Both of us have spent time in Italy before (me for 2 years, Jessica for 10 days), and on this trip we wanted to make sure we went to a few places we hadn’t been before. That includes anything south of Rome and a whole lot of stuff up north. It was really hard to narrow it down. Lake Como was the hardest cut, but ultimately we made the decision to spend our first 3-4 days down near Napoli, because pizza.
We flew from Greece into Rome but immediately caught a train south instead of going into the city. Bypassing Rome felt a lot like sinning.
We repented by having our first meal in Italy be in the mecca of pizzaism, Napoli. I’ve had plenty of Napolitano style pizzas but I felt lame for never having it in Napoli proper. Literally the pizzas we each ate in Napoli in those 4 days were 50% of the reason we went there. Capri is beautiful, Pompeii is fascinating, but the pizza is to die for. When you tear off a piece of the piping hot pizza, fold it in half and take a bite, the juices of the best of everything God created collect in the bottom and fill your mouth with holiness. The perfect pizza is only 3€, plus 12€ to stash our bags at the station for an hour, but I would pay twice that much. There’s just something about the trek through trash filled streets, dirty run down monuments, and lively people, to arrive at a place of perfect joy that I would pay to do over and over and over again. (It's harder for me to refer to Napoli as Naples now that I have been there. Naples is golf carts, white reeboks, tennis, and visors; Napoli is Napoli.)
Pulcinella
We stayed in Castellammare di Stabia with the Tariffas, a family I fell in love with when they lived in Florence. Stani is from Castellammare and Sarah is from England, which is great because my Italian is terrible and Jessica’s is terribler. It seriously took me so long to get back into the Italian groove. Their three kids could have entertained us for months. They just moved into a new place so our first night there was their first night as well, which we felt so bad about. They were so gracious to let us stay with them in such a hectic time, but Sarah said they wanted a bigger place so that family and friends could come stay with them and she was so excited to already have visitors!
Castellammare is central to everything we wanted to do there. It was 8 minutes to Pompei, 20 minutes to the port to Capri, 45 minutes from Napoli, and right in the middle of beautiful craziness. It’s exactly what I thought Italy was like when I was a kid. Crazy driving, loud, exuberant people, faded pastel buildings, lemon trees, and sun. It gets a rap for being pretty rough, but we like to affectionately refer to it as raw. We wouldn’t have wanted to stay anywhere else. It was perfect.
Monday we woke up not very early and stumbled over to Pompei. (why do we Americans like to put an extra “i” on it?) It took us 10 minutes from getting on the train to being through the front gate. Pompei was fascinating and gorgeous. It could stand to be a little more protected, but selfish as it is, it was pretty awesome to be able to walk into almost any ruin and touch anything. We were both surprised at how expansive it is. It was a whole city after all, but still when you look down the main road and it just goes forever it’s like history slapping you in the face.
There was so much amazing mosaic work all over the places. I couldn't believe how detailed it all was.
The first Napolitano pizza oven?
The city and its destroyer.
It was pretty sobering to see the plaster statues of the citizens of Pompei. Excavators kept noticing that there were always pockets of air around the bones that they found and realized that if they carefully poured plaster of Paris in the holes you could bring to life the final poses of each person. There was even a dog that looked like he was caught taking his last gasp for air.
Two thumbs up for Pompei.
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