Naples, Italy – Nov 4-9, 2024

By Kathleen Ennen / November 7, 2024

November 4-5, 2024

Another travel day as we leave Vienna, where it’s a bit chilly, and fly to Naples, much warmer!

It was an uneventful flight, and we booked transport on the AliBus from the Naples airport to the nearest metro stop near the waterfront. We saw boats and ferries and it was nice to be back near a large body of water. It was that much more fun to have Mt Vesuvius in view too!

It was somewhat of an uphill hike to reach our flat. It was warm so made for a good workout and a reason to plan some washing in the near future.

Our host met us a few minutes after our arrival and showed us in and how to use the many keys. One for the front main gate, one for the elevator, one for the outer hallway door and one for the apartment itself. Yikes

Dario showed us the flat and how to operate, more or less, things like the espresso machine. We seem to encounter 2 burner induction hobs and they all operate differently. After several different YouTube videos we started to master the current cooktop!!

We are in an old part of the city and the streets are too narrow for most cars, they are rarely seen. There is the odd scooter every now and then; it’s very charming. We located 2 small markets as well as a green grocer we bumped into between the 2 stores. We were able to get enough starting supplies and some eggs and cheese for an omelet for dinner. We found some great wine at 3.80 and 6.00 euros. Thom thought we shouldn’t buy such cheap wine, and I said that it’s the proper price for buying wine in Italy! I wish flat rentals would include basics like salt and pepper as we keep buying some and then finding out we should be carrying it around with us.

Our view from the 2^nd floor balcony is wonderful. As we on a hill we see a great expanse of the water and ferry and other boat traffic. There is a large GNV ship, I think a ferry, but it remains at anchor. At night it’s all lit up. Maybe it’s a cruise ship and they shuttle visitors to shore. Anyway, for some reason, be it the wind or the tide, it keeps rotating in its spot.

Nov 5

We thought that the flat should have a large blackout drape to cover the very large glass door to the balcony. The sun rose straight into the room and even with my eye shades on it was hard to go back to sleep. We realized as we weren’t thinking last night when we noticed the exterior shutters, that we could block the direct sun intrusion by closing the shutters. We’ll definitely see how that works tonight.

The espresso machine made the best coffee we’ve had so far on this trip. Previous flats had the pod type machines and you never know how old the coffee is when you use those. We used grocery store ground coffee, packed into a filter basket, and had a double shot in about 3 minutes.

The flat was advertised to have a washing machine. Seems it doesn’t – it broke, and the host decided not to get it fixed. They haven’t been able to update the listing. It was one of my key filter elements when searching for lodging, but what can you do. It’s a beautiful location and comfortable flat. We did luck out – there’s a bidet and it makes a great washing basin!!

We decided to venture to a market area, Pignasecca, recommended in material provided in the flat. It was well worth the 25 min walk. Great looking seafood and produce. I decided that mussels would make a great dinner and then decided we’d try the famous Naples pizza too. One of the oldest pizzerias, Pizzeria Brandi was suggested, and we headed there. It was great! We were unable to split one pizza as each person had to place an order. We shared a pizza and a seafood medley salad that was very nice.

We continued our walk after lunch and headed for the promenade along the waterfront. There were several cruise ships lined up and lots of small sailboats out in the harbor area. Two people were swimming and I checked the local water temp – 72 deg. Surprising! The big GNV that had been sitting there since our arrival started moving into the dock area.

We turned to go back to the flat by way of what was reported to be a bigger and better supermarket than we were able to find close by in our neighborhood late yesterday. It turned out to be a very good one! Well stocked and great choices. Found a nice white wine for 5.80 to go with and in the mussels tonight.

November 6, 2024

Today we arose with the sun muted behind the shutters and the USA providing Trump another chance at president. We are saddened that this has happened. We are worried about the future for us, our children, our grandchildren. We’ve tried avoiding much of the news since starting are travels a few weeks ago. But the long wait is over. We believe life as we’ve known it will degrade substantially with the proposals voiced by the now soon to be president. We hope to be proven wrong but history for this country is on a different path now.

We were offered to sign up for a small boat ride/tour of the city waterfront by our host, Dario. We met him at 1100 and stepped into his small boat. It’s probably about 15’ long and has an outboard motor that he steers in the stern. It was a beautiful day! For a short while we forgot the sad news of the morning.

During our previous walking explorations we had noticed arrays of floats, looking like floating 55-gallon drums off the shore a short distance. We asked Dario to explain and learned they are used as part of the mussel farming here. Cables between the barrels and to the bottom provide latching points for the mussels. We didn’t see and fishermen harvesting so we’re not sure how it’s actually done. We had mussels for dinner last night that might have come from here. It was interesting to see that some of the ones we had had barnacles on them. We don’t see that in the mussels we’ve gotten at home.

The tour was to the west of the waterfront and was populated with large colorful and sometimes famous villas on all levels up the hillsides. They came down to close to the water’s edge. Occasionally there were caves underneath. To the east was more industrial beyond the ferry and cruise ship terminals. We could see the port for the shipping containers and the cranes in the distance.

Dario recommended a trattoria up the street from where we were at the marina. It was also across the street from the Supero, the wonderful supermarket we went to yesterday. We sat down and looked at the menu and mentioned to our waiter that Dario had sent us. Once I showed him a picture of Dario driving his boat, he smiled broadly and said, “Ah, Dario! A friend. I work with his father at the marina.” Antonio helped us select our meals and we went for pasta today. I also ordered a side portion of eggplant parmesan. Oh – maybe the best I’ve had! I think the eggplant was roasted, stacked with a great sauce and topped with a small bit of cheese. It was so eggplanty! We also had crusty bread and I requested some olive oil which was served with a small 3-part tray of oregano, hot pepper and chili powder. I added a bit of salt to the oil and dunked away in the oil, the sauce from the eggplant and the wonderful juices of the linguine/crab dish.

Given the large amount of food we’d consumed, it seemed appropriate and the right place to have tiramisu for dessert. That turned out to perhaps be the best we’ve had as well. To top it all off, Antonio brought over 2 shot glasses and a bottle of liqueur with a name that we didn’t understand. I used google translate to see it was made from black walnuts. It was interesting and good to top off the great meal. Not sure I’d go out of my way to buy some, but very grateful for the free taste after a wonderful lunch hosted by Antonio. We left a large tip for the great experience.

We picked up a few supper items at the Supero. Some smoked salmon and a few salad items to go with the greens/tomatoes we have at the flat.

We climbed back up the hill and surprisingly as we rounded a corner, we saw Antonio! He goes home to sleep from 4-8pm, between shifts at the restaurant. We took a photo to memorialize the moment. He lives about 3 blocks from our flat.

We got back to the flat and took a nap!!! Not a lot of steps today but it was wonderful to be on the water for a little while.

November 7, 2024

It was a quiet day today. We had 2 things to do today – 1) go to the Kasanova store and get a garlic press and small cheese grater as they are noticeably missing from the flat; and 2) take a pizza making class at 5:30.

We wandered from the flat around 3 and found the store for our purchase and they headed to the restaurant to get our bearings. We then went further down towards the cruise ship area and stopped at the Old Castle. Very massive and impressive, but we didn’t go in. We poked around some to see if we could find anything but instead ended up in a dead end of a parking lot.

It was fun, however, to spot a slick looking Lamborghini. It’s so low to the ground it’s hard to imagine how it gets around. As we departed the exit area of the parking I heard a loud engine revving up and guess it was the Lamborghini. It was and it was noisy. It got the light and took a left turn then made a lot of noise as it accelerated away.

We were well ahead of schedule so investigated the metro line we bumped into and found it to be the likely place to walk to in the morning to get to the station where we can catch a train to Pompeii. I reserved tickets and audio guides for our visit. I opted for a DIY approach so not to be held to some tour operator’s schedule on when to go and when to come back.

We arrived a bit early for our class and met Chef Bruno. Turned out we were the only 2 taking the class. It turned into a fun time and Thom succeeded in completing his first pizza. I learned a number of tips too. The flour is European 00 flour, a soft flour, but very high in protein. It makes a dough that is very flexible. When it came time to stretch it was amazing to watch Bruno. From a small circle to rotation on knuckles he stretched his dough to about 24in in diameter. We got to the requisite 14in or so and plopped it onto a semolina covered plate. Bruno then folded his dough in half, creased the outer edges to look like a calzone, and then opened a small portion at one end and blew it up to a football sized balloon. Thom remarked it looked like a whale which made Bruno laugh really hard!

We topped the dough with a meager spoon of San Marzano tomato sauce, 2 slightly crushed basil leaves (should have more!) and coarsely chopped Fior di latte cheese. We marched the completed pizzas up the stairs to the pizza over which turned out to be gas fired and at approximately 400 deg C. Our US ovens can’t get that hot. It took 2 min to cook the pizzas! Beautiful….. and delicious.

Chef Bruno brought us 2 glasses of red wine and we sat down to enjoy our very hot, very homemade pizza! We could only finish about half without getting completely stuffed. We were provided some brown paper to wrap our left overs in as the teaching part of the restaurant is not a restaurant so they couldn’t provide take away boxes. It was a wonderful experience.

We walked about 12 minutes or so back to the flat, enjoying being out in the night.

I spent a great deal of time today trying to sort out the metro system here in Naples. In our location it’s hard to go anywhere unless you take a bus. Buses are impossible to sort out – the routes are numerous and you have to be a paper ticket at a tobacco shop. We learned after getting some help from the ticket agent at the hop on-hop off bus stop that we were close to the Metro Line 1. We’ll use that and we can tango there with a credit card. We’ll go to the central station and catch a train to Pompeii tomorrow. It’s likely we’ll spend most of the day going and returning. Tomorrow night will be our last night here – we have left over pizza and various other things in the frig to enjoy!