Our first days in Naples

After my Italian class and dropping Lorenzo off with his friends (Liz, Steve, and Louis), we took the "fast train" (Frecciarossa) to Naples. When we arrived around 4pm, we were greeted by a nice dumping of rain, so after checking into the hostel and a walk through the historic center, we naturally gravitated indoors to dinner to dry off. We had done some research into the best pizzerias in this city famous for its pizza, and we ended up at Da Michele. We later found out that the movie/book "Eat Pray Love" has a scene set here, so it had to be good, right? (There are photos of Julia Roberts with the pizzaiuoli all over the walls.)

They only serve two types of pizza: marinara (sauce, oregano, olive oil, garlic, no cheese) and margherita (sauce, cheese, basil). Luckily, these are our favorite types! We like to keep it basic :o)

The pizza is super fast. It cooks in the ultra hot oven for about 90 seconds! I hope I didn't distract the pizzaiuolo for too long.

Besides pizza, Napoli is also notorious for its decades-long trash issues. Garbage was heaping out of the dumpsters and piling up in the streets and into the middle of the piazzas. Of course, the mafia has something to do with it.
The next morning (actually, every morning) we woke up nice and early to be out running by 6:45, and we quickly familiarized ourselves with a popular pedestrian path that followed the shore. The low traffic level and the beautiful sunrises were worth the tired legs!

Vesuvius looming behind the Egg Castle (Castel d'Ovo)--so named because Virgil buried an egg in the dungeon, but unfortunately it was destroyed by an earthquake... or something...

Later in the morning: The New Castle

Galleria Umberto

Unbelievable pastries--another Neapolitan specialty.
There will be many pictures of these.

Piazza Plebiscito

A typical Neapolitan "park": tiny, overrun by dogs, lots of graffiti, old guys chatting, young couples making out, and a statue of Caesar. (The names Aldo and Ciro seemed especially prominent in the graffiti...)We took the funicolare (a little cable-car type thing) up a big hill toward San Martino for a great view! With hardly any open green space, notice the intensity of this 3000-year-old city.

The people hanging out and kids playing football on the pavement outside San Martino. We imagined that in a few weeks this spot would also be jammed with tourists.

Taking the stairs back down into the city, we were surprised that people actually live on the side of the hill.

The chaos back down on earth

Old guys playing cards in a piazza...

Picnic with a group of shady bikers in Piazza Bellini

The Archeological Museum. Can you see the family resemblance?

Beautiful mosaics taken from Pompeii

Those same old guys playing cards at the same bench several hours later.

Pizza stop number two: Sorbilla. We arrived about 15min before it opened and there was already a huge queue outside!

Dessert: A ricotta-filled sfogliatella from the well-known Scaturchio

Watched our wallets down south in Naples

Seth and I just returned from a long 4-night weekend in Napoli, a very Italian city almost as intense as Saigon--in fact, the two cities share lots of unexpected similarities. Having never been very far south, we were both surprised by how extreme and in-your-face Naples is: dangerous with a heavy mafia presence, no bicycles (only swarms of motorinos and cars), conversations embellished with particularly elaborate hand gestures, the streets are trashy, the fashions trashy, and every inch of available wall 'decorated'. Despite this, the food is better and cheaper, the streets are livelier, and while always keeping one hand on our wallet we found the people ironically friendlier and more real than in any other city we have been to in Italy.

Besides going to Pompeii and the Archeological Museum, we really didn't have any other 'must see' sights on our list, so we spent a fair portion of our time just cruising the streets and snacking on regional treats. There is no better way to experience a city!

I'm still going through our photos but I will post them soon!

Six month anniversary

Today marks 6 months of living in Italy--time is flying by! It is scary to think that we are past the half-way point and are on the home stretch back to Waltham...

For me, today also signifies 6 months of running every morning without taking a day off. When we arrived I decided to just run instead of getting a gym membership, and since I have been able to adjust to two new routes without getting persistent aches and pains (the first route was along the river, and now we go up Piazzale Michelangelo, both a little over 5miles), and since we aren't buried under several feet of snow, it has been easy to fall into a daily running routine. The past month we have been getting up between 5:30 and 5:45am to run before I go to class and Seth goes to I Tatti. Sometimes it is hard to go to bed early enough to not feel like crap the next day, but this morning I didn't have class and we decided to sleep in an extra hour. Running alongside constant traffic and scooters again was a big, exhaust-filled mistake, so hopefully we can use this as motivation to stick to our pre-daybreak routine from now on.

More interestingly, this July 4th will mark a bigger milestone for Seth: 11 years of running without a day off! Maybe I will bake him a cake.

Chocolate Festival!

Last week there was a chocolate festival in Santa Croce; I went three times within the first four days. That is all that I need to say.

Chocolate kebab

Realistic-looking rusty chocolate tools

In my own defense, during the second and third visit I was with girls from my Italian class. Here is proof!

San Gimignano, enjoying the low-season

Seth had his shop talk/presentation at I Tatti a little while ago and afterwards we were treated to a nice dinner hosted by the director and his wife. I felt really spoiled as they served spaghetti con frutta del mare (fancy seafood pasta), rare tuna steaks, and molten lava cakes for dessert. After dinner there was an abundance of limoncello, coffee, port, and chocolates. My goodness... No wonder so many people have been gaining weight!

Now that the presentation is out of the way we have been able to enjoy a few popular sites which in three-fourths of the year would be swarming with big, sweaty bodies. Winter is such a great time to be out doing things without having to push your way through crowds, especially since the weather is so cool and sunny--not too hot, not too cold, not too rainy!

Last weekend we went around the corner to the Basilica of Santa Croce to see the Pazzi Chapel again and pay our respects to Michelangelo, Galileo, Rossini, Machiavelli, and hundreds of other famous Italains. Normally a tourist hot spot, we saved it for a drizzly winter's day. It paid off as there was hardly anyone there--except of course we had to deal with standing around the freezing cold church (heating apparently wasn't taken into consideration when they built it in the 1300s).

Brunelleschi's cloister

The Pazzi Chapel, a beautiful work of Renaissance architecture (also Brunelleschi)The altarpiece (Giotto) and frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi
in the Cappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce

Wednesday was Part 2 of the Uffizi, home of the greatest collection of Italian painting in the world. In the summer it is recommended to reserve tickets a month in advance, but of course we were able to stroll right in and it felt like we had the place to ourselves! We followed this with a lecture on Buontalenti at the British Institute of Florence. By comparison, this talk had a full house for sure!

Yesterday we took a trip to San Gimignano, about 2 hours away via bus. It is the epitome of "tourist trap", as highlighted by its torture museums, funky knife shops, and overpriced wine/liquor stores. We didn't even bother to go to the main church or step foot inside the three-room art gallery. Normally hopping with tours, yesterday it was calm and quiet, and many stores were closed for the winter. Why such a big draw to this tiny medieval town situated on a big hill? Well, it is like a scene from Romeo and Juliet--there are perfect little medieval streets, 11 surreal towers (out of 60 original), and an old wall, as well as an old well. It actually reminded us a lot of San Marino and Fiesole rolled into one. Similar to San Marino, inside the walls of San Gimignano there hardly seemed to be any locals living anymore--most buildings were occupied by restaurants, hotels, etc, and the town appeared like an empty shell. (Most of the locals seems to live just outside the walls.) I don't think I would ever visit during the summer, but still... who wouldn't be fascinated by this place?

San Gimignano's towers

Some of the town just outside the wallsThe main piazza with its very old well (no longer used--too many tourists taking photos by it would fall in)Picnicking in peace. Hardly anyone was there!Take a look at those vines climbing up the building to the right

The lighter-colored building was once a tower

Piazza del Duomo
Me with a cinghiale, which was making me hungry!

One of the highlights of the day was actually a walk outside and around the city walls. There were some great views of the rolling Tuscan hills.