...doing Italy things

In Sorrento with Vesuvius across the Bay of Naples

 When you find out, and subsequently tell people, "we are moving to Italy" there is a very specific visual that is conjured. Some combination of wine in hand, Mediterranean breeze in the hair, pizza on a plate, and wild, yet romantic, hand gestures while fluently speaking Italian. In our American bubble that is Navy Support Site Naples those images have not come to fruition. Liz, being my consistent cheerleader, kept reminding me that we would be "In Italy doing Italy things" in no time.

We recently got our NATO International Driver's Licenses and an Italian social security number called a "codice fiscale" which means we can legally buy a car. While we begin that process we took advantage of some public transit and an adventurous weekend. 

Caught a shuttle to a bus to a train to bus to a train and back again!

Downtown Naples:

Our current home is at the Navy Lodge in Support Site in a “suburb” ish of Naples called Gricignano. There are a lot of small towns. Neighbourhoods? Suburbs? We aren’t really sure but the urban sprawl around is apparently not all, technically, Naples. Getting to Naples Naples is a bit of a treck and involves the Navy shuttle from Support Site to Capodichino (which is the airport here and Brian’s office, and the other Navy site, which is attached to the airport). Then a city bus from Capodichino to the Port of Naples and from there the heart of town is walkable. We set out with the mission of finding Pizzeria Brandi. 

Naples is the considered the birthplace of pizza where it was a poor person’s street food. Pizzeria Brandi has been in continual operation since 1780 making it only four years younger than the United States! In 1889 the Brandis were invited to cater pizzas at a party for Umberto I and and his wife Margherita. The various kingdoms of the Italian pennisula had recently unified under the tricolour flag we know today 🇮🇹 and the Brandis wanted to honour that with a tricoloured pizza. Today, you can order a margherita in all parts of the world with its bright red tomatoe sauce, white mozzarella, and fragrant green basil. We had read that the wait for a table could be obnoxious but we were committed regardless. Instead, we were able to walk right in, and with zero confidence, ask for a table for two in broken Italian. We got a smile, a response in English, and a table! 

Opened since 1780 & serving margherita pizza since 1889

Pizzas in Italy come in one size: personal. In our limited experience portion sizes are smaller here in Europe but with the noted exception of a “personal” pizza!! We got the obligatory margherita pizza and a plate of various bruschetta di mare which is toasted bread with different seafood toppings. I excitedly used my knew knowledge that the “ch” in Italian is a K sound like in Kelly and we drooled as we watched meals go to neighbouring tables. The olives on our bruschetta were grown on the side of Mt Vesuvius and the seafood was all caught in the Bay of Naples. With the pizza, there was something about eating a recipe that has been unchanged for 134 years - a recipe that is so simple - and so delicious! Unlike American pizza, Italian pizza toppings are not evenly distributed. There are random pellets of mozzarella and only a few leaves of basil and yet the flavours are present in every bite. I don’t say every slice because Neopolitan pizza is served as one big old unscathed pizza pie. BYOPC. Bring your own pizza cutter but your knife will do. The crust was bubbly and chewy with bits of brown from the wood fired pizza oven. Pizza here is very thin crust and it folds up perfect for shoveling into your mouth! Tomatoes are bright and incredible. We are told the volcanic ash in the soil makes for the best tomatoes in the world. I don’t know about that since my standard of tomatoes are the close to death, shipped gawd knows how far, Fred Myer tomatoes. I mean, realistically I’m probably going to like all pizza here, but this seemed special even with such a low bar. 

     

With full bellies, and our craving for an Italian experience fulfilled, we wandered around the Chiaia area of Naples. Again, we aren’t sure if this is a different city or a neighborhood, or what, but we are starting to recognize different geographical areas. We walked down narrow streets with weekend laundry drying on the balconies. We wandered into local shops and listened to conversations that we didn’t understand. We stopped for a drink and eventually made the bus and shuttle journey back to Support Site. 

Sorrento: 

You can see Naples in the upper left and Sorrento,
 at the start of the Amalfi Coast, near the center

Sorrento is located across the bay on a peninsula that begins the famous Amalfi Coast. If all goes well with the apartment we want we can see Sorrento on a clear day from our living room. While Sorrento is a destination people save up a long time to see it is just a train ride away for us now. Seemed like an easy enough day to sight see and window shop and continue our weekend of doing Italian things in Italy. Our quick and easy train to Sorrento turned into an eventful day of delays and questions. There was something wrong with part of the tracks so we had to transfer to a bus and then back to a train. Primarily we followed the crowd to figure it out since the only Italian we really understood was the bus driver looking at the people confused and then finally screaming “FINITO!” While anxiously waving his hands to shew us off his bus. I guess it was time to transfer back to the train!? What should have been an hour to Sorrento was 3 hours and coming back it took nearly 4! We missed the bus and shuttle combo back to Support Site and the next one got us home at midnight. Olaf was an absolute trooper since we left at 630a. He didn’t potty in the apartment and we think he has forgiven us! We spent the day just wandering the streets. 

                   The gulch in the middle of town with old mill buildings                    

   

                         

 

Many shops are closed for the winter season but there were plenty of other tourists milling about (we aren’t sure if we are tourists or not  but until I can smoothly say viviamo in Napoli and a follow up question or two, I’m counting us as tourists). At one point we stepped out of a place and it seemed that hundreds of people had hatched from local hotels but then they were gone just as fast! Highlights of my day was an adorable little jewelry shop off a side road. Sorrento is known for an ancient tradition of inlaid wood boxes. This jeweler is taking that tradition with a contemporary personal flair and taking the thin wood pieces and layering them into earrings! My kind of place! All the work is done in his humble little shop and he and an apprentice were working when we wandered in!! I could have bought 10 pairs and I really could have because his prices were so reasonable for authentic Italian handmade goods! I know we will be back! It was lovely to talk to him and learn about his craft and support his business. Further down the road Brian found his Sorrento fav at a locally owned liquor shop. He connected with the older proprietor who found him a bit of uncommon Italian made whisky. He poured us generous portions of grappa and limoncello and we chatted for a long time. We also got an adorable taracotta olive oil jar with a hand painted polpo/octopus. Taracotta is what ancient Romans kept their olive oil in! When they closed for “riposo” (Italian siesta) they kept our bottles while we continued our walk. Our day also included gelato and learning limoncello can be made out of six different varieties of lemons! Despite our travel woes, and Olaf’s long day, it was a slow pace Italian type of Sunday.

       

We each met, and chatted up, and supported, local artisans today!

             

L'Orafo del Legno Jewelry Store Links:

Business Webpage

Google Maps to the store if you're in Sorrento

Facebook Page

🇮🇹Italian Morsels to Share🇮🇹

1. Prices are displayed different in Europe (taxes are also included in the display price.) So when a meal is €15,00 you have to get over the shock of it maybe being 15000 and the fact there's a 0 missing to us. Commas are used instead of periods. So €15,00 is the like seeing $15.00

2. There are ancient ruins everywhere. Here on Support Site, in the Commissary, there is a Roman well IN the store. They were able to build over it after it was property excavated and they put in clear class floors so you can still see them. 

3. Riposo is the break midday that many Italian business will take and literally means "pause" and is often when Italians eat their largest meal of the day "pranza" or lunch. Business are often closed for several hours in the middle of the day and then the dinner hour doesn't really start until after 7:30p!

Snoopy hasn't steered me wrong yet in life!

Olaf was a wee bit clingy when we finally got home!