{"id":5825,"date":"2023-03-15T06:09:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T10:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?p=5825"},"modified":"2023-03-15T06:09:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T10:09:07","slug":"rione-sanita-the-naples-neighborhood-that-remains-true-to-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/15\/rione-sanita-the-naples-neighborhood-that-remains-true-to-its-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"RIONE SANIT\u00c0: THE NAPLES NEIGHBORHOOD THAT REMAINS TRUE TO ITS ROOTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Deborah D\u2019Addetta<\/a> for Italy Segreta –<\/em><\/strong> While Naples has changed throughout the years\u2013some may even say \u201ccleaned-up\u201d\u2013there\u2019s one neighborhood where the city\u2019s spirit, its\u00a0ammuina\u00a0<\/em>(cheerful confusion), hasn\u2019t been washed away.\u00a0In\u00a0Rione Sanit\u00e0<\/strong>, fruit stalls overflowing with seasonal produce stand next to those selling budget packs of red underwear, vendors incessantly shout \u201cFRUTTA FRESCA!\u201d, mopeds topped with the Neapolitan version of a human pyramid\u00a0zigzag between cars, and the walls continue to crumble somehow charmingly. In Rione Sanit\u00e0, grandmothers chat in gossipy whispers on doorsteps while young kids (not necessarily related to said grandmothers) play made-up games in the streets. Rione Sanit\u00e0 is a neighborhood that just a few years ago tourists would have been scared to step foot in, but that today is on the tip of everyone\u2019s tongue.\u00a0<\/p>

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Close to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Rione Sanit\u00e0 is famous for Palazzo dello Spagnolo<\/strong><\/a> (known for its monumental double-ramp staircase, known as the \u201cfalcon\u2019s wing\u201d), Palazzo San Felice<\/strong><\/a> (similar, but more modest) and the Borgo dei Vergini<\/strong>, which owes its peculiar name to a Greco-Roman past and a story of a local woman who attempted to seduce a chaste boy. As of 2022, the hypogea<\/strong>, including that of the Cristallini<\/strong>, is open to the public: the subterranean chamber dates back more than 2,300 years and was formerly used as a necropolis (part of a morbid side of the district that can also be found at Fontanelle Cemetery<\/strong> and the Catacombs of San Gaudioso<\/strong>). <\/p>

Rione Sanit\u00e0 is strikingly Neapolitan, the spirit of the ancient city, and yet it\u2019s going through a renaissance: recent, buzzed-about openings like the hypogea, as well as Ciro Oliva\u2019s famed\u00a0pizzeria\u00a0Concettina ai Tre Santi<\/strong><\/a>, are bringing attention to the neighborhood, smoothing out its rougher edges. But locals, who are opening and\/or helming these places, are doing so on their own terms\u2013without watering down the neighborhood\u2019s character or forgetting its past.<\/p>