Many cities have hop-on-and-off (HOHO) buses. These sightseeing buses enable tourists to get on and off as they please. The tickets offer incredible opportunities to sightsee at our own pace, without staying on the bus or in a group. If you are in Naples, you will note the starting point of the HOHO buses at the foot of the Castel Nuovo (Italian for New Castle).

We did not use Naples’ HOHO buses, and we did not visit the interior of the castle. Firstly, there was a long queue; secondly, we have seen many castles in different parts of the world. We used to marvel at castles, but we find them boring (and expensive) these days. The historical storyline is almost always a variation of the same theme. The stories remain remotely relevant to our lives and are soon forgotten.

After visiting Santa Lucia, resting our tired feet (under a shady tree) and looking at the Castel Nuovo was nice. And soon enough, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto Number 1 drifted into my mind. No direct relationship exists between Naples’s Castel Nuovo and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. However, we did spend more than a few moments gazing at the majestic Castel Nuovo. The only thing in common was the noun “Castel Nuovo.”
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was not a native of Naples. He was born in Florence on April 3, 1895, into a family of Jewish bankers. He was an accomplished musician and won many European acclaims as a concert performer and composer. He wrote hundreds of piano, guitar, cello, harp, and oboe compositions. We can judge his calibre from the students who studied under him: Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Henry Mancini, André Previn, and Nelson Riddle.

In 1932, Castelnuovo-Tedesco met the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia at the International Society of Contemporary Music held in Venice for the first time. The meeting inspired him to write for the guitar. He wrote almost one hundred compositions for this instrument; Guitar Concerto No. 1 (1939) is probably the most popular. His success was, however, overshadowed by anti-semitism. He was banned from the radio even before the Italian government promulgated the racial laws in late 1938. The new racial laws convinced him to leave for the United States in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Incredibly, on January 23, 2018 (the 50th anniversary of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s death), Italy dedicated the President of the Italian Republic Award and the Medal of the Chamber of Deputies to him.
With the majestic view of Castelnuovo before my eyes and the melody of Guitar Concerto No. 1 flowing through my mind, I recalled an important day. One day, my late friend Dr. Kwan Poh Woh invited me to go with him to check “the opportunities on offer.” It was a meeting organised by the University of Malaya (our alma mater) inviting applications for the academic staff training scheme. We did not get very far – a person standing by the doorway told us that the meeting was not for us – for bumiputras only.
I left my country and retired as a Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I am proud that NUS currently ranks 8th in the QS World University Rankings (2025). There has to be a moral to the story.
Like Castelnuovo-Tedesco, I still love my country and return frequently. And I will also return to Italy, a fascinating country.