Apparently O Sole Mio is sung when it's pouring rain in Napoli and you want it to stop. It was raining cats and dogs as we drove from Sorrento to Napoli for our historic pizza walking tour. Our guide started singing the song while she was waiting for us and by the time we arrived in Napoli, the rain had stopped.
As I self-proclaimed pizza snob, it's long been on my bucket list to taste pizza in the birthplace of pizza. Today I got to put a check mark next to that item. Lou expected me to be disappointed but I can't say that I am. And no, I'm not ruined for good New York pizza or Pizza Joint pizza. I've always been picky and will continue to be picky.
Valentina, our guide, threw lots of historical pizza facts and historical Napoli facts at us. I will admit to absorbing the pizza facts (did you know pita was the precursor to pizza?) and having a lot of the other facts kind of go in one ear and out the other. Which is pretty pathetic since I read a book about southern Italy just 2 weeks ago! I guess I need to brush up on my chronological history of who ruled Napoli over the years. I know Margherita was the queen that her favorite variety of pizza was named after - but during what time period and who was her king?
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| Pizza originated as street food and was sold from carts similar to this one |
We visited a fritturia (a fry house with many fried items I'd never tasted), we had an almond taralli, and went to the current most popular pizzeria in Napoli, Pizzeria Gino Sorbillo. We'd passed the oldest pizzeria in Napoli but Valentina said Sorbillo used much higher quality ingredients. Bill DeBlasio, current mayor of NYC ate there when on his Italian vacation last year. I wonder how he felt it compared to DiFara. (I found them pretty darn close.) The service could use a bit of refinement. Is that what comes with fame? That certainly shouldn't be the case.
I don't want you to think it was all about food. We visited ruins, churches and a 19th century shopping mall.
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| Interior of a church |
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| Interior of the shopping mall. Notice the Jewish stars in the Windows. The designer was a Jew. |
Going to Naples by car (with someone else driving) and with a tour guide to show us around was the way to go. Napoli is chaotic and busy and dirty and overwhelming. It was well worth the money we spent to have someone else to do the organizing and explaining.
Fulvio, our driver, was a real pleasure. Driving back to Sorrento, he played old Italian music that we were familiar with. And when he saw the sun setting over the bay alongside Mt. Vesuvius, he pulled the car over and all 3 of us got out to take photos.
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| Looking back towards Napoli |
I was stuffed after that big huge pizza, but we went for a stroll after returning to Sorrento and ended up walking into a gorgeous garden restaurant called Ristorante 'O Parrucchiano La Favorita. It looks quite unappealing from the street. Then you walk inside and up the stairs and you enter a magic garden. We can only imagine the fragrance when all the lemon and orange trees are in bloom. They also have three women sitting right out front tallying and doing inventory of everything that's ordered and served. I struggled with the menu since I really wasn't hungry and wasn't sure I could eat. I have long wanted to try stuffed fried zucchini flowers which they had on the menu. That and a mixed salad and I was set. Lou said these zucchini flowers were the real deal. Unlike lunchtime, the serious was friendly and cordial and pleasant.
It felt good to have the stroll back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we're going on an escorted tour on a minibus to the Amalfi Coast. I've heard the roads there are similar to the roads in Capri. I want Lou to be able to enjoy the sites along the way. And not that Lou isn't a great driver but I'd much rather have someone experienced behind the wheel as we traverse these sipuicidal roads.
Buona notte.
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