The "Villas" of Naples are often mere _maisons bourgeoises_ of modern date. Many of them might well be in Brixton so far as their architectural charms go.
Over in the Posilippo quarter, a delightful situation indeed, are innumerable flat-topped, whitewashed villas, so-called, entirely unlovely, all things considered. One of these, the Villa Rendel, was once inhabited by Garibaldi, as a tablet on its wall announces.
Garibaldi and the part that he and his red shirt played are not yet forgotten. Apropos of this there is a famous lawsuit still in the Italian courts, wherein the Garibaldian Colonel Cornacci, in accord with Ricciotti Garibaldi, son of the general, makes the following claim against the Italian government:
I. All the "_tresor_" (gold and silver) of the house of Bourbon.
II. Eleven millions of ducats taken from the Garibaldian government at Naples.
III. The Bourbon museum now incorporated with the National Museum.
VI. The Palace and Villa Farnese at Caprarola at Naples.
VII. Two Villas at Naples, Capodimonte and La Favorita.
This is the balance sheet discrepancy resulting from the war of 1860 which the Garibaldian heirs claim is theirs by rights. It's a mere bagatelle of course! One wonders why the Italian government don't settle it at once and be done with it!
Naples is the birth-place of Polichinelle, as Paris is of Pierrot, two figures of fancy which will never die out in literature or art, a tender expression of sentiment quite worthy of being kept alive.
The Neapolitan, en fête, is quite the equal in gayety and irresponsibility of the inhabitant of Seville or Montmartre. The processionings of any big Italian town are a thing which, once seen, will always be remembered. At Naples they seem a bit more gorgeous and spontaneous in their gayety than elsewhere, with rugs and banners floating in the air from every balcony, and flowers falling from every hand. It is every man's carnival, the celebration at Naples.
Leading out to the west, back of Posilippo, is the Strada di Piedigrotta, which is continued as the Grotto Nuovo di Posilipo, and through which runs a tramway, all kinds of animal-drawn wheeled traffic, and automobiles with open exhausts. All this comports little with the fact that the ancient tunnelled road along here was one of the marvels of engineering in the time of Augustus and that it led to Virgil's tomb. This supposed tomb of Virgil is questioned by archæologists, but that doesn't much matter for the rest of us. We know that Virgil himself has said that it was here that he composed the "Georgics" and the "Æneid," and it might well have been his last resting-place too.