Mamma mia!

Italian women are beyond beautiful. Let's just get that out of the way. The amount of times I was almost flattened by a speeding Fiat 500 or screeching Vespa as I was stopped dead in my tracks. The teenage girls start beautiful, they become beautiful young women, then beautiful mothers and ultimately, beautiful grandmothers. And all without losing any of the elegance, beauty and style they seem to inherit in their genes. Yes, it may be a little difficult to walk in heels that high on the cobbled streets of Naples, but oh how the Italian ladies are dedicated to their cause of looking damn sexy. If it wasn't for the over zealous caribieneri I would post of few photos just to verify my claims. Alas, the memories will have to stay in the mind.

I almost forgot why I was here. Oh yeah, the pizzas. That said, it turns out that the Italians do other foods as well. As the young Irish traveller on the table next to me at dinner asked a waiter last night, “do you have that lasagne thing? With meat”. It transpired that they did in fact have lasagne, so the young man promptly ordered it. With chips!

So after a slightly sluggish start to the day I am now in Naples. Why sluggish? Well, the problem with a good glass of red wine is that one glass just doesn't cut it. Nor 2. See where I'm going? I had to try a few more just to make sure they were all just as good. Call it quality control. What I didn't need first thing this morning was an argument with an uptight SKY representative who took umbrage to me using her display stand as a coffee holder. Much histrionics followed and I only wish I had a better grasp of the Italian language as attempts with witty one-liners lose their effect when delivered in English.


Naples immediately has a different feel to Rome. More of an edge to it. To the point that I was advised in one café that I should remove my watch. Even though it is only a replica Rolex, I thought it wise to take his advice rather than have my arm ripped off in an attempt to get my £10 timepiece.

Arriving at Napoli Centrale train station is described by Lonely Planet as “arriving at the scruffy door mat of Naples”. I couldnt have described it better myself. The ubiquitous lucky-lucky men line Piazza Garribaldi as you make your way into the city. I found my hotel, not very salubrious, and left my bag as I went to explore the city. I was going to get some pizza from “Da Michelle”, made famous in Elizabeth Gilbert's book, “Eat, Love, Pray”, soon to be released as a film with Julia Roberts playing the lead role. Made a little too famous as I could not even get near the door for the hordes of tourists vying to see if they agreed with Gilbert's glowing assessment of the pizza margerhita slices.


Me, I settled for pizza from a less famous, though no doubt no less tasty pizzeria down the road. The verdict? Very tasty. But not the perfect pizza.

The search goes on.