March 28 –Naples, Italy. We've been here several times and have seen the big deal places like Pompeii and Herculaneum, both victims of volcanic eruptions by Vesuvius. So we decided to do what the ship calls a Panoramic Tour (means that you mostly see things from the bus) of Naples. Our guide was a young Italian girl with a sense of humor. She started out by asking us were we were and sensing a trick question I remained mute but most of the bus answered "Naples", to which she said, "No, Naples is in Florida, you are in Napoli!" Everyone laughed at that and we were off to a good start.
We drove past all the major sites in the city, the world renowned Archeological Museum, the main cathedral, the university, the central street that from Greek times has split the city in half. Past both the old and new forts, new being a relative term
Our only stop in the city was at the Royal Palace's Plaza. King Umberto I was the first ruler of the united Italy. Prior to this time Napoleon had conquered the area and had erected a statue to himself in the plaza. Umberto was not was not a fan and decided the statue should be of him. When told of the time and money involved he said, "Ok, just cut of the face and replace it with mine!" There he sits, but still on Napoleon's horse.
Umberto and his queen Margareta were also not pleased that the main cuisine at the time was French. He said that he wanted something Italian to eat. They brought him a pizza that was made with mozzarella, marinara and fresh basil, the white, red and green of the new Italian flag. He was so pleased that he asked what it was called and the pizza man admitted that it had no name. The queen decided that it should be named after her, Margareta pizza. There are darn few real pizza places in the world where you don't find Margareta's pizza on the menu. So the story goes.
The world famous Royal San Carlo Opera House is also on this plaza. Currently they are performing Turandot and from the crowd around the building I guess there's a matinee today. The building itself is covered in scaffolding. They've attached screens to the scaffolds that have a life-sized line drawing of the front façade on them. Like anyone is going to be happy with that.
Naples is a torn up city. There are special road barriers and construction fences everywhere. Here's the problem. Whenever they dig to put up a new building or put a new underground station in they find ancient construction or artifacts and the construction job turns into an archeological dig that lasts for years. So there's no way to finish the original job and you can't close up the hole.
We finished looking at all the plaza's treasures early and decided to duck into a café just off the square and see what's going on in the café life of Naples. I can tell you, it's alive and well. We didn't sit outside because we didn't have time enough to wait for service and all that entails in Italy, so we went inside to get something at the counter. Well the coffee counter is just that, coffee only. The pastry bar is in the other room. The coffee counter was three people deep for its entire length so we ducked into the pastry room to see if anything looked interesting.
Sure enough something did. It was a pastry where the dough was in arches like a rainbow. It had a fan shape and was dusted with powdered sugar. We agreed that we should split one of those. I asked the lady behind the counter to get us one and she asked me if I wanted chocolate or cream. I didn't even know it had filling. We agreed on chocolate and I told the lady. She indicated that I had to go into the other room to the cashier and pay for it and bring the receipt back with me to get the pastry. Ok, no problem. She wrote the items name on a slip of paper so the cashier would know what I was getting. I went over, handed in my slip and was charged €1.30, less than I thought it would be. I delivered the paid receipt to the pastry girl and she tore it part way through and gave me the pastry.
Meanwhile the coffee bar had cleared up a bit so I went back over there and tried to order two cappuccinos. Oops!! I realize now I should have known better but the coffee girl, unfazed, directed me back to the cashier to pay for the drinks and bring her the receipt. Ok, I joined the cashier line and by the time I had my receipt in hand the coffee bar was packed again. See, if you buy the coffee inside you can't go out to the tables to sit and drink. The tables outside are the waiter's domain and you will be ejected if you pay counter price and expect to sit outside. You stand at the coffee bar or one of the standing level narrow counters along the wall. I finally squeezed my way up to the bar and gave my receipt to the girl. She yells something in Italian from which I only understood cappuccino and the barista at the back yelled back. The barista's here are professionals. They don't wait counters, they don't talk to customers and they definitely don't handle money. They have a complex coffee machine with more handles and levers on it that any I've ever seen in the USA. It looks a lot like he operating a submarine. Anyway shortly he yells something and the girl goes over and brings my two cappuccinos to the counter. I left Diana guarding the pastry in the other room so I pick them up and carefully carry them over there. I say carefully because they don't short you on the coffee here. The cups were filled to the brim. The coffee was great and the pastry was delicious.
The group reassembled and we walked back to the bus. We continued our drive through town and headed east to a hill that overlooks Naples Bay. From the view point you could see the Isle of Capri, Sorrento at the east end of the Amalfi Coast, as well as Naples with Vesuvius looming over it. It was a very clear day and the view was terrific.
While we were stopped I asked the guide how far it was to Da Michele, a pizza place I've heard is very good. She told me that it's on the other side of town and it's probably too late to go there even by taxi. She said that the line to get in would be terrible. It was her opinion it's surviving on its history and that the pizza is really nothing special. She said there was a pizza place named 50 Kalo that was on this side of town and a taxi ride from the ship. I asked if they would drop us there as they went back to the ship and she said they would. Because I knew it would be a rushed stop so I gave her my tip there.
A short drive down the hill and then along the waterfront and she got us up to the door as the bus pulled over. I gave the driver his tip as we headed down the steps and out onto the street. The guide said to walk up to the light, turn left and when you get to the mermaid you're there. We did and she was right. There's a small plaza, actually more of a traffic circle, di Ciro Salvo, with a mermaid statue in the center. This is meaningful because the first name of Naples when the Greeks were there was the Greek word for mermaid.
She said it wouldn't be open until Noon and she was wrong. It didn't open until 12:24pm. I guess they are on Italian time. We were seated at a table for two and the waiter brought us English menus. The guide had said that the pizza was very good but that it was a little expensive. When I looked at the prices most of them were from €7-12. That's not expensive for pizza unless they are small. We asked the waiter if a pizza would feed two people and he said no with a shake of his head and a wave of his hands and considering that together with the price we ordered 2 pizzas. They had several different kinds of pizza, most did not include meat. Of course they had the Margareta and that's what I ordered. D ordered a pizza with special cheese and prosciutto with olive oil. I have never seen a menu with such complete descriptions of the ingredients. They named the specific cheese, the origin of the ham, the brand, type and grade of olive oil. These guys are obviously proud of their pizzas and what goes into them. Of course they are baked in a wood fired, clay lined oven under the watchful eye of the master baker.
I figured that the occasion called for a beer and they had a German Weissbier on the menu, I prefer wheat beer, so that's what I got. I like Hefeweissen but they only had the filtered version. The clincher was that it was brewed in Bavaria, my people. D has some of it and it didn't make her sneeze. Unusual!
When the pizzas arrived we saw that one with an appetizer would easily have served us both. I was thinking that the waiter had misled us. Since we were the first people in we were the first to get our pizzas. That's why we didn't know what size they were. The menu had no sizes, on size fits all apparently. As others were served I noticed that if the table has six people, they got six pizzas, even if one of them was a 4 year old girl. Three 20 something women came in and I figured surely these weight conscious women would not each get a pizza. Wrong!! Not only did they get three pizzas but they had an appetizer as well.
The pizzas were thin crust but it was not baked to cracker hardness. The crust was still flexible and had plenty of what I refer to as "Chew". I dislike crust that cracks like a hard taco shell, which is something I also don't like. Most of all, the crust dough was not sweet at all. It was very soft and tasted exactly like it should. D's pizza would pretty much stay in place while mine was "slip-sliding away" as Paul Simon would say. The only real way to eat it is just like the New Yorkers eat their pizza. You fold the slice in half lengthwise and eat it like a soft taco. Delicious!! And that was both of them. The marinara on my pizza was perfect, spicy and just a little tart. The cheese on both was delicious and the prosciutto was excellent. I love the idea of putting some really good olive oil on the pizza. Really gives it that extra Italian boost.
When I first saw them I didn't think we would finish them but they were sooooo good that they both disappeared. We really didn't want any more to eat but we were just full to satisfaction. They looked and smelled so good that I forgot to take pictures of them until they were half gone. Did I mention that the pizzas come to the table uncut? You cut them to your own specifications. In my case that was in quarters. It's easier to do the New York fold with a larger piece of pizza. D cut hers in smaller pieces but then hers wasn't the slippery one. We each at a piece of the other pizza and agreed that they were both good. D preferred hers and I preferred mine so I guess we ordered correctly. I think D preferred hers because she hates sloppy sandwiches and my pizza was somewhat like that.
When we first arrived at 50 Kalo I wasn't sure how good it was going to be because there were only a few people who came in after us. About 1 o'clock the place was full. I took us a while to eat all that pizza. Before we left I went to the restroom. It was two singles with a common wash area in between with two sinks. When I entered the wash area there were two women washing their hands and as I headed to the door that had the man's profile on it they both started talking excitedly. I stopped to see what had happened and realized they were talking to me. Just about then a 12 year old girl came out of the men's stall. Oops!
When I came out to wash my hands a man was holding up a boy of about 18 months us so he could get water on his hands. I smiled at the boy and said hi. That got no response so I tried ciao and he looked up at me and smiled. His dad told him to say hello but he didn't. The dad asked me where I was from and I told him Texas. I really don't want to claim the USA anymore. He smiled and said, "Cowboys!" I said, "You bet!" and he laughed. I didn't have the heart to ask if he meant the real thing or the football team. I said bye-bye to the bambino and headed out to get D. When we walked out the front door, the outdoor seating area was filled and there was a crowd of about 40 people waiting to get in. As far as I could tell we were the only non-Italians in the place. It's not really in the tourist zone and our guide did say it was a place lots of her friends went to as well. 50 Kalo gets a 4-Star rating from me.
We couldn't decide whether to catch a cab or try to ask someone which of the 5 bus routes that stop in front of the restaurant would get us to the main port. It's a sunny day and the temperature is nice with a little breeze so we headed back to the ocean to walk to the ship. We didn't think it could be that far. Well we were wrong. It was a bit over 3 miles to the ship. Walking along the ocean was fun and for part of the way they have diverted the traffic and the street is a pedestrian zone. The shoreline is protected for much of the way by large rocks they have lined the ocean with. People were out on the rocks catching some rays. Kids were playing in the street, riding bikes; couples were walking and sitting along the rail. It's a Saturday afternoon and everyone was out to have some sun and fresh ocean air.
After about 2.5 miles we could finally see the ship when we came around the corner in front of the old fort. We had walked farther than we needed to because we walked all three sides of a little peninsula that leads out to the fort. If we had stayed with the traffic we probably could have saved ourselves a mile and a half of walking but it would have been much less pleasant.
I wanted to write and D wanted to rest so we didn't go to the show tonight.
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