Naples - Go for the Best Pizza in the World (seriously)

There is no truly polite way to put this. Naples, the city, is...gritty. It is noisy and not particularly clean; people are constantly out on the streets, and traffic is crazy. We felt as if we were taking our lives in our hands every time we left our hotel. So, why would we recommend visiting Naples. Well, the city is the birthplace of pizza and it is amazing (and cheap).

When we arrived in Italy, we spent one night in Naples before heading to meet our friends Matt and Amy in Sorrento the next day. We checked into our small, out-of-the-way hotel and asked the owner where to go for dinner. He recommended a pizza place literally 100 feet from the hotel. We were a bit skeptical because it seemed unlikely that a good pizza place was so close, but we were hungry and tired from a long day of travel, so we went there. The place was packed, with literally dozens of people (locals) waiting for take-out. That was a good sign. We actually got a table quickly, and noticed how cheap the pizzas were on the menu - 5 Euros for a Margherita, and almost every pizza was below 10 Euros. We ordered two pizzas and wine (the wine was cheap and bad...enough said), and proceeded to wait about half-an-hour for our pizzas because the pizza oven was so backed up with all the people waiting for to-go orders. But, when the pizzas came, they were worth the wait! Without a doubt the best pizza we have ever had. And, our whole meal was less than 20 Euros.

After spending time on the Amalfi Coast, we returned to Naples for a couple of days to see the city. And, although we warmed up to it a bit, it certainly does not make our list of favorite cities to visit. There is not a huge amount for a tourist to do there. Although there is an old fort (we did not go in):

The National Archaeological Museum is worthy of a visit, after having visited Pompeii because many items found in Pompeii are in the museum and not at the site. And, of course, you can always visit a church or two. This one had a wedding going on the day we were there:

The one site we did visit was the Teatro di San Carlo, the Naples Opera House, which is the oldest still-operating opera venue in the world - founded in 1737. While not as grand as the Opera House in Paris, it was still beautiful, with an impressive painted ceiling:

But, the best part of our visit was that there was a rehearsal going on for an upcoming show and we got to watch and listen for several minutes, and hear the fantastic acoustics of the theater. The acoustics were so amazing that we could even hear the people on stage talking when the director would stop the rehearsal and give directions. And, we were not exactly close:

We really enjoyed our visit to the Teatro di San Carlo.

As usual, the rest of our best experiences in Naples involved food. In addition to returning to the pizza place near our hotel (this time we drank beer), we had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant that was off the beaten track, but was relatively close to our hotel, and again filled with locals. We started talking to the trio next to us (who were speaking English) and they turned out to be on a business dinner: a father who owned the business, the early-20's son who will one day take over, and an American woman who was in Italy as a representative of a customer. In addition to learning that we had chosen a very good, local restaurant, we also talked about Italian wine and they shared their second bottle with us. Even the waiter got in on the fun, coming over to refill our glasses with their wine! A really great experience.

I don't know that we would highly recommend an extended visit to Naples, but go for the pizza and as a jumping-off point to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

Ciao,

Jeff and Shana