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08/22/2001 Archived Entry: "Bed and Breakfast (and more) in Naples"

Giovanna Raffone is the woman you want to know when you visit Naples, not Naples, Florida, Naples, Italy -- Napoli, Napoli.

I use the Italian name of the city twice because some of my Neapolitan friends do, too. It means the city of Naples within the province of Naples, just as New York, New York means the county of New York (Manhattan) within the city of New York. Greater Naples, or the “province” of Naples, includes many towns outside the city of Naples, so saying Napoli, Napoli emphasizes that you mean the city proper. For instance, Sorrento is in provincia di Napoli, as are the islands of Capri and Ischia, and people from those islands can legitimately call themselves Neapolitans. Sophia Loren claims Neapolitan heritage because she is from Pozzuoli, which is not Napoli, Napoli, but adjacent to the big city. Get it?

But I digress. I met the fabulous and fabulously Neapolitan Giovanna Raffone through friends. She is the sister-in-law of the two brothers of my friend, Rosario Mazzella. You heard right. Two of Giovanna’s sisters are (or were) married to two of Rosario’s brothers. Both of these sisters take guests in their “stately homes,” as Giovanna calls them. They are actually large apartments in very, very old Neapolitan apartment buildings, the kind of buildings with a central, drive-in courtyard behind heavy doors, the kind of apartments you always wonder about. The buildings may look drab, old and in disrepair from the outside, but when you note the comfortable cars parked in the courtyard you know that you are likely to find something entirely different inside. And you do. You can get a glimpse of one of the apartments, the one that is in a converted 15th century convent, by going to DiscoverNaples.net. After viewing the three rooms on that page, click on Home to see the rest of the site. It’s sketchy, mainly pictures, but it’ll get you in the mood for Napoli.

Both of Giovanna’s sisters have wonderful apartments -- spacious, immaculate (that should go without saying), and comfortably and interestingly decorated. They are, after all, the homes of artists. All the rooms have private baths. Giovanna is married to an Englishman, Albert Coward, and she speaks perfect English. She can make the arrangements for you to stay with Gabriella or her other sister, Rosa. Both apartments are in the historic center of the city. Giovanna is also lining up other bed and breakfast apartments in the city, as well as on the islands of Ishchia, Capri, Procida, and the Cilento area, south of Naples, in the province of Salerno, and its surrounding sea-side resorts. Prices range from 160,000 lira a night (about $80) to 240,000 lira (about $120) for a double room with bath, plus breakfast. For an apartment or house that accommodates four or five people, and where you cook yourself but have a maid three times a week, the cost is from about $800 to $1,200 a week, depending on location. In Napoli, Napoli there are few houses.

(If you would like to stay down in the Cilento, south of Naples, however, I recommend you look into my friend Cecilia Bellelli Baratta’s agriturismo, Azienda Seliano, a working farm with elegant guest rooms (and a swimming pool) near the famous Greek temples of Paestum.

Giovanna can also arrange for an English-speaking guide. One of her nephews, Domenico (Mimmo) is a guide. And Albert, her husband, sometimes takes people around.

Giovanna also gives cooking lessons in her apartment. Or, if you are not interested in lessons, she entertains foreigners in her apartment, which is in Posillipo, the hill that overlooks the Gulf of Naples and the Phlegraen fields. The cost of a meal is from about $30 a person to $75, depending on menu and including wine and digestive liqueurs, such as Limoncello.

You can reach Giovanna by email, at alcoward@tin.it or by phone or fax. I have two numbers. Try 011-39-081-446-79. Recently, Giovanna sent me this second number: 011-39-081-575-60-00. The 011-39 part of the number are area codes for Europe (011) and Naples (39). Her address is: 80123 Napoli - Via Manzoni, 214/o.