July 9, 2018

The last few days in the north side of Italy had been so lovely. We were on the second half of our honeymoon trip and still had Naples and the Amalfi Coast to enjoy. Travelling within Italy, we decided it would be best to get to each city by train. So from Florence, we took the train down south to the city of Naples, or Napoli as the Italians call it.

When we arrived, it was about noon. The streets were full of people and honking cars. Immediately, we could feel the change in city! Florence was so charming and small but Naples was bustling, loud and dirty. The walk to our lodging was only 16 minutes but with the amount of people and cars everywhere, it seemed like so much longer.

We had been really lucky so far with AirBnBs this whole trip so far. Thankfully, Naples was no different. The hostess met us and introduced us to her apartment. She also had to add that the stone around the entrance door was real rock from the volcano Vesuvius. After we got the chance to put our stuff down, we had a slow start to getting into Naples. To be honest, I was so tired. For over a week we were going and going and going, so much that I was starting to feel sick and in need of so much sleep. I didn’t mind that we didn’t dive into Naples. It was kind of nice to just take it easy for a little bit.

After a nap and getting ready, we finally leave the apartment about 3 pm. The first place we went to was Ill Cuoppa on Via Vicaria Vecchia. I had read that cuoppas, a paper cone filled with different fried items, are a popular street snack in Naples, so with many places closed midday, we decided this quick snack would be a good option. We got two different cones, one with different vegetable items and a fried rice bowl and another one that had seafood, anchovies, little octopus too. They were pretty good in my opinion. The place fries it as you order so they were very hot and much larger than we expected! Luckily, my husband has a good appetite! The total for our snack was 12 euros.

Afterwards, we walked down Via Vicaria Vecchia which had many little shops and also a very narrow street way. The feel of Naples is so different from other Italian cities we have seen before. Here there is a lot of cars and mopeds, honking and pedestrians. The streets here are so busy but most of the cross walks don’t have lights to tell you when to walk, you just walk and hope cars stop! It is a little bit scary but I try to just follow someone else into the street. I’m not brave enough to go alone!

On our walk, we passed by a few churches and Naple landmarks like Obelisco – Guglia di San Domenico and Gesù Nuovo Square. From there, we took a left onto Via Toledo and found many shops. In my research before, I had seen that this street held much of Naples shopping. We spent some time just looking around and window shopping.

Later we headed to the water’s edge and really enjoyed the sight. From the port, you could clearly see Mount Vesuvius. I didn’t expect to see it but it was nice to have it in the background and know it had such an important role in Italian history. Did you know that Mount Vesuvius is the most dangerous volcano? Yup! It is so because of the high population of people that live near it. Let’s hope it stays in a deep sleep.

We didn’t do much on this first day, partly because I was feeling tired and didn’t do much research as I usually would before coming to a place (shocking but looks like a new trend of mine). One thing I found out though was Naples is the birthplace of the Margherita pizza! So with that, we had to at least have it here right?!

We first attempted to go to Gino E Toto Sorbillo for dinner but the crowd waiting outside was huge! The thought of waiting for probably at least an hour didn’t sound so appealing so we walked ten minutes to L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele which had an equally huge wait outside!!! I’m thinking these places are just hyped up. Not wanting to wait and it being late, we decided to go to a nearby pizzeria instead, Pizzeria D’Angeli. The wait was nonexistent and the food was not bad. I know some foodies might be dying that we didn’t go to the famous pizza places, but hey we still have one more night!!

July 10, 2018

This day we started off a little later than expected (at 11:30am) but we had a pretty successful day anyways. The night before I spent some time researching some things to do before bed. One of those things was a tour of the underground waterways of Napoli. That sounds nerdy but it got so many good reviews and sounded really interesting to check out. So we went by the place about 11:40 am and was told to come back at noon when the tour started.

For the short time we had to wait, we walked Via dei Tribunali to look for a small snack before entering the tour (which would take an hour and a half). We came across Antica Pizza Fritta da Esterina Sorbillo dal 1935 which had some pretty appetizing pictures of fried pizza in the window. We ordered one, paid 3.50 euro for it and waited only a couple minutes before it was given to us.

This thing was huge! Good thing we only ordered one! The length across was at least 15 inches. The filling was a mix of cheese and some meat, but very different from a calzone. What I liked most about it was the fried crust. It was piping hot when we got it so we had to be really careful not to burn our mouths. I was pretty happy with our snack. It was about time to go back so we cleaned up our things and went back to Napoli Sotterranea for the underground tour.

Napoli Sotterranea is an underground tour that focuses on the waterways underneath the city. Of course they span much longer than the area we explored but in the tour, they would show us more than just the waterways. We would also be able to learn about how they were made, what they were originally used for, what they were used for during WWII, as well as some other parts of Napoli’s history like their Roman Theatre and its remains.

The tour group wasn’t so big, thankfully. Our tour guide Alex was from Napoli and very quirky, knowledgeable and funny. The first hour of the tour was spent all underground, 40 meters deep to be exact! To give you a more informational background on the tunnels, here is an excerpt from the tour’s website:

The first artifacts of underground excavations date back to about 5,000 years ago, almost at the end of the prehistoric era. Later, in the III century BC, the Greeks opened the first underground quarries to obtain the blocks of tuff needed to build the walls and temples of their Neapolis and dug in numerous rooms to create a series of funerary hypogea. The impressive development of the underground network began in Roman times: the Romans in fact in the Augustan period endowed the city with road tunnels and above all a complex aqueduct network, fed by underground ducts coming from the Serino springs, 70 km away from the center of Naples. Other branches of the Augustan age aqueduct arrived as far as Miseno, to feed the Piscina mirabilis, which was the water reserve of the Roman fleet. Wide that little that allowed the passage of a man, the aqueduct burrows branched out in all directions, with the aim of feeding fountains and houses located in different areas of the upper city. At times, on the walls, there are still traces of the hydraulic plaster, used by the engineers of antiquity to waterproof the tunnels. At the beginning of the 16th century the old aqueduct and the many pluvial cisterns could no longer satisfy the city’s need for water which had spread like wildfire and so the wealthy Neapolitan nobleman Cesare Carmignano built a new aqueduct. It was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that it stopped digging underground for water supply and abandoned a network of tunnels and cisterns of over 2,000,000 m², spread throughout the city.

The undergrounds were then used during the Second World War as air-raid shelters to protect themselves from the disastrous bombings that hit the city. The cavities were lit and arranged to accommodate dozens of people who hurried to the sound of the siren down the stairs that went down. Remains of furniture, graffiti and various objects in an excellent state of preservation still testify to the great fear of the bombing and the numerous periods of the day lived in the shelters, revealing a cross section of important life and at the same time tragic city history.

Some interesting facts I remember, the tunnels walls were this porous rock. When the waterways were stopped being used, it was because there was an outbreak of cholera and it infected the water since the water walls cavities were this porous rock. So they had to stop using them. Also, the aqueducts were kept cleaned by a cleaner. They would climb down these narrow holes, there were foot holes chiseled in the rocks side so they could use them to climb down and up from, and use like a net to clean the cisterns. Also during WWll, the space was used as an air raid shelter, an area with “stalls” were made for showers and bathroom areas. We also got to see toys that children had left behind during the time of the war.

When we were learning about WWII, Alex had told us Napoli was the first city in Italy to be liberated. The interesting part was that it was liberated by the citizens of Napoli! But because southern Italy was rather poor during that time, it took a very long time to rebuild the city so many people had to live on the streets to wait until their homes could be rebuilt.

One of the coolest parts of the tour was being able to walk in these super narrow waterways. The waterway was very tall but only as wide as my shoulders. We held onto an electric candle to light our way. You had to walk as if you were on a cat walk, one foot directly in front of the other just to get through the tunnel. Alex told us the waterway had to be designed this way so that water would always be moving. Really cool! Also Alex showed us some plants that were being grown as an experiment down there by a university. The humidity is always 100% so the plans didn’t even need to be watered! Also the temperature is always about 17 degrees celsius which is very perfect for the plants needs.

After exploring underground, Alex took us to a place nearby that had ruins from the Roman Theatre. The archaeological site actually had apartment buildings built all above it. Archaeologist didn’t discover it till hundreds of years later. Alex also told us that they couldn’t even continue any further digging and discover everything that could possibly exist because of the apartments above it. So there actually could be even more of the Roman Theatre that exists! We got to see the “backstage” area where the actors or musicians would prepare. The area discovered was actually found in a private home. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me!

I was really happy with the tour and our guide, Alex. I think it was really interesting to see a different side of the city many people typically wouldn’t see.

After the tour, it was about 1:30pm. The night before we tried to go to the famous pizza place, Sorbillo but the wait was too long. We decided that today, our last day in Napoli, would have to be the day we try this pizza! So we took a short walk to the place and put our name on the list. It took a solid 50 minutes to be seated. When we did, we ordered the Margherita Extra and also their anchovy pizza.

The pizza definitely had to be eaten with a fork and nice. Super cheesy with a really wet filling. I think if you are expecting the traditional pizza you can hold and eat with your hands, you might be a little disappointed. The taste though was really good. I really liked that I had heaps of mozzarella on my pizza (my favorite cheese)! Caoliang said his anchovy pizza was really good too. Was it worth the 50 minute wait? Eh I would say if you only had a day or first time in Napoli, yes you should wait and yes, we weren’t disappointed when we got our food. Checked that off the list!

Afterwards, we headed to the San Carlo Theatre for our guided tour. The theatre opened in the 1700s and was still active now. It was a piece of Neapolitan history I felt like would be cool to see. Unfortunately, when we reached the theatre, the man at the ticket book said the tour was cancelled!! So we just shrugged that off and went to get some coffee.

So according to my research, coffee is a big thing in Napoli. We decided to check out Gran Caffe Gambrinus. This cafe has a lot of history and has been around since the 1800s. If you would like to know more, click the link HERE. We ordered the Caffe Nocciola, a coffee and nutcream, as well as the Caffe’ del Nonno, a cold creamy coffee. Both were so sweet but so delicious! It was perfect since we just had lunch. The look of the place was very fancy and so were the workers in their attire. I felt they were a little snobby but we had our experience and coffees so I was happy with that.

After our plans didn’t work out withe theatre tour, we had more free time in the day. We decided to walk around Via Toledo and look at some shops.

That evening for dinner we went to Tandem for pasta and ragu. I had read ragu was a big thing in Napoli too. The ragu here was good but honestly, it was not spectacular. I think Caoliang definitely could’ve had that delicious pizza for dinner too!

Oh before I forget! We also went to Sfogliatella Mary fora popular Napoli sweets, sfogliatella frolla and sfogliatella riccia. The pastries were very sweet and had a hint of orange. So anyways back to dinner. We had a pretty filling dinner of meatballs, ragu and ricotta pasta, grilled eggplant and a salad.

What a day in Napoli! I felt that we got to learn a lot this day and also had an easy paced day. Lately, everyday has been go, go go, so it was nice to have a late start to the day but still get to do everything we intended to do.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Amalfi coast for some down time by the water. Can’t wait!

xx
t.