6-9 May 2024
From Rome, we headed to Naples, which was new to us. I hadn’t made too many decisions about what to do there, but really wanted to see the Egg Castle for sunset and then get a seafood dinner nearby.
Well, it turns out our hotel had a birdseye view of the castle… even if it was closed.
We told Adam where we wanted to stay in the other cities but we are so glad we didn’t ask him to change this one. Naples is so chaotic, having this ridiculous view of the bay was a balm.
While in the city, we spent some time in the Spanish Quarter, which is fascinating, but also the most frenzied part of a very frantic city. The tiny alleys full of bars, restaurants, and shops are also full of tiny cars and revving motorbikes. It’s an experience to be sure! Our wanders also took us to another site a lot of other bloggers mentioned, the Galleria Umberto I, a shopping area with amazing architecture, to Christmas Alley, and to the “new castle” — built in 1279.
Hampton loves Caravaggio, and Naples has three of his works — only one of which was on display at the time. We did a joint ticket for Pio Monte della Misericordia and Tesoro di San Gennaro and while there was some confusion [FYI: take the online ticket to the ticket booth for something the on-site guards can scan], the Pio Monte was a really interesting combination of classic and modern art; there is even a viewpoint in the museum down into chapel for a different view of the Caravaggio. In addition, the chapel had a relief of the “Seven Works of Mercy”; there were a few in the Tesoro also. I love this way to make visual art accessible to those who are visually impaired.
While in Naples, Adam planned us a day trip to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii with a wine tasting lunch. As someone who took Latin in high school, I was super excited for this opportunity (even if Herculaneum is the less touristy version *hair toss*).
The night before, I got a text from our driver double checking… and realized we didn’t actually have Pompeii tix. Adam sorted that out, emailed them to us, and we were able to get the hotel front desk to print them out because they had to be a hard copy. Easy enough, done. Early the next morning, we were dropped off at the Mt. Vesuvius Grand Cono to hike the top of the dormant volcano— only to realize we didn’t have tickets for that, either. So the tour Adam booked us on that said “Grand Gono, Pompeii, and lunch at a winery on Vesuvius” didn’t actually include two-thirds of that… fun times.
If you are like us and get to the volcano sans tix, you may be in luck! There are some released for entrance times an hour out every ten minutes. However, between the sketchy localized wifi and scalpers(?) we failed after a few attempts and gave up. Since we also didn’t have enough service to reach our driver, we settled in at the on-site bodega for espresso and/or breakfast wine to people (and lizard) watch and enjoy a beautiful spring morning with some amazing scenery. Luckily it was only for an hour and a half or so and we are very easily entertained. And also more glad than ever we don’t have children because I think we saw more 9th grade field trips while on this vacation and, yeah, good luck, parents.
After our leisurely non-hikey morning, we headed to Pompeii. For those non-history nerds among us, Pompeii was a city buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. Wiki summary here. I was definitely more excited (again, four years of Latin in high school) because Hampton had no idea just how big these ruins are. Pompeii was a city of at least 10,000 people, and a well-to-do one, at that; there were even two theaters. We rarely do guided tours, but this space is so massive, we would definitely consider it on a future trip (and also Herculaneum).
The one thing Hampton knew he wanted to see were casts of the dead. The ash from Vesuvius calcified around some of the city’s victims in such a way that once the bodies decomposed, air pockets were left showing exactly how they fell, which were then filled in with plaster. You can read more about that here. We missed picking up a map on the way in and didn’t have enough service to download the app, so we weren’t sure where to find any of the casts. As we wandered through the space, we headed toward the original cemetery, on the outskirts of the city. This was the least crowded part of the whole park, quiet and solemn, and there we found some of the casts. These folks were found near the city’s wall, presumably attempting to climb the initial three-foot layer of pumice and dirt to try to escape overtop it. It was a very powerful moment.
After Pompeii, it was onto the wine tasting and lunch at Cantina Del Vesuvio. This vineyard specializes in “Vesuvio Lacryma Christi DOC… the wine produced with the native grapes of Mt. Vesuvius, which were already being cultivated prior to ancient Roman times” — as per their website. This was especially exciting because our cab driver from the train station to the hotel was very proud of this native wine, so we were hoping to try it.
As much as we enjoyed the views and the wine and the lunch — we even happily ate the tomatoes on the bruschetta! And not for the last time in Italy; they’re just so totally different and not slimy there. — the highlight find was their Red Wine Vinegar Condiment. It’s kind of like a balsamic glaze, arrived in its own special wooden chest, and will totally be a Flat 493 staple from here on out. We also had some olive oil sent back along with some of the Lacryma Christi and the two on top of some arugula with shaved parmesan is almost like being back in Italy.
Naples is known for its pizza. That’s the first thing we got after arriving in town, on the waterfront. Lest you think our trip sounds too glamorous, on one of our wanders, we managed to find what was possibly the worst pizza in Naples. The supposed monthly special as per the online menu we got to via the QR code on the table wasn’t actually available, so Hampton just went with the four cheese. We didn’t realize one of the cheese was bleu, which I do not like. But I was too focused on the raw dough in the center to even notice it for a few bites. I had eaten more at lunch at a tapas restaurant — Hampton shook up all the Italian cured meats by having… Spanish cured meat… while I had a sandwich with mortadella and a delightful red pepper spread — so I wasn’t particularly hungry, luckily, and he was able to stave off hanger with enough bites.
In better Neapolitan food news, one evening we went to Attori e Spettatori — which I only just realized means Actors & Spectators. How appropriate! We just wanted some sort of big salad and protein TBD. Fried calamari is one of Hampton’s favorite things, so we ordered that. The menu says calamaretti or small squid. We didn’t realize they would be whole, teeny tiny squid, flash fried to perfection. Much fun.
The evening after our Pompeii outing, I was hot and tired, and overwhelmed by spending some time in the Spanish Quarter with its loud crowds, so we finally were all OK WE EAT HERE at La Cantina dei Lazzari. We ordered their “crispaccio” a carpaccio with hazelnuts, crispy artichokes, and a cheese they’re so proud of, there was a whole blurb about it:
Gransardo: it is produced in Nulvi, a town in northern Sardinia
overlooking the Gulf of Asinara. It is a cooked cheese produced with
sheep’s milk, therefore fatter and tastier than its cow’s milk
counterparts.
The seasoning is sucient to give them complexity in a non-rigid,
very pleasant consistency. Grated, it is a superb seasoning, eaten in
flakes with a piece of bread and a couple of glasses of wine, it
represents the shepherd’s dinner, suitable both for those who want to
live beyond one hundred years and for those who are careful to make
small personal moments memorable.
I mean, how could we not.
Our final night in Naples was drizzly — we got stuck in the only rainstorm of the trip that afternoon which kept us from doing one of the things on our maybe list, but as we hadn’t gotten tickets ahead, it was fine. We found a closed cafe with an umbrella to hide under because the one in my bag and my sun hat were not enough for the brief torrential downpour — so we skipped across the street to the waterfront to get that seafood dinner near the castle that was the only thing I really wanted to do in the city. The first place on our list had a longer wait than we wanted, but the second did not and was a delight — Officina del Mare.
After an amuse bouche from the kitchen with avocado and warm tuna, we started with grilled clams that were wonderfully smoky. We then had a leafy salad dressed tableside and a pasta that…. I now can’t find on their website. But it was fluffy and warm and also had a blue corn tortilla chip garnish? It was a delightful. And I got to look on the castle beside us.
We were next on to Siena and booked reserved bus seats for the long drive. We had leftover bread from the tapas restaurant and a pack of olives and some cheese that we picked up at a grocery store to eat for dessert our last night on the balcony — but it was too rainy and we were too full — for a (messy but delightful) bus lunch and were rather proud of how it all worked out.
Ann Davis-Rowe 