- Left Ios on a ferry for Athens at 4pm
- Arrived in Athens at 7 am
- Flew from Athens at 12pm
- Arrived in Bari (Italy) at 1:30pm
- Left Bari for Naples via train at 4:30pm
- Arrived in Naples at 7:30 pm
- Left Naples for neighboring Portici via train at 8:30pm
- Arrived in Portici at 9:15pm
- Arrived at hostel at 9:30pm
....I was tired.
I went to bed shortly after checking in to my hostel and woke up the next morning to explore the city just a tad before heading to Naples. Portici is a small town south of Naples, and is really cool. There's not much to see, but the weather was great and givien that it was a Sunday afternoon, there were plenty of locals roaming the town's beautiful gardens and parks. On my way I picked up my first (of thousands) Italian gelato. I decided to play it safe the first time and ordered chocolate and coffee. It was really good, but a little too melty and a little too sweet. Still, it was yummy.
After devouring my gelato, I decided to read in a park for a few hours and take in the Portici sun. It felt good. So good, that I began to doze off. When I awoke, I decided it was time for Naples.
Upon my arrival, I quickly learned Naples has 2 redeeming qualities:
1) Phenomenal pizza
2) Proximity to fun places
I was in Naples for 2 nights, and was rather underwhelmed with both its people and its scenery. The town is an absolute trash dump (I actually read an article in The Economist on the flight from Athens - at approximately hour 9 of 30 - how Naples has a huge trash problem that is affecting the city's economy.) I figured it would be bad, but what took me by surprise was the attitude and lack of concern by its residents. A saw a number of locals simply throw their trash on the ground when there were ample garbage cans around. You just don't see that kind of behavior in the US, and not really in the rest of Europe either. Get it together, Naples.
The people are also really crappy. The drivers are out of control and are not familiar with the policy of pedestrians getting the right of way. Drivers are also not fans of crosswalks. Or traffic lights.
Beyond that, the crowds were packed with locals who were nothing short of rude to me. They often stared me down until we were out of eyesight and gave me rude looks when I walked into stores or restaurants. I felt like I was an alien when I was Naples. It was quite a surreal experience.
Enough of that. Let's get to the pizza.
Naples is the home of pizza. I made sure to go to the best before anything else. Restaurant da Michele is considered to be the best pizza in all of Naples. It certainly did not disappoint. Da Michele is a tiny place on a side street in the center of town and is notorious for serving only two types of pies - margarita and marinara. Where I come from a margarita pizza comes with slices of tomatoes rather than tomato sauce, so I ordered marinara. That was an amateur move. It turns out marinara has much less sauce than its counterpart and isnt served with basil.
Despite my oversight, it was one of the best pizzas I had ever had. Not the best (that title belongs to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn), but still phenomenal.
The pizza in Italy is served quite differently than it is in the US.
- Restaurants never serve slices
- Pies only come in 1 size
- There are never toppings to add (you can order pizzas with different toppings, but you never have the option of adding individual toppings to a cheese pizza)
- Pizzas are invariably served unsliced and come with a fork and knife
Because of the last factor, pizza is rarely crispy. This happened to be the only bad thing about da Michele. I love the taste of pizza, but part of the fun of eating it is folding it in half. You simply cannot do this with most Italian pizzas, especially the ones served at da Michelle.
My dislike for Naples led me to relegate one day for exploring the city and one day to the nearby city of Pompei. I walked around Naples and enjoyed walking the streets along the water and took in the sights the city had to offer. I don't have much more to add to that. Oh, except I got pizza 3 other times in the next 36 hours. Includinng once more at da Michele. This time I ordered a margarita doble (extra mozzarella) and it probably would have been the best pizza I have ever eaten, but I decided to get it right before I headed out of town, and by the time I had a chance to eat it, it had cooled to room temp. Even still, it was definitely a top 5 pizza of all-time.
Below: my first Italian pizza, at a pizza stand in Bari. It was delicious. They always serve slices at the over-the-counter places, but never at restaurants. Can't you feel the excitement? I can, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment