Sorrento - Sun 12th Sept

The evening started out much like any other. No sense of what was to come. No outward signs of anything different. The same constant car horns. The same unfortunate looking prostitutes. And the same masses of garbage being blown about Piazza Garribaldi. So off I went in search of dinner without a care in the world, apart from trying not to look like a tourist and a prime target for the moped muggers.

I came across a very unassuming little pizzeria. It looked like a local joint, very simple furnishing and lots of shouting waiters and waitresses. So, in I went without expecting too much.

And then, wham! There it was. Mamma mia! Il pizza perfetto. The perfect pizza.



Pizza Amalfi. Cooked to perfection in the wood fired oven A crust to die for. A topping of smoked cheese, parma ham, lots of rocket and topped with padano cheese. Heaven on a plate. It wouldnt bother me if I never had another pizza again. I had reached pizza nirvana. And if you want to sample for yourself, check out Vesi Pizzeria, Piazza Miraglia. Who needs Da Michele? Not that I could get near the place again! Elizabeth Gilbert has got a lot to ask for. Whatever time of day or night I pass the joint, it's ram packed with hordes of "Eat, Pray, Love" crazies.

Stomach full of perfect pizza, I went to bed that night a very happy man.

The following morning saw me on the train from Stazione Garibaldi to Sorrento, just over an hour from Naples. Sorrento turned out to be every bit as beautiful as I had read about. Perched on a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples. The imposing Mt Vesuvius overseeing everything in a slightly menacing way.

With many little intersecting cobbled, narrow streets. Passing the supermarket on the way in, and stocking up on supplies, I found a tranquil spot and had the picnic I had purchased. Fresh bread, ham, cheese and a bottle of red wine. Drunk from my new purchase of a tin mug, the only drinking receptacle I could find in the supermarket. Once more, not for the first time on this trip, I was a happy man. Soaking up the sun's strong rays, eating al-fresco, sipping wine, reading my book, Naples '44 by Norman Lewis.



I spent the day exploring Sorrento in a slight red wine buzz, saving the rest of the bottle for later. The town, like Capri the day before, is somewhere that I could definitely spend a lot more time in. One day maybe. It was with a heavy heart that I had to leave for my return train to Naples.

And for dinner that night? Surely not another perfect pizza?