[The Spaghetti Eaters]

Although Giorgio Sommer is best known for his views of Italian art, architecture, and archaeological sites, he also produced an album of more than 100 scenes of everyday life in Naples. This amusing scene—clearly shot in the studio and no doubt with exaggerated hamming for the camera—records both a Neapolitan custom and popular tourist attraction. An 1832 book described eating pasta “the Neapolitan way . . . with both hands in such a way that there is no interval between successive mouthfuls,” and the city’s poor happily provided such a spectacle for visitors willing to toss a coin to pay for the meal.