Both the Romans and the Greeks were attracted to the dramatically
beautiful coasts and fertile plains of the region later known as
"The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies." In fact, all myriad influences
that shaped modern civilization in the Mediterranean come together
in Southern Italy and Sicily. The world's first secular university
was founded in Naples. Many of the elements of Italian culture as
we now know it in the rest of the world from comic opera to pizza
were born in the South. Art and music flourished there, as did
progressive ideas about education, tolerance, and civic
administration. Native Neopolitan and distinguished scholar Tommaso
Astarita gives us a history both erudite and full of personality
from the freethinking, cosmopolitan King Frederick who conferred
with Jewish and Muslim philosophers (and dared to meet with the
Sultan) to the fisherman Masaniello who inspired artists and
revolutionaries across Europe. In the medieval South, Jews,
Muslims, and Greek and Latin Christians could practice their
religions, speak their languages, and live in mostly peaceful
cohabitation. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Naples
was on par with Paris, one of the largest and most cultured cities
in Europe. During the Enlightenment, southern Italy captured the
European imagination, and many people traveled far and wide to
enjoy southern Italy's ancient ruins, beautiful landscapes, sweet
music, and magnificent art, marveling at the lively temperament of
the southern population. The drama and beauty of the region
inspired visitors to claim that one had to "see Naples, and then
die." Yet negative images of the Italian South's poverty, violence,
superstition and nearness to Africa long fueled stereotypes of what
was and was not acceptably "European." Goethe noted that he had
gladly studied in Rome, but in Naples he wanted "only to live," for
"Naples is a Paradise: everyone lives in a state of intoxicated
self-forgetfulness, myself included. From the Normans and Angevins
through Spanish and Bourbon rule to the unification of Italy in
1860 and the subsequent emigration of vast numbers of Southern
Italians, Between Salt Water and Holy Water captures the rich,
dynamic past of a vibrant land."
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