Italians call it the Orto Botanico.
Bill and I passed through the gate and found ourselves in a thicket of primeval tree ferns.
Bill's instincts drew him deeper
into the lush vegetation.
A Jurassic Park dinosaur raising its head on a long neck would not have surprised me as I set off after Bill.
What we found surprised us both: the Old Man of the Mountain addressing a group of local schoolchildren.
Some kind of curious Garden Spirit seemed to be manifesting itself in order to listen in.
A few steps away the vegation changed.
Suddenly we were in a desert,
surrounded on every side by a splendid variety of plant life.
With so much to take in I fell back on subtraction
and tried to isolate a few individuals for a group portrait.
I was impressed that this elderly tree had been given the support it obviously needs to remain upright.
Another top-heavy desert tree with enabling supports.
Domenico Cirillo, physician and botanist, was killed in 1799 for his participation in a short-lived Neapolitan Republic. The Botanical garden opened eleven years later in 1810.
On our way out of the garden Bill and I passed voluptuously elderly palm trees set in a well-maintained lawn.
We bid the gardens goodbye and walked back into the centre of Naples for lunch.
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