Via Toledo

This guide to Via Toledo in Naples returns to the early hours of 14 May 1848, when seventeen barricades rose along this street after two unexplained rifle shots near the church of San Ferdinando. Naples had just won a constitution from King Ferdinand II, and tensions snapped as citizens dragged carts and paving stones across the boulevard to build their defenses. You'll hear how the king answered with Swiss mercenaries and artillery fire raking straight down the street. Walk its length today and picture the barricades that once stood where shoppers now pass.