Naples' Doll Clinic – Where Saints and Hearts Are Healed

The "Ospedale delle Bambole" is one of the most bizarre places in Italy.

Patients come to the old aristocratic palace in the middle of Naples' old town not only from the region but from all over the world. Here, dolls and holy figures - and also the hearts of their owners - are healed. Tiziana Grassi calls herself Dottoressa and wears a white doctor's coat. Even if her patients are brought in lifeless and battered, for their owners they are full of life. Sentimental memories, nostalgia, superstition, hopes - the doll clinic of Naples is a place of great emotions. Favorite dolls from childhood or a beloved figure of a saint - Tiziana Grassi cures them all, also with the help of the last old master craftsmen of the city, who operate in workshops that seem to have fallen out of time. Wigs have to be reknotted, an arm re-turned, a new eye inserted. When the dolls and saints are restored, it is not rare to see tears of joy. They are inanimate objects but seem to be animated by the love of their owners, who express their feelings with true Southern Italian temperament.