Toledo, the most beautiful metro in Europe. And the most inaccessible

Spanish Quarters, Piazza Montecalvario, Toledo metro.

The door you see in the photo has been closed since the first lockdown, since Covid.
Do you know what's beyond that door? Probably many people don't know, because they've never seen it open. That's right, because since 2014, when the Toledo metro was opened—the one praised as the most beautiful metro in Europe—this entrance here has almost always been closed on weekends.

You might say: "No big deal, the main entrance to the metro is just a few steps away, on via Toledo."
But no, because beyond that closed shutter there is a mosaic by Francesco Clemente ("Engiadina"), and in the area now closed there are many works of art by contemporary artists, called in for the great Toledo station project.
Basically, if today we want to visit the most beautiful metro station in Europe, we can only visit half of it.

Because in Naples we have so many works of art that we allow ourselves the luxury of keeping them closed, and well hidden.

Folks, this is the damage we have today from this closure. I say "that we have today," because when the Montecalvario entrance was closed, considered "secondary," evidently, compared to the one on via Toledo, the damage was much greater.

Do you know when the art stations project in Naples dates back to? 1995.
Did you go into the Spanish Quarters in 1995?
And when the Toledo metro was opened in 2014, did you go in that often?
Probably not.
I remember, about fifteen years ago (or even less) all the tourists, as well as Neapolitans, standing on via Toledo photographing the perspective of the little alleys, climbing up to Corso Vittorio Emanuele, with the Certosa in the background.

A very "instagrammable" image, as someone would say today.
But heaven forbid you enter the Spanish Quarters! "They're dangerous," you would hear people say.

Well, in 1995, and still in 2014, that underground passage, intended as a "mandatory museum," was an access point to the quarters. It was meant to encourage people to visit the entire metro tunnel, and from via Toledo, in the "Naples below," among Aragonese walls, olas, canal de luz and mosaics, finally emerge right in the quarters. There, at Piazzetta Montecalvario, where the Certosa, due to an optical effect, seems even closer. Right there we would have found the murals by Cyop&Kaf, Dalisi's lanterns, and just a few steps away, the Teatro Nuovo, welcoming us.

And maybe we would have realized that these quarters deserved a walk through the alleys, at least by Neapolitans, they really did deserve it.

"It's nothing." We can manage on our own. Maybe.
We've always managed on our own, and that's how it has to be.

(In the photo, the Montecalvario exit of the Toledo station on metro line 1, with the mural by Zeal off and They live, for the 35th anniversary of the project in which John Mc Connel's poster participated—for the cultural image of the city of Naples).