D37 Italy - Roma to Napoli

Today went very quickly. Another travel day, we chucked our stuff into our packs and headed out for a final stroll of Rome. We passed the grandiose Colosseum as the sun increased in intensity. I grabbed my first cappuccino for the trip, as it was still well before noon; it was a good one. Then we visited a very small Vespa museum housed by the local company that monopolises the bike/Vespa/Fiat rental market. It housed about 20 vespas from different years including one that featured in Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.

The train to Napoli passed many century old olive groves, with their stumpy appearances, thick trunks and still producing mountains of fruit. There also looked to be mulberries being grown, plus fields of cherry tomatoes tucking their roots into long raised beds similar to how you might see strawberries grown in Victoria. Sunflower fields occasionally painted the view yellow, with ancient stone villages set atop hillsides peppering the countryside as we rolled through.

After a much needed siesta (the heat and humidity is really draining us) we strolled into the old town of Napoli with the view of eating one of Italy’s famous pizzas. We passed through more cobblestone streets that felt like one giant valley of graffiti. Napoli really is rustic. It’s got a terrible perception of being incredibly dangerous, which I have no doubt it probably was at some point in its history. However, I simply see it as poorer than its famous northern sister cities, lacking government investment in its public spaces (it’s just filthy), and its historical influence also no doubt has an impact on its raw feeling. Personally I enjoyed being able to walk past and stare into little nonnas houses, wandering past children and dogs hanging out in the streets, and the exhilaration of turning around and seeing a scooter or small car hurtle towards you at a frightening pace. While we’re not here for long, it is what it is and I liked it. Perhaps our return in a weeks time will reveal greater insight.

We made it to Sorbillo’s Pizzeria at 635pm and a sizeable queue had already formed. While we waited, we had a spritz and beer accompanied by some savoury biscuits and on opening at 7pm, we were in and seated! Luckily not the 1.5 hour wait I had expected from probably the most popular pizzeria in the world. It’s one of only 100 places listed in Napoli as providers of ‘authentic’ pizza, certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), the regulatory body that protects and ensures that the art of pizza-making and the ingredients used are in accordance with Neapolitan tradition. This art of pizza making is what yielded UNESCO status of being an ‘intangible cultural heritage’ for Italy. We most certainly have had a very positive Italian food experience thus far, and hope it continues as we head towards Ischia.

As we left Sorbillos, we were treated with an Italian opera singer filling the alley ways as he sang from his balcony using a microphone. He had a little basket on a string to which he would pull people’s tips up in. Truly entrepreneurial if you ask me! And hilarious.Read more