Catacombs of Saint Januarius (Catacombe di San Gennaro)

Dimly lighted walkway in the catacombs

Okay... for those who love macabre tales of ghosts,zombies and vampires... this place seems like the perfect haunt for these creatures... however, unfortunately I didnt see any here... not even the skeletal remains. The Catacombs of San Gennaro is one of the many must see places in Naples. The skeletal remains have sinced moved to the Fontanelle Cemetary due to the cult practices of old superstitious napoletans which believed the skulls to hold a link with its past inhabitants that are in purgatory and used to pray to them to ask for help.

The catacombs of San Gennaro (or known as the catacombs of Saint Januarius) is one of the oldest underground necropolis that is located under the hills of capodimonte in Naples... In the beginning, this used to be the burial site of St Agrippino who is the first christian bishop in italy and was said to have performed many miracles from his tomb.

Later, Saint Januarius (the patron saint of naples) body was moved and buried here in the very heart of this catacombs by  Bishop John I and this led the catacombs to become one of the holy pilgrimage sites of naples. This cult led to the further expansion of the catacombs as many wanted to be buried near saint januarius. Even the famous dukes of naples were buried here together with the many bishops of the catholic church. (The remains of san gennaro was ransacked by the lombard prince and moved to benevento which is his seat of power. The reason for him doing this is because the relic of san gennaro was apparently very sacred to the people of naples in the past and whoever who had the relic had the power). Ever since the remains of saint Januarius was ransacked, the catacombs slowly started to fall into ruins as people flocked to Benevento instead.
 

Tombs on the left and right

We started our journey in a company of 11 people, mainly with my husband's work colleagues.. we started our tour at roughly 11.30 am in the morning (night is definitely not a good time to go.. lol.. its also closed). The catacombs has large passageways with wide archs and tombs on its walls and floor. The rich had tombs painted with symbols of religion/faith and images of its past inhabitants on it, while the middle class had tombs on its walls. The poor instead had tombs on the ground.

Base level: Old pagan symbols (Circle and squares)

Old pagan tomb

 This catacombs dates back to as early as the 2nd/3rd century and used to be a greek pagan burial site before its transformation to a christian burial site. In fact there are 2 distinct levels in this catacombs. The base level consists of older pagan burial tombs while the top level is mostly newer christian burial tombs. The tombs on both level are very different.





The old pagan tombs had symbols of nature/geometric shapes painted on it... if you look above you can see a round and square shapes painted on the entrance arch of the lower grounds of the catacombs. Also the photo on the left shows a tomb with a peacock painted on it. The reason for the peacock being painted is because its feathers last forever and it is a symbol of everlasting life in the old days. This tomb is roughly around 3rd/4th century old abd its skeletal remains have since been removed to the fontanelle cemetary.

3 women representing Faith,Hope and Love

On the upper floor of the catacombs, you will see the more recent christian tombs...The population of naples in the past were illiterate and therefore with the illustrive images they tried to preach christianity to the people. According to our guide Enzo, apparently the image on the left shows 3 women pouring water and can be referred to an old ancient christian litereature work entitled "The Shepherd of Hermes" which represents faith, hope and love.


  

An image of San Gennaro with a woman and child beside him

You can notice the difference between the pagan tombs and the christian tombs as it has the special signs of the christus with alpha and omega inscripted on them (meaning the beginning and the end). Our guide also told us that christians in the past use to have the sign of the fish to differentiate between christian and non christian burial tombs instead of the cross that is used nowdays). On the left you can see the image of san gennarius with the symbold of  christus (top of his head), alpha (left) and omega (right) inscripted. The woman and child beside the image of san gennaro are the ones that were buried in this tomb.

The practice of burying the dead from a same family in the same tomb is also practised. For example, the image on the right shows a tomb of a wealthy family consisting of 3 people being buried one after the other by layering one on top of the other. The artist depicted the father was buried first, followed by the child and later the mother.

An Image of Christ painted on the ceiling

During World War II, the catacombs was adapted and used by the people of Naples as a bomb shelter. This further caused some damage to the catacombs. However now with some help from public and private funding, major restoration has been performed to enable the catacombs to become a new tourist attraction site.

I would definitely recommend this place to visitors or travellers as it is defintely a cultural treasure and heritage that forms the rich and colorful traditions of the naples we know today.  If you do stop by at naples, please dont miss this chance of a lifetime and visit this place! For more information, you can check out on trip advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187785-d243315-Reviews-Catacombe_di_San_Gennaro_St_Januarius-Naples_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html

And remember.. Adventure is DOWN there ;-)

Cannelloni con ricotta e spinaci (Cannelloni with ricotta and spinach filling)

Hi Everyone,

This delicious recipe using cannelloni is one of my favourites (for my vegetarian friends who dont eat egg you can omit it). This recipe uses fresh ricotta cheese and spinach.

What you will need:
For the filling:

300g  ricotta
100g spinach
50g parmesan cheese (shredded)
1 egg yolk
1 spoon of butter
salt and pepper to taste

For the tomato sauce:
1 can of tomato pieces with juice or tomato paste
1 cup of water
1/2 onion, chopped
olive oil
pinch of salt for taste

Method:
For the filling:

Ricotta and spinach filling

Boil spinach in salted water. (dont overboil but until it is cooked and tender). Drain water and cool spinach. Once cool, chop spinach. In a pan, place butter and turn on stove. Once butter has melted, place in the chopped spinach paste and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add in the ricotta and turn off the stove. Mix well. Once cooled, mix the egg yolk and parmesan cheese together. Add in salt and pepper and mix well.

Now for each canelloni, place the ricotta filling inside the cannelloni using a small spoon. (takes a bit of patience to fill the cannelloni ^_^). Arrange it in a baking tray.

For the tomato sauce:

Canelloni bathed in tomato sauce and dusted with parmesan cheese

In a pan, pour the olive oil and stir fry the chopped onions. Once onions has start to caramelize, pour the canned tomatoes and add in water. Place on low heat and wait until mixture comes to a boil. Once boiling, add salt and stir well. Once sauce has reduced to 3/4 of its original density, turn off the stove. Note that the sauce has to be not so thick or not so watery because the canelloni will absorb it once placed in the stove.


Now pour the tomato sauce over the canelloni and sprinkle on top with some mozzarella cheese.
Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 180 degress until cheese has melted.

Buon appetito!

Spring in Italy

Hi Everyone,

I have been wanting to do a blog post a few weeks back.. however I have been so terribly busy lately with work and all. Since today is easter... I decided to take this oppotunity to do a belated post on spring :D ( Happy Easter everyone!)

Peach Tree

 Well..here goes my spring post... 

      Buzzing sound of bees... birds chirping to a tune.. ants up and about... yup... nature is once more bursting into life!!! Its SPRING time folks!!! (in italian, its called PRIMAVERA - i know.. my first thought was shoes.. haha.. to those who are crazy shoe shoppers - I am one of them.. lols - its not the shoe brand you see in midvalley KL.. but its the term for spring in italian. Ive not seen this shoe brand here anyway.). There is a massive surge of growth spurt during this season... and these are some of the photos which I would like to share. Some were taken by me and some by my brother in law Paolo... :-) (Grazie Paolo)

 

Apricot branch with prune tree at the background

 

          Spring is definitely the most beautiful season. It is a time when the new replaces the old and when life once again renews itself. As you can see here, there are some photos of certain fruit trees such as apricot, prune and peach. Each flower here represents each fruit that will be harvested towards the begininng - mid summer time. The flowers appear first before leaves.

Yellow Narcissus

    Spring is also a time to plant.. So far there are some seeds which have been sown ... salads, parsely, basil, tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries (yessss... I LOVE strawberries), thyme, mint and many others. Perhaps I will do another post on these plants as they grow.

    
    Well, that's all for now folks. I know my photography skills are horrible, but I do hope that you enjoy the pics. :)

Apricot Tree

Prune Tree

Rosemary

Blue Hyacinthus

Red Camelia

White Camelia

Chocolate Pear Cake (Torta pera e cioccolato)

This cake is awesome!!. It was my first time trying it out and turned out so good that It is definitely in my list of cake-to-dos for any special occasion. By the way, this post is dedicated to my hubby... for being my culinary guinea pig.. hehehe :P


Ingredients:
A. Pears
7 pears
3 cups of white wine
3 tablespoons of sugar


B. Cake paste
100grams of chocolate cookies - grounded
100 grams sugar
4 eggs
200 grams flour
200 grams of dark chocolate
170 grams of butter (room temperature).
1 teaspoon of baking soda/yeast

For Section A:
Peel the pears and remove the seeds. Slice the pears. Marinade the pears with wine and sugar for 20 minutes. After that, boil the pears together with the marinade until the marinade evaporates. Cool the pears to room temperature.

For section B:
Chop the chocolate bar into smaller pieces. Melt it together with the 100grams of butter. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. In a bowl, beat the remaining butter together with the egg yolks. Add the melted chocolate mixture. Add the grounded chocolate cookies, flour and baking powder together and mix. In a separate bowl beat in the egg whites with sugar until they form stiff peaks. Stir in the egg white mixture with the cake mixture by blending it in together (dont overdo it as it will remove the air pockets).

Divide the cake mixture into 2 parts. Line a 9 inch baking pan with butter or greasproof paper. Pour the first part of the mixture on to a 9 inch baking pan. Then place the pears on section A into the pan and cover with the remainder cake mixture. Garnish the top of the mixture with remaining pears. Bake the mixture with the pears on 180 degrees for 40 minutes. Wait for cake to cool before removing from the pan.

 Enjoy... :-)

My visit to the Fontanelle Cemetery (Cimitero delle Fontanelle)

Cimitero Della fontanelle main entrance

Human remains.. skeletons.. bones everywhere... sounds creepy?.. Just like a movie out of twilight zone, the Fontanelle Cemetary is actually an ossuary or charnel house .  It is not your local cemetary where you see only tombstones.. here instead is like a mass graveyard full of human skeletal (skull and bones) remains. The place was named Fontanelle because in the past, there was an abundance of fresh water springs located near here during a dry period in Naples. 

The skulls and their houses

This cemetary is located in a cave on the hillside or Materdei in Naples. It is now a cultural heritage site.The ancient ossuary covers about 3,000 m2, and the cavity is estimated at around 30,000 m3.

There used to be a cult by local napoletans who are superstituous by nature. The anonymous skulls, also called "pezzentelle souls" is said to form a bridge between the underworld and the earth, which is said to provide communication between the worlds, the worlds of the living dead and the living as a sign of hope in the possibility of a aiding people. They adopt these skulls based on lottery wins or dreams by first polishing the skulls and then building little houses to house the skulls. There is also some offerings placed on the skulls, mostly coins on top of the skulls.
 

The cult of placing coins on top of the skulls

Concerns about the cult of Souls pezzentelle led the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Corrado Ursi to close the cemetary to the public in the year l969. The cemetary was then abandoned for many years however was reorganized and tidied up since 2002, but still remained closed to the public. On May 23, 2010 the cemetery was reopened to the public (hence this is how i managed to write this article today).

Mass remains of skulls and bones

There are also a legend about a certain 'captain of the skull' which the story revolves around 2 newlyweds who desecrated the grounds of the cemetary before their wedding. Which further led to their demise by the curse of the captain of the skull.
 Apart of that, there is also some belief in the past that there are some skulls 'sweating' which the locals used to belief that it was because the soul belonging to that skull was in purgatory suffering the cleansing of its sins, but the truth is, the skull to actually collects humidity and tends to 'sweat'. 

This place is quite interesting from and anthropologic point of view and not for the faint hearted. To be honest, the place was quite peaceful and quiet.To sum it all up, the visit to this place got me thinking.... we are on this earth for just a short time. Sooner or later our body shall return back to the earth. So it is important for us to remember this and appreciate every moment we have by living it to the fullest. Life is short, embrace it and appreciate every single moment of it (ups and downs).

Orange Upside Down Cake

Right.. so on saturdays I love preparing desserts in advance for the family sunday lunch (And believe me.. italians have a BIG sunday lunch.. starting with appetizers, first dish, second dish and to top it all...DESSERTS). Since I had so many oranges to spare in the backyard of my house, I decided to try baking an orange cake for a change. This delicious recipe is good for any occasion. Topped with caramel and oranges, this orange cake is surely delicious! You can also substitute oranges with pineapples :D

Part A: Ingredients for the cake base:
150 grams of sugar

200 grams of all purpose flour
200 grams of grounded roasted almonds
170grams of butter
3 eggs
1 tablespoon of yeast
Juice of 1 large orange
Grated zest of 1 orange

Part B: For the caramel upside down topping:
130 grams of sugar
1 orange. Sliced into an O shape
Red cherries (you can omit this if you dont want)

Part C: For the glaze:
orange marmalade
3 tablespoons of water

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients for the cake base in part A until combined well. In a separate pan,create the caramel base in part B by heating up the sugar. You can see that it is caramellized by the color. Once its brown color and the sugar grains have all melted, its ready .In the baking pan, preferably rounded, place baking paper or grease the pan with some butter. Place the oranges and the cherries on the base of the cake pan. Pour the caramel onto the base until coated thoroughly.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius. Now pour in the cake mixture into the pan. Place pan in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked. Use a toothpick to check the consistency of the cake (this helps to see if its cooked or not).

Once cooked, wait cake to cool down for 1 hour. Place a serving plate underneath the cake pan and turn cake pan upside down. You will now be able to see the oranges on top of the cake. Mix ingredients in part C together and glaze the cake. Now you have a delicous treat for the weekend =D.

Struffoli recipe (Ricetta per struffoli)

Its struffoli time :D......... yum yum! This neapolitan dessert makes my mouth water.. and its really good to eat during winter. Struffoli is a Neapolitan dessert that is made of small fried dough balls (the size of pearls) coated in honey. Its normally made during the christmas-easter period here in Naples. Struffoli is then topped with colored rice (diavulilli), cherries and cinnamon confection. It is quite easy to prepare but will need a necessary amount of patience (especially when slicing the dough into little pearl balls). My husband goes crazy when he sees a plate of struffoli... he just loves cracking this in his mouth!

Here is the recipe:

For the dough:

600 grams of flour

4 eggs and 1 yellow

2 tablespoons of sugar

80 grams of butter

5 tablespoons of limoncello or rum
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
A pinch of salt

Oil for frying 

For decoration:

400grams of honey

Colored confection (called diavulilli - means little devils in italian)

cinnamon confection (confettini cannellini) 

candied cherries (ciliegia candita - you can also use candied oranges/peaches)

Method:

Mix all the ingriedients for the dough together in a bowl. Combine with the hand mixer using the dough mixer hook. Once combined, knead using hands for about 10 minutes. Later form dough into golf ball sizes. Roll the golf sized dough into long cylindrical strips using your hand (diameter about 5cms - not too small, bigger is ok but not too big, or else it wont be so tasty). Slice dough (about 5cm apart).

Heat up oil in a wok. Fry dough in hot oil until dough is brown and crispy. Place fried dough on paper towels to remove excess oil. 

Once frying of the dough balls are complete, In another wok, heat honey. Pour the fried dough into the wok and mix throughly until all the dough balls are coated with honey. Stop the flame on the stove and stir in the cinnamon confection and mix thoroughly..

Place the mixture onto a plate. Top the mixture with colored confection and place candied cherries. Struffoli is served!!