Naples, pizza, Amalfi Coast and Pompeii

Eating the right pizza was definitely the key to our stop in Naples.  We stopped there on the way up to the Amalfi coast and on the way back.  The city is old, gritty and the people there are very proud.  I read all the Elena Ferrante books that take place in Naples so just being here gave me a different pulse on the story.

We went to Pizzeria da Michele.  It has been around since 1870.  The lines are long (they are at all the top pizza spots).  You finally get in, sit down, and then you wait for someone to come around and take your order.  It obviously works for them.  The pizza is fantastic.  Soft thin crust with tomato sauce and cheese.  Classic marguerita is the way to go.

The oven is spinning them out daily.  They only do marguerita or marinara here.

We drove up to Ravello, a small town on the Amalfi coast.  The drive up there is a white knuckle drive but absolutely beautiful.  One small tight street on an extremely windy road.  We stayed at the Hotel Caruso.  They get the visitors and the cost of a room just because of the location.  The beds, the furniture, the whole place is reminiscent of your Grandma’s home from 1970.  It is utterly ridiculous that it has not been upgraded but I guess they don’t feel that they have to.  Look at the view.

We only had a day up in Ravello so instead of driving around the coast we took a boat.  The views from the water are amazing.  Also, the trip from Maiori to Nerano is incredible.  Each town is a different size.

Each has amazing staircases that take you down to the beach.

It was just glorious.  We had lunch at Lo Scoglio da Tommaso which is the best meal we have had in Italy so far. They own a far so the vegetables were incredible.  Simple tomato salad.

A variety of roasted vegetables.

Fish.

And a happy Fred overlooking our view.

We returned to Minori and stopped at Sal Di Riso, who provides a lot of cakes throughout Italy.

The key here is the lemon cake.  Wow!  The insanely light lemon cake inside with a sweet lemony frosting outside is out of this world.

We headed back to the pool for a few hours before dinner.  The views are insane.

We got up the next day to head to Pompeii.  Us and hundreds if not thousands of others.  Pompeii is huge.  We did not hit up all the things to see there but just walking around gives anyone a feel for what it was like before Mt. Vesuvius erupted.  The city was a thriving middle-class metropolis.

Pompeii is huge.  We did not hit up all the things to see there but just walking around gives anyone a feel for what it was like before Mt. Vesuvius erupted.  The city was a thriving middle-class metropolis.

We did not hit up all the things to see there but just walking around gives anyone a feel for what it was like before Mt. Vesuvius erupted.  The city was a thriving middle-class metropolis.

Our last stop before getting on a train to Rome was Sorbillo.  It is known to be the best pizza in the world.  A line, a method of taking your orders, and a larger menu.  It was amazing.  The lines are long here too.We had

We had marguerita pizza with extra cheese.

And another with arugula and prosciutto.  We ate every last bite of them both.  The crust is perfect.  I am sure that the water, the flour, the air and everything else about Naples is what makes pizza so good here.  Like NY bagels, they just can’t make them anywhere else.

We came, we saw, we ate and we left.  We will be talking about those pizzas for years to come.