So you may have guessed, Naples is famous for its pizza, but more on that in a second. Naples is also very famous amongst Italians for its sfoglitelle (yes, no idea how to pronounce it either), a multi-layered shell pastry filled with ricotta and orange zest:
They are very very crisp, but a little too rich for me to be honest. But if you want to try them, I discovered that my favoured Italian deli beginning with P also has them from time to time. We tried them at Caffe Gambrinus near the Piazza del Plebiscito, recommended to us by the lady in the tourist office, who we also saw coming in for her own espresso, so it must be good. Having read a bit more about it, turns out the place used to serve Oscar Wilde! We loved the atmosphere here, and returned once more for a final espresso just before we left for the airport. Even a non-coffee drinker like me was downing two espressos a day!
Right, pizza time. Apparently authentic pizzerias in Naples have a little sign on the door to say that they are the dogs's bollocks, although apart from using buffalo mozzarella, I'm not sure what the strict stipulations are. We went to Da Michele, so famous that our hostel host knew exactly where we were heading when we mentioned going to try pizza near the train station. It is certainly old skool, and only serves two types of pizzas: margheritas (tomato, mozzarella, basil, olive oil) and marinaras (tomato, oregano, garlic, olive oil, no cheese!):
This was the margherita:
And marinara (and yes, the more observant of you will notice knife marks in both pizzas, we were a little impatient...!):
OH MY GOD! So simple, so good! I think the secret is that their dough was very chewily elastic, very pleasantly so, very morish indeed. Apparently it helps you to digest it. We did eat some more pizza which was a bit more adorned later in the weekend, but once you've had the good stuff, you can never go back...We did go to Naples for the food, but the main purpose of the trip was to go and see the ruins in Pompeii, and Naples really is an ugly city that you don't want to spend too much time in. As you can imagine, the strip next to the ruins in Pompeii is lined with tourist traps all serving pretty much the same thing, and we ended up trying a little chain restaurant Fratelli la Bufala, which specialised in all things buffalo:
Their buffalo mozzarella and chargrilled vegetables was actually very good, a nice change from the carb-overload of the rest of the trip. Incidentally, I bought back a whole kilo of mozzarella back, and am not sure what to do with it other than to make sexy salads. It's a bit too good to cook with I think, so suggestions please!
But our restaurant highlight of the weekend was during the night when we stayed in Pompeii. Most tourists go to the ruins as a day trip from Naples or Sorrento, so the hotel market is pretty underdeveloped. We stayed at a random B&B called Casa Villa Pompeii, run by Antonio and his lovely wife in the home where Antonio was born. Seriously, if you want to go to Pompeii, I have to give you the address of the place. They were the best hosts, ever. The house is a little bit out of the way of the main strip, so Antonio actually drove us to the restaurant of his friend so we wouldn't get ripped off staying on the tourist strip. And then his friend gave us a lift back!Hang on!" I can hear you screaming. Surely he ripped us off by taking us to his mate's place, the most classic tourist trick in the book! And to be honest, the food wasn't the best, but the hospitality was so amazing. I think they were a bit shocked to see two little Asian girls being outgoing, and all the restaurant staff ended up wanting photos with us in the end. It was one of those really good nights when you're laughing non stop with the locals, even though you really can't understand each other.
Anyway, food! We actually had pasta in this place, and to be honest, all the pasta we had during this little trip was disappointing, maybe a testament that pasta is done quite well in London. This was their best pasta, ravioli stuffed with spinach:
We also had a very alcoholic rum baba (babas also famous in Naples area):
All washed down with a bottle of local red vino at only €6 each! One of the few restaurants I want to go back to, but not for the food.Pompeii itself was tremendous. I had studied it a lot in high school during my three torturous years of learning Latin about Caecilius and his dog, but it was nothing like I imagined it to be. Thankfully, because we went during relatively low season, we were still able to get lost enough that no one else was around, and then you could get a real feeling of how it would have been like 2000 years ago. Here are a few photos (yes, I managed to somehow take 50 non-food photos on this trip, a record!).
Herculaneum, a small site near to Pompeii, where you can see Mount Vesuvius in the background:
Beautiful mosaic in Herculaneum:
Pompeii proper, we had amazing weather too, look at the sky!
Vineyards have been recreated to look like what it would have been, again, with Vesuvius in the background:
The oldest surviving amphitheatre in Italy:
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