Napoli (February 19)

We arrived in Napoli abound 4 in the afternoon and we had about three and half hours to kill before boarding our ferry to Sicily.  Fabrizzio, our bus driver dropped us off in the heart of town, very close to the square you see here (left), called Piazza del Plebescito.  Quite frankly, I was pleasantly surprised to see how beautiful Napoli was from this vantage point.  I was very underwhelmed by it the first time I visited in 2011 with the Running Through History tour.  Perhaps that part of town, which was near the train station, is better known for its crime, defamation of its buildings with graffiti and general grime!  However, near the Piazza del Plebescito, it was fairly clean, safe, and with a vibrant social scene and economy.

Napoli is credited for inventing pizza and in general it has a very good reputation for having some of the best pizza in all of Italy.  So while it was 4 in the afternoon and I usually don’t eat at this time of day, I had to see what all the fuss was about!  Yvonne, Richard, and I found a pizza place off the main piazza and ordered a slice.  One main distinction between Napolese and Viterbese pizzas is that the bread is thicker in Napolese pizza than the pizza in Viterbo.  A second distinction, which is related to the first, is the water they use to make the dough.  The water in Viterbo is considered to be much harder than the water

in Napoli, which apparently stunts the dough’s ability to rise.  That’s part of the reason why the crust on pizza in Viterbo is so thin.    In the end, the pizza was good, but I think I still prefer Viterbese pizza!

Afterwards, we met up with Brad and Danielle outside a typical pastry shop, this one was called Las Frogliatera Mary.  Again, while in Napoli we had to taste a typical Napolese pastry. Yvonne, Danielle and Brad got a rischia, which looked like a croissant, while I tried a frolla, which looked like a dinner roll.  In both cases the warmed pastries were filled with ricotta and orange peel bits fused in orange flour essence.    Simply unbelievable and certainly nothing that exists in Viterbo.  Wow!

After our afternoon of decadence, we waddled back to our bus and where it would take us to our ferry for our voyage across the Strait of Messina to Sicily!  Here's us doing just that!