VIA TOLEDO, Central Section
Language: English / USA
Continue walking down Via Toledo, and almost immediately on the right you'll run into the imposing Palazzo Banco di Napoli, which was rebuilt in the first half of the 1900s but founded nearly four hundred years earlier, as can be read in the block letter inscriptions above the two doors on the sides of the façade.
It almost seems like the bank is being watched by the busts and heads that are inserted in medallions in Palazzo Monaco di Lapio, which is right in front of the bank. If you can sneak into the elegant inner courtyard, you'll find two beautiful fountains. The one on the right is decorated by the sculptural group of Venus and Adonis, and the one on the left has a head with the princely crown and noble coat of arms of the Monaco family, whose barons from Lapio gave the palace its name.
Continuing down the street, you'll pass Via Emanuele de Deo on the left, which is dedicated to the young, twenty-two year old man who was tortured and hanged for taking part in the 1799 revolution. A little further on you'll notice a portal with a family's coat of arms supported by two cornucopias: it is Palazzo Lieto.
You can see Palazzo Tocco di Montemiletto at number 148, which is also called Palazzo Tapia in remembrance of the Spanish judge who had the palace built in the second half of the sixteenth century, and then suitably enlarged it to match his new social position when he was appointed President of the Royal Chamber. However, of the original Baroque style only the portal remains, while its current Neoclassical appearance is due to the restyling carried out in the early 1800s by the new owners, the princes of Montemiletto. Unfortunately, the valuable frescoes of Luca Giordano were lost in the renovations.
FUN FACT: Via Toledo intersects with Via Paolo Emilio Imbriani, which is dedicated to the mayor who after the unification of Italy decided to rename Via Toledo and call it "Via Roma". But Neapolitans are traditionalists, and for more than a century they continued to call it Via Toledo unperturbed, until in 1980 its original name was restored!
