Saturday 28 January at 10.00, NarteA presents its new Itinerary for “play”, a dramatized visit that takes adults and children on an evocative journey into the world of ancient toys.
The visit will take place in the spaces of the monastic complex of Santi Severino e Sossio, home of the State Archives of Naples, where La fiera dei balocchi has been set up.
Antique Toy Exhibition. The itinerary continues in the rooms of Palazzo Marigliano, where a mysterious craftsman, played by Mario Di Fonzo (texts by Febo Quercia), will lead young visitors to discover the Doll Hospital. The itinerary will start from Piazzetta Grande Archivio. To participate, reservations are required, by calling 3397020849 or 3333152415. Full ticket price: 12 euros; reduced: 8 euros for children aged 4 to 14; free for children up to 3 years.
The shop was born at the end of the 1800th century, when Luigi Grassi, a set designer for court theaters and puppet theaters, who worked in via S. Biagio dei librai, repaired a doll brought there by a mother from the neighborhood. Word soon spread, many mothers began to go to the shop and the laboratory filled up with memories to repair. There were legs, eyes and arms dangling everywhere. It was a common person who, passing by, exclaimed: “It really seems like 'o spitale de' bambule”: Luigi Grassi's shop finally had a sign, an ancient, artisanal, unique one. From 1800 to today, four generations have passed down, in addition to the secrets of the trade, love, passion and the desire to put a smile back on the faces of those waiting in line in front of the door of this unique shop, as if in a medical office, for their turn. In the workshop, dolls, teddy bears and many childhood toys, crumpled and wounded by time, regain light: piece by piece, seam after seam, they are returned to their owners, who in an instant become children again.
Pinocchio, Barbara Millicent Robert, known as Barbie, the tender little bear Theddy Bears, are just some of the approximately one thousand specimens placed in the spaces of the monastic complex of Santi Severino and Sossio, home of the State Archives of Naples. Between the exhibition located here and the Doll Hospital, the little visitors will listen to stories told by a toymaker suspended between past and present, who will tie together the threads of memory to bring even those who have lost the voice of childhood back to the enchanted world of play. In addition, an original doctor will tell the precise and delicate activity carried out for the "recovery" of the precious toys.
