Francesco del Balzo

What people wore

Cost of wedding attire

A wedding dress for an ordinary person usually cost up to 30 ducats, though wealthy families could spend up to 300 ducats on garments with gold and silver fabrics.

Getting around

The Lettiga: A Mule-Drawn Carriage

The lettiga, a national carriage suspended between two mules, was a common way to travel through regions lacking roads suitable for wheeled vehicles. It was notoriously fatiguing and slow, moving at an average speed of about three miles per hour.

At the table

Street foods costing one soldo

For a single soldo, the poor in Naples could purchase various street foods, such as slices of pizza, portions of fried fish known as fragaglia, or nine boiled chestnuts to eat with bread.

Music

The tarantella: a dance of courtship

Ordinary people danced the tarantella, a passionate courtship dance that viewers saw as a living poem of love. It was performed by young people using castanets and tambourines, often accompanied by singing.

Daily life

Limited water and sanitation infrastructure

Public infrastructure for water was inadequate, leading households to rely on cisterns or local wells, with communities strictly distinguishing between water used for drinking and water used for animals or washing. In towns without sewer systems, private homes generally had no toilets.

Work

Pluriactivity Among Workers

Many workers engaged in multiple jobs simultaneously, such as a cobbler who also performed construction work, to ensure they had income throughout the year. Because of limited work availability, skilled artisans often had to diversify their trades to avoid periods of unemployment.