Day Three's the day we saw a statue called "Veiled Christ" in another church. We then separated to shop, shoot and sketch, and meet at 3 to go get the train.
"Veiled Christ" was amazing, but no pictures allowed. Here's one from the web. Photo credit to http://www.italianways.com/ It was really amazing how the veil looked almost transparent.
From here, we walked back to our area so that when Fred went off to sketch, and I to shop, we would be close to our hotel where our luggage was stashed. I had my book and camera on me, but not my laptop. Naples is too dangerous (petty-theft-wise) for me to risk losing that. I did, however, bring it to Naples—just left it in the suitcase.
For some reason, tripe is displayed behind glass with water dripping down all over it. I'm sneering sitting here in this cafe just thinking about it.. YUCK.
Another one.
Yeah, that's gotta be safe.
The only guy on a bike who could actually get cited for going too slow.
LOTS of fish markets on my walk.
Sardines.
Often, the fish are posed like this.
This sign says "Top Fish"—the name of the store—and shows ice cream! Yum!
What's a shrine without motorcycles?
Two days in a row we saw huge crowds gathered here at Sorbillo's. A pizza joint. We determined from the posters of a chef on TV that he was a celebrity chef with a TV show, like Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern. But no. He's only on TV to make appearances because he is known to make the best pizza in Naples. NO way would I wait as long as these folks wait because I had LOTS of good pizza in Naples. The place is not even open yet in this photo. I've included a link to an article about him, but in a nutshell, people either love him or hate him. He's a great pizza maker, but has had run-ins with the local mafia, and a restaurant fire, and God knows what else.
About an hour before it was time to meet Fred, I was done shopping and shooting. And hungry. I went off the beaten path by only one block and found this bar with ONLY locals. It was awesome. Hoping for something light, I ordered "toast," which took about 15 minutes and was actually a ham and cheese sandwich. I ate, read my book, and sipped a Spritz till it was time to meet Fred. Why do I never do this at home???
This is what escalators look like when you're trying to get from the Metro to the central train station.
The ride home was long. Very long. Late trains. Slow trains. But I won't dwell on that.We arrived in Orte at 9:30 and grabbed dinner there. Orte's a bit tough, and the place we'd eaten at and liked before was closed this day. So we found this other place on Trip Advisor. Very unassuming. Sort of in a little strip mall. We were glad we stopped, though. It was unusual, but then most of our experiences here are anything but usual.
La Vecchia Fornace—The Old Furnace. How hungry making! We had the table on the left.
We each apologized for looking like hell. So took pictures of each other to prove who looked worse.
Clearly, I WON! He smiled (ironically), which is cheating.
Day Two's agenda was to see a Caravaggio in a church. I'll show you that, but mostly I'll be concentrating on food, alleys and boys in Speedos.
First, the streets scenes as we walked to that church. This first one is probably my favorite. No captions needed for many of these. The really hectic-looking ones are the Spanish Quarter.
They touch you when they talk. Even a cop had his hand on my arm while I was talking to him!
It actually rained and all the ladies frantically pulled in their laundry. I guess I didn't get a shot of that, but they did!
Another favorite shot. The guy is shirtless getting his beard trimmed.
Eventually, we got to the church—Pio Monte della Misericordia, Pious Mount of Mercy. It really was a special painting. The Seven Works of Mercy. The seven depicted are: bury the dead, visit the imprisoned, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, visit the sick and refresh the thirsty. Originally, it was meant to be seven separate panels around the church; however, Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition which became the church's altarpiece. The painting is better seen from il "coreto" (little choir) in the first floor. Credit goes to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Works_of_Mercy_(Caravaggio) for this info.
The Caravaggio & the Lynch.
This guy was ordering lunch from his office. It took him about ten minutes. We heard him say proscuitto at least five times. Maybe he was ordering for the whole block!
These guys were outside the church. Love their colors.
He was from Day Three, but belongs here. Love how even the trash bag and the broom match.
Buns!
Next, I dragged Fred to the lungomare, the walk along the sea. We tend not to spend QUITE so much time together, making for a lot more interesting dinner conversation, but this day we were joined at the hip, for better or for worse... in sickness and in health. I think the miles-long walk to the sea was worth it, and I think he'd agree. Here's this big city, huge buildings, all right along the coast, with cruise ships docked, alongside families in barely any clothes fishing and swimming.
These kids got yelled at for using an outdoor hand sanitizer dispenser at a restaurant. They were pumping the hell out of it till the restaurant guy chased them away. Their little bodies were soooo tan, and their little Speedos were sooooo small.
Our reward after something like 20,000 steps!
Stopped for some diet Coke to perk ourselves up before dinner. Couldn't help but admire the simplicity of the wine selection.
Back to our room to rest before dinner. (This is our terrace.) We scouted three places and chose one and made a reservation for 8:30.THREE hours to rest, which flew by. For me, anyway; Fred got restless and left to sketch in the 'hood.
Okay, this thing deletes the photo every time I try to add a caption... So I'll write captions as if they're text. This is my pizza—pizza margarita. Perfect thing to get here. Just pure and simple. And delicious. We got to this restaurant and saw only one unoccupied table for two outside; we assumed it was ours, but there was only one chair. When we were told that was our table, I said, but only one chair? And she realized a waiting patron (an older man) was sitting on it, having moved it a few feet from her little deck, to the street. He wasn't giving it up! So they brought another and then he switched and let me have the real chair that went with the table. We were sitting about four inches from the edge of this deck. One false move...
As I said, I'm not usually a fan, but once we gave him a couple of euro (he asked!) I felt justified in taking this shot. After he got the money, he said, one more song for you, and sang "It's Now or Never." Check this out—maybe everyone knows this—that song is the same tune as "Il Sole Mio."
These two were toiling away in the kitchen across the street all night. Actually, she was. He seemed to work at the restaurant and kept going back and forth. There was a crazy barking dog and four or five kids running around all over the place the whole time. Once they all traipsed into this woman's kitchen and I thought, oh, she'll be sooo psyched to see them. Italians love kids. I bet one of them is her grandchild. Next thing you know, they've been told to get out. Ha!
This looks Hopperesque, but it was anything but. This couple was talking to this guy across the street, who seems to be living with his daughter and granddaughter, and they were out on the balcony smoking and playing (respectively) earlier in the night.
No idea what's up here, but they're a team, and there's never a dull moment in il Quartiere Spagnolo!
Our walk home.
And as if we weren't full enough, the place we stopped for a nightcap gave us plates of spaghetti and bruschetta!
I named this post after a song about Naples. It was written in 1880 to commemorate the opening of the first funicular cable car on Mount Vesuvius. Fires had been burning on the mountain the week before we came to Naples and people near it were being evacuated. Luckily, the fires were out and the skies were clear by our visit. So click below to hear Andrea—perfect background music for this post.
Naples…… I had gone with the boys several years ago because Fred had a business trip to Barcelona while we were in Italy. We spent an afternoon there, fearing for our lives (the cars and the motorcycles), searching for the famous pizza, and walking to the museum where all the Pompeii artifacts are housed (having been disappointed not to see them at Pompeii the day before), only to find the museum closed that day.
It left enough of a positive impression on me, though, to book a few nights with Fred this year. We stayed in the Spanish Quarter—only named so because of an invasion long ago. Nothing Spanish about it now.We took the train from Orte (a half hour from Viterbo) to Rome, and then on to Naples. Walking with our suitcase on cobbled streets is probably one of our least favorite things to do. It’s awkward, both physically and figuratively, and we’re usually hot and tired.
Our Metro stop, Toledo, is famous for being one of the nicest in Italy. I'll post images from the web since mine isn't that great. Photo credits to www.nssmag.com.
This shot's mine, actually—while you're on the escalator if you look up there's this hole that goes up seemingly forever.
After settling in to our “Junior Suite” with roof terrace (too hot to be out there, sadly!), we set out for the National Archeological Museum. Actually, about one block into our walk we found a pizza place and realized we were starving.
Here's the owner making our pizzas. On the right are trays of potato croquettes—not yet cooked. Probably for dinner.
My pizza—cheese with arugula. Amazing. Napolitano pizza crust is puffier than Viterbese. Different, but great too. It's all good. I always say I never had a pizza I didn't love. I know I'm not in good company with that sentiment.
I ordered a quarter liter of wine, which is about a glass's worth—this is a half liter. Oops! I hate when that happens (not)!
Roberto Benigni was there! (Another time, but still.)
And Toni Servillo from The Great Beauty.
After this stop, we were ready to get to the museum and work off some of that pizza, wine and beer. I didn't read the Anita Ferrante books, but apparently they depict Naples perfectly. I did read the first few chapters of one and even that little bit was spot on and prepared me for the flavor of this pulsing vibrant city. The streets teem with people, bikes, cars, laundry, restaurants, fish vendors, fruit vendors...
I had hoped to see the plaster-cast figures of the victims of Pompeii but once again, no such luck. I was told they reside at this museum with all the other thousands of Pompeii artifacts, but we just couldn't find them. Here are some highlights anyway. Mind you, my highlights are a tad different from Fred's. I usually go out people watching and shooting when Fred goes to a museum, but I really wanted to see those damned bodies.
This guy --- he reminds me of Bill Clinton the way his mouth kind of hangs open sometimes.
I know, right???
Then of course, there was il Gabinetto Segreto—the Secret Cabinet—a "hidden" collection of erotica from Pompeii and Herculaneum.
All those extra phalli, and they couldn't have given this guy one? Come to think of it, the entire museum was filled with statues of penis-less men.
And.... on the walk home:
On to dinner. I did research to find an authentic local eatery and didn't quite succeed, in that we were certainly not the only tourists, and the staff (a family) did put on a show for us. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed it, and the food was great. We first put our name in and then went next door to grab a spritz, which you can drink (from a plastic cup) on the street as you wait. I had asked to sit "a fuori" but apparently wasn't understood, so we were seated in an inner room. I say "inner" because it wasn't even the inside part we could see, it was like an annex. Sounds awful but it was fine. Packed with people. Half natives, half tourists.
Trattoria Da Nennella
The outdoor seating.
This was Fred's dish. Spaghetti (I think! Not a fancy pasta.) with Baccalà (salted cod), tomatoes and green beans. I think we both thought the beans would be cannelloni but these were good, too! The whole dish was great.
I had pasta with potatoes and I forget what else. Will revise if/when I remember. Fred has the menu, which was just a printed 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper. It was very tasty, but more like a stew than a pasta dish. There were two different shapes of pasta in there, and some of the potatoes were in chunks, while others seemed to be pureéd forming a sort of sauce. It was much like a risotto dish. Tasty, but Fred and I switched halfway and traded meals.
My secondi was roasted zucchini. Amazing! There was a unique flavor to this dish—beyond the salt and oil we expected—which we determined was vinegar. Really tasty. Will try to recreate at home.
Fred's secondi was sausage—go figure, it was like a piece of steak! He loved it.
During dinner, this guy on the right came in (having gone from table to table outside, then inside, then into the annex). Normally this kind of thing irks me but he was AMAZING. Like an opera singer. Then the owner, in the red shirt, came out and accompanied him and he, too, sang like a pro.
Then, as we were paying and really almost out the door, this owner guy started dancing with a customer. Priceless!
