Via Port’Alba: the 17th-century passageway home to numerous bookshops, a witch legend, and the oldest pizzeria in the world!

The Port’Alba is a historic gate built in 1625 connecting the lively areas of Piazza Bellini and Piazza Dante, and the passageway running through it—simply named Via Port’Alba—is just as fascinating, like its city, Naples, a major port city in southern Italy, situated on the Bay of Naples, near the active volcano Mount Vesuvius, as well as Italy’s third-largest city, known for its rich history, culture and art.
Much of the alley hosts old-fashioned secondhand bookshops, some housed in 18th-century buildings, and book-filled carts and boxes waiting to be browsed just outside them.
Everything you can expect from Italian booksellers is here, from Roman texts to translated literary classics to giallo thrillers to comic books such as Topolino (Mickey Mouse), Dylan Dog, Diabolik, and more.

However this is not only a bibliophile’s heaven, but also a street-food gourmet’s, as the quaint alley is home to the oldest pizzeria in the world: Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba, which opened in 1738 and re-established itself as a pizzeria in 1830, becoming a cornerstone of Neapolitan culinary history and a pioneer in popularizing pizza with toppings like mozzarella and anchovies.
Active still today, It is renowned for traditional Neapolitan pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven lined with lava rock from Mount Vesuvius.

And, if this wasn’t enough, in addition to the books and the pizzas, Via Port’Alba is also home to a local legend concerning a witch.
At the time, Port’Alba was called, due to the carob trees that adorned it, Largo delle Sciuscelle.
In a house built in the shade of one of these trees lived a beautiful girl, with curly red hair and white skin. Her name was Maria and she was just twenty years old. Despite being desired by many men for her beauty, she only had eyes for the love of her life, Michele.
He too loved her and in a very short time the two got married.
On their wedding day, Michele and Maria celebrated their love with friends and relatives and, once their day was over, they tried to go back to their homes to start their new life together.
One night, as Maria and Michele were walking home, they were hit by a terrible thunderstorm.
As he passed by the fountain at the beginning of the road, Michele stopped and while Maria could continue advancing towards the house, it seemed impossible for him.
He was as if petrified, unable to move, as if some mysterious force had put a curse on him
Joy turned to despair, with the two lovers tried for days to pass the fountain, even with the help of her neighbors, but without success. At the end Michele left in the opposite direction from the house where he was supposed to live with Maria, who could not save her beloved husband and eventually had to give up hope.
The two boys never saw each other again and, maddened with grief, Maria gradually turned into a lean, toothless hag who practiced dark magic.
Her hair became frizzy and lost its color, she lost weight until she was reduced to a skeleton, she was filled with sadness and resentment and began to study the magical arts to understand what had happened on her wedding night.
Initially he did so in secret but then he no longer bothered to keep his activities hidden.
Indeed, in order to make a living, he began to sell some of the elixirs he prepared, and the townsfolk would cross themselves when they saw her, calling her a witch.
Maria became a frightening figure and was blamed both for the illnesses that swept the neighborhood and for sudden recoveries.
Those were the years of the Spanish Inquisition and she was captured and locked up in a cage hung in Port’Alba from a hook that is still visible today.
Maria was accused of being a witch and condemned to starve in front of everyone’s eyes.
While she was serving her cruel and unjust punishment, in her dying breath, she shrieked a curse upon the town: “You will all pay for it! You, your children and grandchildren. You will all pay for it!”, and her corpse remained in the cage for days, slowly turning into stone.
The judges of the inquisition took this event as further proof of his guilt: that was undoubtedly the body of a witch!
The authorities removed the cage, but the hook that had held it remained, reminding people of the witch’s curse.
Still today, some locals believe that the passage is haunted by the spirit of the witch.
Some say they have seen it in passing: a dark shadow hovering under the hook of that road while, at night it is possible to hear his dying voice, and when there is a new moon in the sky, Maria still cries out: you will all pay for it!

Images from Web – Google Research