Spaccanapoli, Splitting Napoli in two is what the main via does from one end of the historic center to the other. Napoli also seems to have two faces, one is the dark underworld of the mafia, petty theft, filth, and unemployment, and on the other, food glorified and made for kings, sun soaked churches, palaces, and piazzas, a sign of the Golden Era and its incredible history, and some of the friendliest (especially to baby Ella) people I've met. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Our journey started on April 26th, friday morning. We figured things could only get better after our drive to the train station which included Luca throwing up, then Ella, and then Luca and Mark walking 2km in the rain to the station, to avoid getting sick a second time in the car! Yikes.
Yes, things got better quickly. We took the new high speed Italo train to Napoli in 5 hours and 20 min, as compared to 9 hours in the car. We arrived to warm weather and our 5th floor apartment with terrace overlooking Napoli's historic center. Quickly we got ready to explore, and we did our best in the oncoming rain. The night ended with a pizza in one of the historic pizzeria's, famed for inventing the Margherita. A large screen reminded us how historic the pizzeria was with a constant slideshow of past celebrity visitors.
The next morning, rain, rain and more rain. Just in time for the wedding! But before we went, we had to have a proper napolitan breakfast. This includes the infamous, sfogliatella. It's a croissant taken to a whole to level. Layers of flaky dough wrap lovingly around a creamy sweetened ricotta cheese, dotted with candied oranges and spiced with cinnamon. Is your mouth watering yet? After a few of these, and we were dressed in our finest, we made our way to Cathedral Santa Maria Chiara, not far, you could see it from our terrace. We made it a nice 30 minute stroll in the rain and lost one of Ella's shoes in the process. Ella's feet were soaked, and Luca was not in the mood to sit through a one hour catholic mass, but with a ciuppa ciuppa sucker, and blanket, Ella slept and Luca sat.
After the rice was thrown, we huddled onto a bus with 100 other guests, and made our way up into the affluent hills of Posillipo, just north of Napoli along the coast. Villa Mazzarella immediately began serving...this is what I can remember: Fried stuffed zucchini flowers, fried dough, sushi, mini pizzas stuffed with ricotta, mini foccacia topped with broccoli rab, an entire table dedicated to mozzorella, prosciutto mousse, prosciutto, and various vegetables sotto' olio. Everything exquisite, and non existant after a few short minutes! People loaded up, and then went downstairs for the sit down lunch. Meanwhile Luca was served Pasta al Pomodoro, Milanese, and French Frieds upstairs with the kids and entertainer. Life is good!
After our antipasti, and two fresh pastas, we had an hour break to take in the view outside, and let Ella crawl around and work up another appetite. She did this, and threw up half way through her meal to make space for more. It also may have been her slouching roman poisture that disabled her digestion. As the dance floor got warmed up, the kids got worn out, so we made our way back to the terrace, put them to sleep and then watched as the sky lit up all around us. We thought, wow, Napoli really is a festive place, as fireworks were shooting off every 10 minutes or so in a different part of the city. One reason is yes, it is a festive place. The other, explained to us in a whisper, is that it was a sign among the mafia that a new shipment of goods had arrived. Hmmm.
Our apartment happened to be in the Quartieri Spagnoli. Do a google search and plenty of headlines pronounce criminal activity, being one of the poorest areas of the city, but also one of the oldest and most curious. People there treated us kindly, or didn't seem to notice us at all as we made our way up and down the hill each day. This part of town was founded in the 1500s and housed the Spanish soldiers during the occupation. It hasn't strayed much from it's beginnings. Many of the buildings remain, even if they are falling apart. The bottom floor of our flat featured the typical layout of 2 or 3 rooms that open into a main courtyard. We discovered on our last day that artisans were working in one of these on nativity figures for next years Christmas. They welcomed us in to their workshop and we saw hundreds of miniatures waiting to make their debut.
Did I tell you about the Mozzarella? One last note worth mentioning, you haven't had Mozzarella until you have it in Napoli. The Buffala in particular is their pride and joy, and survival to some extent. Here, the cheese comes straight from the factory to the shops, and never sees a refrigerator, it's that fresh. It also needs to be consumed quickly which isn't a problem as soon as you have a bite of that creamy, salty goodness in your mouth.
Would we go back, yes, yes, si & awwww!
The End.
(Click on "Photo Album" below)
Photo Album
