10/22/18: Naples

Last night, the restaurant we went to, Pizzeria Dal Presidente, was good but not amazing. Again, I think all the pieces I've tried could come together into an amazing pizza pie, but it didn't happen the first pizza we ate. A minor limitation, as you don't need meat on a pizza, is that a lot of pizzas are laced with one pork product or another. After all the eating we've already piled on, I think I wouldn't mind downgrading to a margherita myself. We're trying to get more vegetables, which isn't impossible, just tricky when did recommendations for Naples are dominated by pizza. 

The Presidente the restaurant is named for, by the way, is Bill Clinton. 

This morning, we took a slow regional train the 16mi out to Pompeii. I'd stayed up a while optimizing our big walk around the site on my walking tour app's map of the site: 

3km of zigzagging through the ancient streets.

As soon as we walked into the fenced-in site, I got worried about our timetable. It really is huge. Felt as big as the Imperial Palace and Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Between the overcast and light rain, and of course the doomed end of the city, Pompeii had a somber cast over it. My route ran into issues early on, with multiple road closures ruining my carefully optimized plans. Our rented audio guide was generally informative, so we took our time at each narrated location. I think I'd recommend 4 hours in Pompeii of you're into history. Do research into the different travel options, but the regional rail worked fine for us. 

Sites that I thought were good:

- House of Geometric Mosaics (best view of surrounding landscape)

- Temple of Venus

- Stabian Baths

- House of the Faun

- The Forum

- Theater

- Amphitheater

That picture of Alexander the Great that you might have seen? Dug up from the House of the Faun:

That dog mosaic from any intro Latin textbook? House of the Tragic Poet:

I may have once known that these pieces of ancient at had come from Pompeii, but when I saw these today, they came as a complete surprise. 

Sites that were a letdown based on my app's must-see status:

- Temple of Apollo

- House of the Baker

- Macellum

- House of Venus in the Shell

- Brothel

Sites that were closed so we couldn't get the full experience:

- House of the Tragic Poet

- House of the Ship Europa

Sites that I wanted to see but we didn't have time for:

- House of the Ancient Hunt

- House of the Vettii

- The Street of Tombs

- House of the Mysteries

All of the houses are named after what's found in them. A few have evidence of the owners names and are thusly named. 

There's a pizzeria inside that I'm sure makes bank, but feels super out of place. Inside, you have flourescent lights. Outside, you have wagon ruts worn into stone from two millennia ago:

That last picture is a good segue into the human tragedy of Pompeii. A baker just going about his day ran for his life and left behind these loaves of bread. Everyone ran, but no one made it. Outside the main entrance is a collection of casts made of some human bodies found in the solidified ash. I don't think any sculptor could hope to match the terror and agony in these buried dead, their lives insignificant in the shadow of Vesuvius. One young person's last moments were sitting against a wall, knees propped up, elbows between thighs and hands over face. Whether in fear, prayer, or a desperate attempt to block out the ash, we can't say. But the resignation and utter humanity in these casts is like nothing else. The archaeological value of Pompeii is immeasurable, and we have to remember the victims whose lives were extinguished to preserve this moment in history. 

Back in Naples, we switched gears to food touring, again. The tour guide was one of the best we've had, and quantities were good.

1) Mozzarella di bufala. Mozzarella made with buffalo milk. A Campania (state Naples is in) DOP product. DOP is a certification for food that is made in is historical origin area using traditional preparation. It ought to be good if it's DOP. The mozzarella we had was fine but not amazing. Probably wasn't DOP. The prosciutto was great. 

2) Pizza fritta at Sorbillo Esterina, one of the 3 main Sorbillo family pizza shops, specializing in fried pizza.

Much much better than what we had last night. The dough was thinner. There was way less provola, which made the dish much lighter, texturally and taste-wise. There are only a handful of ingredients: dough, ricotta, provola, tomato, salami, black pepper. I thought it could use more spice from the black pepper, even though I could see a lot of it. 

The big French family had the nerve to say it was too heavy, despite French croissants needing a kilo of butter to bake, those frauds. 

3) Frittura napoletane. Neapolitan fried stuff. This was 3 items: crocche, the equivalent to an arancini, and the frittatine di pasta.


Only the last thing was new. It's spaghetti in a cheese sauce breaded and fried. The spaghetti evokes mac and cheese, though the execution is light years beyond a fried hunk of mac and cheese at some American bar. And I think instead of a 4 cheese mac and cheese sauce, if it were instead mostly fontina, which really worked for me but not Muslimah. 

4) Limoncello. Some DOP liquor. Visiting the factory and seeing a big vat of lemon peels fermenting was cool: 

5) Gelato. It was good, and I got lemon in honor of the last visit. 

One of the sites on the tour was the original central square of old (Roman) Naples. The Spanish took the Roman temple, left a few columns, and converted it to a church. Then the Italians took the stairs descending the church and turned it into a scooter shed:

Our guide also explained the origin of street theater as a response to the infection risk of big enclosed theaters. Street comedy theater tradition gave rise to a common cast of typed characters that became known across Italy and indeed helped to culturally unify its kingdoms. Naples' home character, Pulcinella, is welcomed by the city, which takes this bit of heritage much more seriously, than, say, Milan. 

As you might guess from that depiction, Pulcinella evolved into the Punch of British Punch and Judy shows.