Let's go back to the historic center of Naples, and more precisely to Via San Biagio dei Librai, a portion of the Decumano Inferiore, the one known as Spaccanapoli. At number 39 we come across Palazzo Marigliano, built between 1512 and 1513 and restored in the 18th century. Let's take a look at the entrance, with the frescoed vault, and at the courtyard, at the bottom of which we can see an eighteenth-century staircase that leads to a hanging garden, inaccessible to us.
But the building is not the goal of our visit, but what we could now consider an institution in Naples, that is the Ospedale delle Bambole (Dolls Hospital). To understand what we are talking about, we must go back to the end of the 19th century, when Mr. Luigi Grassi, set designer of the court theaters and puppet theaters, worked in Via San Biagio dei Librai; the master did not only paint sets, but also built and repaired any object, including stage puppets. Until one day a lady came to him begging him to repair her little girl's doll, which Signor Grassi did within a few weeks; the rumor spread in the neighborhood and many mothers began to bring their daughter's doll, and the shop was filled with legs, eyes, arms of dolls, so much so that someone spontaneously said: "Me pare proprio 'o spitale de' bambule ”(It looks like a doll hospital to me). Having said that, the sign with the written one was created, and the business has continued from generation to generation, up to today, with the management of Mrs. Tiziana Grassi, descendant of the founder. These and other news can be found on the website https://ospedaledellebambole.it; it should be added that the current structure, whose entrance is located in the courtyard of Palazzo Marigliano, is fully accessible by wheelchair and consists of a small museum and a laboratory, where dolls and other antique toys are repaired, as well as sacred furnishings in need of restoration. The guided tour allows you to receive interesting historical and technical explanations on the work and materials needed to repair the dolls and is complemented by the projection of a very funny and well made video. Let's now show some images; Note that many materials are original equipment dating back to the 19th century and therefore the restored dolls in many cases are objects of art, rather than toys:
Let's enter the museum:
And now a look at the laboratory, complete with beds for patients and scanners to allow children to "X-ray" the doll:
After the visit, if we want to refresh ourselves quickly, the Decumani area offers a myriad of small Neapolitan-style street food establishments, which offer pizzas and fries to eat on the street in an informal way; otherwise, if we want to allow ourselves a more comfortable stop, there is one of the best pizzerias in Naples: Palazzo Petrucci Pizzeria (*): Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 4 +39 081 5524068 www.palazzopetruccipizzeria.it (*) symbol indicating the presence of toilets equipped for the disabled