Naples Pizza Party, Day 4

Monday, Day 4 – Herculaneum and Party over.

Originally the plan was to all take a train to either Pompeii or Herculaneum and then lunch nearby – preferably pizza in keeping with Sharon’s birthday theme. We decided on Herculaneum because a few of us had already been to Pompeii. Before heading to the train station in the mini van the concierge had called for us, Aurel suggested Anna ask our driver what he would charge to actually take us to Herculaneum. He said 70 euros or 10 euros each. The driver then offered to wait while we toured the ruins and then take us to lunch in Sorrento. Anna negotiated 210 euros total  - 30 euros each.

Herculaneum is amazing in ways very different from what I remembered of Pompeii. The area of ruins is smaller and more compact. Unlike Pompeii, Herculaneum was a sea side resort, not a commercial city. Smaller villas – the equivalent of beach cottages. There are lots of tall walls still standing with charcoaled door lintels remaining from the Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD. Terrific mosaic floors and vivid red walls that are as fresh as yesterday. It had rained that morning and the grass and mosses were an amazing green. The scent of blooming mimosa, oranges and lemons lingered in the air. Spring comes earlier in Naples and the colors, scents and seaside setting reminded me of Selunite’s Greek ruins in Sicily. The recurring Neapolitan theme of Life and Death was heavy in the air.

We drove to Sorrento in a downpour. Eight years ago I traveled from Naples to Sorrento by train – a journey through lots of dreary towns. This time we drove along the winding coast - a route that was a mini and less scary version of the Amalfi Coast drive. We arrived in Sorrento around 3:30 and of course, everything was closed. Monday afternoon in the off-season. We drove around a bit and then found a small pizzeria/ristorante open just on the town’s central piazza. It looked dreadful and uninviting and most likely would have been awful anywhere else, but unlikely places in Italy often reward you with gastronomic pleasures.

Marguerita Pizza as a starter – the brick oven was prominently placed in the front of the restaurant. I had pasta fagiole ( a stew of small tubes of pasta with cranberry beans and plump little mussels.) Vigdis and Anna shared a serving of the pasta fagiole and a serving of cod roasted in olive oil and white wine. Erik and Aurel both had home-made spaghetti with frutti di mare and Sharon ordered gamberoni grillata. We drank a very young (2012) fresh and slightly effervescent white Lacryma Cristi which definitely tasted of the terroir of Vesuvius.

Erik, Vigdis, Me, Aurel, Anna, Sylvie and Sharon

 

Sharon, Forever Young 

 



Bay of Sorrento at Sunset

On the way back to Naples we stopped at a belvdere to take photos and to admire the twinkling lights of the Sorrento harbor in twilight. Back to the hotel for a little rest before our final pizza at Gino Sobello, the pizzeria the concierge had recommended our first day in Naples. We ordered three different pizzas: classic Marguerita (with Sharon’s added basil,) pizza with fresh artichokes and one with funghi (porcini mushrooms.) The crust was slightly tastier and a bit more charred than the pizza from Ciro e Mergellina. Both serve such superb pizza but everyone declared Gino Sobello the best. Who am I to argue?



The next morning Sharon and I accompanied Sylvia to one of Naples' market streets for a little food shopping. Then, everyone but Sharon and I dispersed for planes and trains home. She would leave later in the day so we managed our own last minute shopping – for ex voto's – the silver replicas of various body parts that are left in churches after a prayer for healing is answered. Sharon found two silver ex voto displaying eyes. She decided it would be great fun to have one mounted on a silver chain to wear when she next visits her ophthalmologist. She claims he has a great sense of humor and will "get it."

The next morning I went back to the market street, so I could fly home with fresh pastry for my husband - Sfogliatelli, his favorite.

Naples Pizza Party, January 2014

Day 1 - Thursday/Friday, January 16/17

I went to Naples, Italy for a pizza party - a bang-up celebration for Sharon’s 70th birthday. Four days of pizza and maybe a little of splendid Neapolitan seafood is my idea of heaven. No direct flight to Naples so I flew to Paris and then connected to a flight to Naples. On the overnight flight to Paris, my seat companion was a lovely young man - a jazz guitarist - on his to Lyon for a gig. We talked music and theater - I had just seen the Duke Ellington review, “After Midnight,” which I highly recommended: a fabulous jazz orchestra, great singing and splendid tap dancing. I mentioned I had been to Lyon and he asked if I could recommend any restaurants. I was in Lyon maybe 10 years ago but I said oysters at the oyster bar in the market and duck and quenelles pretty much anywhere. In Lyon, go for duck and quenelles.

I dozed a bit waiting for my connection at Charles De Gaulle Airport, and then dozed some more on the flight to Naples. I woke like a shot as we began our descent and there looming outside the window was Vesuvius. I love flying into Naples - there’s the beautiful bay and that majestic volcano - still active but thankfully, quiescent.

We landed, of course the taxi overcharged me and after a wild ride, I arrived at the very lovely Hotel Piazza Bellini, located in the historic center, across from Piazza Bellini. The hotel's décor is contemporary but filled with warm and whimsical artistic touches. I decided to take a little nap before the arrival of Sharon, the birthday girl. She woke me an hour and a half later and then we were off for pizza - I was truly starving - and then a walk through the historic center to see churches and the art therein.

The concierge told us we would find lots of pizza restaurants on Via Tribunali in the nearby historic centre, but she said the best is Gino Sobillo. Everyone has a favorite and we were more than willing to try hers. We ended up at Sobillo - a relative of Gino [kind of like all the Ray's Pizzas in New York.] Supposedly not as good as Gino's but I thought it was fine, although the crust could have had a bit more char. Very good cheese and sweet tomato flavor.

We had amazingly good coffee at the corner of Tribunali and S. Gregorio Armeno. I hadn't had any coffee that day - just won't drink airplane swill - so I really appreciated the great coffee at the corner cafe. Then we walked down via S. Gregorio Armeno - the street of crèche or in Italian, presepio (mangers) Terribly kitch but I love the stuff and Sharon generously tolerated my need to take it all in.

On Via San Biagio we encountered the baroque madness of the church of Gesu Nuevo.  Sharon’s comment: "If it ain't baroque, don't fix it." After getting through so much sensory overload with our sense of good taste still intact we entered the Capella Della Visitazione, which is totally devoted to ex voto. The mostly silver representations of body parts (arms, legs, torso, eyes, hearts, lungs, backs and heads covered the walls from floor to ceiling and the ceiling as we'll. Ex voto, a kind of Catholic voodoo, are left in chapels by supplicants who have had their prayers answered and received their cures.

Further down the street we stepped into Sant’ Angelo a Nilo, a church that promised a Donetello sculpture, It turned out to be second rate work by his students but directly opposite in the chapel of Statuaria Sacra was a spectacular sculpture - a tomb monument - of a skeleton climbing from a grave. Expressive and delicate, it was another example of Neapolitan fascination with death and mortality. Among all the kitchy mangers on the street of presepio, are statues of sports figures, politicians and other notables, all engulfed in flames. We saw lots of glass enclosed street shrines with flaming figurines and much of the iron work fences are decorated with brass skulls, worn away with constant rubbing. Maybe it's about living at the foot of a volcano.

We had dinner at Antica Trattoria on via Tribunali,near S. Gregorio Armeno. My husband Tony and I had a lovely dinner there eight years ago. Sharon, who is a perennial “weight-watcher” decided after a pizza lunch, she wanted a dinner of salad or vegetables. From the antipasto buffet: braised artichokes, spinach, and sautéed peppers - all perfectly cooked. I also had the artichokes and big fat grilled shrimps that were sweetly succulent.