Complesso Monumentale di Santa Chiara

This guide to the Complesso Monumentale di Santa Chiara in Naples starts on a Carnival night sometime in the sixteen hundreds, when the cloistered Poor Clares behind these barred windows turned their convent into a secret ballroom, smuggling in costumes and masked guests. You'll hear how an archival document exposed the ruse, and how the hand-painted majolica tiles added to the cloister in 1742, with their lemons, wisteria and everyday scenes, reflected the era's belief that bright color could ward off the evil eye. Craftsmen who came to mend a hinge or a tile served as go-betweens, tucking jewelry and forbidden food among their tools.