TUCKED AWAY FROM NOISY, DARKER SPACCANAPOLI is this calm bright oasis where the followers of Santa Chiara once prayed.

The cloister’s main attractions are rows of seventy-two majolica-tiled columns, painted in pretty blue, green, and gold floral designs. Tiled benches below show scenes of peasants dancing the tarantella, hunting, and enjoying jolly times in the fields, along with myths featuring Neptune and his mermaids. Citrus trees and shrubs fill the gardens, adding sweet smells.

On the convent walls surrounding the cloister are faded jewel-toned frescos where angels float on arches next to women representing virtues such as Wisdom and Temperance. Murals picture action-packed battle scenes and Bible stories, including one of Judith looking innocent and content as she cuts off the head of General Holofernes.

It all seems a bit much for the nuns who called themselves The Poor Clares and were famous for living lives of poverty and self-denial. As they had no contact with the outside world, these images must have been as entertaining to them as high-def TV.

The cloister didn’t look at all like this originally. It was built in the fourteenth century when Queen Sancha of Majorca, the second wife of Robert D’Anjou (the church founder), decided she wanted to live vicariously through the lives of nuns in seclusion, so she had this convent added on to the Santa Chiara church.

Four hundred years later the innovative artist Domenico Antonio Vaccaro came in and renovated the cloister, inspired by all the Neapolitan frivolity of his day. The nuns enjoyed it all to themselves until 1924, when they traded places with their Franciscan friar neighbors. The church and cloisters were beloved by the Neapolitans, and the city mourned deeply, when at the height of World War II, the complex was bombed and badly damaged. Slowly, the cloisters were reconstructed and brought back to their former glory.

Today this is still a quiet spot, and as I wander through, I wonder what Santa Chiara (to us Clare) would think of it. She was a twelfth-century girl living in Assisi who got very inspired when Saint Francis came and gave a sermon at her church. Though many noblemen wanted to marry her, one Palm Sunday night Chiara snuck out of her wealthy parent’s home and headed to Saint Francis to ask to join his gang.

Francis took her in, shaved her head, and gave her sackcloth to wear. Though Chiara’s parents tried to force her to come back home, she fiercely resisted. Instead she founded the Poor Clares order of nuns, and became a fanatic about vows of poverty. The sisters wore no shoes, existed only on alms, slept on the ground, spoke little, and could own nothing.

Chiara became the Patron Saint of Embroidery and Sore Eyes because she was a sickly type and while in bed managed to get a lot of sewing done, making altar cloths and vestments for churches all over Assisi. One Christmas Eve, ailing in her bed, she heard songs from the church below. Then, miraculously, an image of the Bethlehem manger appeared on her bedroom wall. That’s why in 1958, the Pope declared that she should also be known as The Patron Saint of TV.

There are many impressive churches nearby, including the Cappella Sansevero with its famous statue of the veiled Christ. And don’t miss Pio Monte della Misericordia, where you’ll find Caravaggio’s Sette Opere della Misericordia (Seven Acts of Mercy), with angels carrying the Virgin Mary into a Spaccanapoli street.

Cloisters of Santa Chiara: Via Benedetto Croce, Monday-Saturday 9:30-5:30, Sunday 10-2:30, www.monasterodisantachiara.it.

TIP: Do take the time to watch the 20-minute video that tells the history of the cloister, including dramatic footage of the WWII bombing.

Golden Day: Visit the Cloisters and the surrounding neighborhood, called Spaccanapoli, that celebrates the heart and soul of Naples. Of the many delicious stops, I recommend Donna Sofia for pizza, where you’ll be surrounded by images of Sofia Loren (Via Tribunali 89, 081 290 822) and Scaturchio pasticceria for sfogliatelle or baba al rum (Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 19).