diplomacy, but they are so overcrowded they only provide a living for less than one man in ten who enters them. Lattarullo and company have been brought up to the idea that they cannot enter trade, and they are debarred by the same rule from physical creation of any kind. Therefore while others go hungry, they virtually starve.
November 10
The sexual attitudes of Neapolitans never fail to produce new surprises. Today Prince A., now well known to us all and an enthusiastic informantfrom our first days at the Riviera di Chiaia, visited us with his sister, whom we met for the first time. The Prince is the absentee landlord of a vast estate somewhere in the South, and owns a nearby palace stacked with family portraits and Chinese antiques. He is the head of what is regarded as the second or third noble family of Southern Italy. The Prince is about thirty years of age, and his sister could be twenty-four. Both are remarkably alike in appearance: thin, with extremely pale skin and cold, patrician expressions bordering on severity. The purpose of the visit was to enquire if we could arrange for the sister to enter an army brothel. We explained that there was no such institution in the British Army. âA pity,â the Prince said. Both of them speak excellent English, learned from an English governess.
âAh well, Luisa, I suppose if it canât be, it canât be.â They thanked us with polite calm, and departed.
Last week a section member was invited by a female contact to visit the Naples cemetery with her on the coming Sunday afternoon. Informants have to be cultivated in small ways whenever possible, and he was quite prepared to indulge a whim of this kind, in the belief that he would be escorting his friend on a visit to a family tomb, expecting to buy a bunch of chrysanthemums from the stall at the gate. However, hardly were they inside when the lady dragged him behind a tombstone, and then â despite the cold â lay down and pulled up her skirts. He noticed that the cemetery contained a number of other couples in vigorous activity in broad daylight. âThere were more people above ground than under it,â he said. It turned out that the cemetery is the loversâ lane of Naples, and custom is such that one becomes invisible as soon as one passes through the gates. If a visitor runs into anyone he knows neither a sign nor a glance can be exchanged, nor does one recognise any friend encountered on the 133 bus which goes to the cemetery. I have learned that to suggest to a lady a Sunday-afternoon ride on a 133 bus is tantamount to solicitation for immoral purposes.
In recognition of his medical interests in civilian life, Parkinson deals with the doctors of Naples. One of his most valuable contacts is Professore Placella, whose speciality is the restoration of virginity. He boasts that his replacement hymen is much better than the original, andthat â costing only 10,000 lire â it takes the most vigorous husband up to three nights to demolish it.
November 15
Lattarullo invited me to lunch. I told him he couldnât afford it, and in any case where was the food to come from? He smiled mysteriously and said, âYouâll see.â He seemed so very eager for me to accept this invitation that I did so. Before going to his flat in the Via San Felice I ordered a couple of marsalas in our bar, and pocketed the eggs to take with me. I got to the flat and I found that another guest had arrived, introduced as Cavaliere Visco, a small man with enormously thick eyebrows, bad breath, and hands covered with hair. There was a faint, thin smell of cooking about the flat, as out of place as church incense in a brothel, and a neighbourhood girl who had obviously been called in to clean up was dragging herself about in the background with a mop. In Neapolitan fashion, Lattarullo had borrowed a chair here and crockery and cutlery there, and for this occasion his one remaining possession of value
November 10
The sexual attitudes of Neapolitans never fail to produce new surprises. Today Prince A., now well known to us all and an enthusiastic informantfrom our first days at the Riviera di Chiaia, visited us with his sister, whom we met for the first time. The Prince is the absentee landlord of a vast estate somewhere in the South, and owns a nearby palace stacked with family portraits and Chinese antiques. He is the head of what is regarded as the second or third noble family of Southern Italy. The Prince is about thirty years of age, and his sister could be twenty-four. Both are remarkably alike in appearance: thin, with extremely pale skin and cold, patrician expressions bordering on severity. The purpose of the visit was to enquire if we could arrange for the sister to enter an army brothel. We explained that there was no such institution in the British Army. âA pity,â the Prince said. Both of them speak excellent English, learned from an English governess.
âAh well, Luisa, I suppose if it canât be, it canât be.â They thanked us with polite calm, and departed.
Last week a section member was invited by a female contact to visit the Naples cemetery with her on the coming Sunday afternoon. Informants have to be cultivated in small ways whenever possible, and he was quite prepared to indulge a whim of this kind, in the belief that he would be escorting his friend on a visit to a family tomb, expecting to buy a bunch of chrysanthemums from the stall at the gate. However, hardly were they inside when the lady dragged him behind a tombstone, and then â despite the cold â lay down and pulled up her skirts. He noticed that the cemetery contained a number of other couples in vigorous activity in broad daylight. âThere were more people above ground than under it,â he said. It turned out that the cemetery is the loversâ lane of Naples, and custom is such that one becomes invisible as soon as one passes through the gates. If a visitor runs into anyone he knows neither a sign nor a glance can be exchanged, nor does one recognise any friend encountered on the 133 bus which goes to the cemetery. I have learned that to suggest to a lady a Sunday-afternoon ride on a 133 bus is tantamount to solicitation for immoral purposes.
In recognition of his medical interests in civilian life, Parkinson deals with the doctors of Naples. One of his most valuable contacts is Professore Placella, whose speciality is the restoration of virginity. He boasts that his replacement hymen is much better than the original, andthat â costing only 10,000 lire â it takes the most vigorous husband up to three nights to demolish it.
November 15
Lattarullo invited me to lunch. I told him he couldnât afford it, and in any case where was the food to come from? He smiled mysteriously and said, âYouâll see.â He seemed so very eager for me to accept this invitation that I did so. Before going to his flat in the Via San Felice I ordered a couple of marsalas in our bar, and pocketed the eggs to take with me. I got to the flat and I found that another guest had arrived, introduced as Cavaliere Visco, a small man with enormously thick eyebrows, bad breath, and hands covered with hair. There was a faint, thin smell of cooking about the flat, as out of place as church incense in a brothel, and a neighbourhood girl who had obviously been called in to clean up was dragging herself about in the background with a mop. In Neapolitan fashion, Lattarullo had borrowed a chair here and crockery and cutlery there, and for this occasion his one remaining possession of value
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