Southern Hospitality: Napoli

We were very grateful that we had a trip planned for right after the election to keep us busy, take our minds off the chaos, and find some good food and energy to propel us into the last phase of our time here in Italy. (I can’t believe we only have a little over a month left!!!)

Naples is apparently where my great grandfather on my dad’s side immigrated from. Either in the city or nearby as he is said to have worked farmland in the area. The immediate surrounding area of the city is embraced by a beautiful mountain range called the Milky Mountains (named because of the milk that’s produced in the region). In addition to the Milky Mountains, lemon and olive orchards form the coastline from Naples to Amalfi (also known as the Amalfi Coast). Wherever he was from exactly, I felt very proud to be there and be from there.

Like a lot of southern Italy, Naples is a poorer spot and the general infrastructure doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a more affluent city. Over the last 5 years or so, they’ve been making efforts to clean up some of the trash and generally make it more welcoming to tourists. There is still some work to do but we never felt unsafe and it seemed cleaner than Palermo and we eventually figured out public transportation for the most part.

Naples is unique in terms of having a very warm attitude towards tourists and still retaining a lot of authenticity. Reading about where to eat online, a lot of folks will say that even in the most “touristy” parts of the city, there aren’t really tourist traps because locals still go there to eat so all of the restaurants and bars are there for the locals as much as they are for the tourists. This made it really easy to pick where to go because if we were hungry and we saw something we liked, we would just stop and grab a bite without worrying if it was “the best” or if we were being taken advantage of since we’re tourists.

Centro Storico

The main downtown area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is laid out in a grid system with the major east-west streets (called decumani) intersecting with more narrow cross streets. It’s one of the first cities to ever be laid out this way and it made navigating the area a lot easier for us (most Italian cities are winding roads that cross at seemingly random spots and it’s very easy to get turned around).

The north-south streets are very narrow and get little sunlight but are lined with storefronts, lights, and homages to Maradonna – a deified soccer player who helped Naples win the national championship twice in the late 80s. The primary souvenir in these stores is il corno which is a bright red horn that is said to bring good luck if purchased for you as a gift (you’re not supposed to buy them for yourself).

For dinner one night, we went to a restaurant called Osteria Ippolito where the owner gave us some history of the dishes that they served and pointed to the church across the street letting us know that it is normally closed but was open that evening so we should make sure to take a look after dinner (we did peek our heads in and there was an ordination that had just finished and the priests and nuns were cleaning up from the potluck they had afterwards to celebrate).

During the dinner, street performers came by and the owner welcomed them inside to play. While normally these performers feel gimmicky, this felt like they genuinely just wanted to entertain us – no one came around asking us for money, they just asked for song requests and gave a great performance, then people gave money if they wanted to.

Eventually, they came outside where we were sitting and we watched as 3 generations of women sat together, a young girl of about 6 sitting with her mother and grandmother, listening to them play. The grandmother was so moved by the music that she began to cry and the little girl offered a single euro when they finished. It feels odd to be a voyeur into these brief, sincere flashes of life but it stirred something deep inside us.

(Please excuse my atrocious videography skills….and here is the link if the video doesn’t load.)

Food Tour

We decided to do a food tour while we were in Naples which we were skeptical about. We had seen these large groups walking through Rome and Florence and they didn’t seem that appealing because the groups were going to the same places we were and very much getting in our way. However, we had heard about a specific company called Culinary Backstreets that got good reviews and Naples was the first city that they started in. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was just going to be us two on the tour!

Over the course of 6 hours, Sonia, who was born and raised in Naples, took us to a variety of places that we otherwise would have completely overlooked. Not only did she want to highlight a range of foods but also focus on places that are family run so we got to see multi-generational businesses some of which went back for 6 generations!

At the first stop we had eggplant parmesan which is a local dish and something I grew up eating. I’m not going to act like I’m super Italian, it’s only about 25% of my ancestry but it was still really cool to make connections to family dishes that were maybe passed down from my great grandfather all the way to my dad and ultimately to me and my siblings. I have an old cookbook from my great grandmother that I will want to review in more detail when I’m back home.

Along the way we tried salted fish called baccala, an ancient bread recipe that was the foundation for what we know as bruschetta today called fresella (the mother dough starter for this dish would have been almost 150 years old but a batch of it was lost in 1944 when Naples was bombed by Americans during WWII so they had to start it over), and of course pizza. Naples is where pizza came from and pizza is my favorite food. The connections between me and Naples should be obvious at this point. Margherita pizza is the main type that they serve but they also have pizza fritta which is just a pizza filled with ricotta cheese, folded in half, and deep fried……..I was in heaven and I’m still drooling thinking about it.

In addition to food dishes, we also got a couple special treats along the way. One of them is a digestif called la limonata a cosce aperte which means “open legs lemonade”. It’s made from a special type of sparkling water that is high in sulfur content (which means it smells like a fart) mixed with a squeezed lemon and baking soda. They stir the baking soda in real quick and then you have to chug it fast. The name comes from the fact that you have to open your legs wide and lean over so the drink doesn’t get all over you 🤣 

Another spot we stopped at was a local sign maker’s shop (Pasquale) who uses a very distinctive style and has made all the signs for all the markets in the area for decades and we got a personalized sign made by him. As we walked from place to place, Sonia explained in detail the history of Naples and the food culture that exists there. The combination of unique stops like this and getting to see and hear about all these family-owned businesses made this an extremely memorable experience and one I would highly recommend.

Pompeii and Amalfi Coast

The next day we went to Pompeii and did a guided tour of the ancient city. We learned a ton and our feet were killing us by the end. The city is vast and we only got to see a fraction of it but it was amazing to see these almost perfectly preserved archeological sites from 2000 years ago. The locals seem to joke about Vesuvius erupting again since it’s an active volcano but it was kind of spooky to be walking among the ghost town that was destroyed by ash and smoke.

If you read the post on Rome you know that I was very impressed by the Roman Forum and how you can so clearly envision the daily life of the people who walked those streets. This was like that but so much bigger and much more well preserved. The tour guide took us to “fast food” stalls that lined the streets, one of the many brothels that were very active (and showed us the phallic symbols that acted as road signs to lead people to them), and through a standard home of a Pompeii resident. With Vesuvius and the surrounding mountains as the backdrop to the tour, it was a beautiful and engaging experience.

The day after, we went on a group tour to drive through the Amalfi coast stopping at the towns of Sorrento, Positano, and Amalfi. Group tours are crazy annoying and this was no exception. However, it’s the most convenient way to see as much as possible in a short period of time. We would have loved to stay on the Amalfi coast while we were there but a single night in any of the hotels can be $500 or more. 

The tour was absolutely worth it in terms of getting to see the gorgeous coastline and I would recommend everyone to check it out. But you may have to deal with ear piercing tour guide narration during the ride and annoying close-quarters tourist interactions (like a couple making out and vaping in the back seat of the van for the entire time…). A nice surprise was that the guide said we could go on a boat tour if the whole group wanted to and who would say no to that?! So we got to go out on a 30 minute tour to see the coastline from the water which was very special and offered a unique vantage point.

Ti amo, Napoli!

Our last day there we walked along the shoreline by the city and went to watch the sunset from a castle on a hill (what is this country and this city?!??) and then had the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life from a place called 50 Kalo. We stopped at bars throughout the day to have a spritz or a coffee with this rum they use to make a local sweet treat called baba, we snacked at stands to get un cuoppo which is just a paper cone filled with fried stuff (sometimes fish, or mozzarella, or potatoes, or whatever they have on hand) or a paregina which is puff pastry on top, meat and veggies in the middle, and bread on the bottom. This place made la dolce vita come alive.

The experience we had in Naples was my favorite by far. The beautiful scenery, the warm welcome, and the amazing food made me feel both at home and in awe. What little Italian I have in my blood, I’m proud to say it’s from Naples.