, but is hardly 60 ft. in width, while it Naples. is bordered by houses five to seven stories high. The strada del Duomo, nearly parallel to the Toledo, was commenced in 1870, lead- ing directly to the sea, and promising to be one of the finest streets in the city. Few of the other streets exceed 30 ft. in width, and many are not above 15 to 20 ft., while some are still narrower. The balconies of most of the houses and the booths and stalls give the streets an appearance of being still more contracted than they really are. The Santa Lucia was rebuilt and enlarged in 1846, and contains one of the