I have found the best pizza in the world

This past weekend was only a two day weekend ,because four Fridays of the semester we have “ make up classes”. Some of the classes aren’t scheduled for the full 3 hours required for credit. My theo class only goes for two and a half hours on Mondays, so I guess this is the way they make up for classes like that. This weekend it was Monday/Wednesday and Wednesday only classes that had class on Friday. I don’t have any of those so I still didn’t have class but we couldn’t plan a huge trip since almost everyone else had class. So instead we went to Naples for a day trip. We got a 21 euro round trip train ticket at the last minute on Friday, and took off early Saturday morning. After a cancelled train, and getting kicked out of the compartment, and being cursed by a gypsy we finally made it to Napoli. Coming out of the train station we were immediately faced with tons of street peddlers. Alex in particular was confronted by two guys selling iphones. I’m still not sure why but he decided to try bargaining and made a deal for 25 euros for two iphones. We watched the guy put the iphones in a box and he turned for a split second to put the box in a bag and handed it to Alex. When we walked away two Italians who had been watching stopped us and tried to tell Alex to open the box, that he had gotten ripped off. (That much was already obvious, what iphones bought on the street would work?) Alex opened the box, and what was in it? Not two iphones but a bottle of water. How they did it so smoothly left me very impressed. We gave him such a hard time for the rest of the day, and he even threw the 25 euro bottle of water away.

After much laughing about that, we tried to find L’antica Pizzeria “de Michele”, known to be home to the best pizza in the world. We had been told to get there early before they ran out of dough for the day (any restaurant that daily runs out of its food has gotta be good). We grabbed our tickets and waited for about 15 minutes and finally got to sit down and order. There are two options at de Michele Pizzeria, you can get a margherita or a marinara pizza. Medium or large. Oh and you do have the option of double mozzarella on the margherita, which you should definitely do. We got 9 orders of double mozzarella pizza, and only had to wait about 8 minutes. A considerably long 8 minutes when you know you’re about to rock your taste buds world with the best thing they’ve ever tasted, at least pizza. Words cannot describe this pizza, but I’ll try. It had a thick but doughy crust, soupy in the middle (which I’ve come to relate with Italian pizza) and melted in your mouth. I thought the pizza I had been getting in Roma was good, it was like Pizza Hut compared to this. Just thinking about it makes me sad because I know I will never have pizza this good again. Unless I go back to Naples again, which I will, if not for the castles, sea, or island of Capri, then just for another bite of heaven.  To sum it up: The best pizza in the world comes from Italy, the best pizza in Italy comes from Naples, the best pizza in Naples comes from L’antica Pizzeria “de Michele”. Oh and did I mention an entire pizza only costs 5 euro? Could it get any better?

After stuffing ourselves full of God’s goodness, we set off to explore Napoli. We didn’t have a set place we really wanted to go, and I was just so content to have eaten that pizza and be in Naples, I just hung back and followed where everyone was going. We ended up walking up, trying to find a church for about an hour and a half. We started to think we had gotten there when we walked into Heroin Alley. Literally. I was last, taking pictures, when I saw Mike take a picture of something on the ground right before we were about to go underneath a bridge, upon closer inspection I see a syringe. Lots and lots of them. Now if you know me, you know I start to feel sick and panicky when I even hear the word needle. You need only to ask my mom what happens when I have to get a shot. I unashamedly admit that I will start to hyperventilate and cry. The four year old next to me getting his flu shot is perfectly fine, while I’m sitting there holding onto my mommy’s hand waiting for the tears to come, and for my prize of a caramel frappucino after. (I upgraded from lollipops to coffee drinks after I was 12).  Anyways, we had to go under this bridge where hundreds of syringes lay to get where we were going. Everyone took off and finally Rick turned back at to me, since I hadn’t moved since I first saw them, and he waited while I tried to keep from crying and walked carefully under the bridge. Of course what happened when I finally made it through? Oh, you know, we had gone the wrong way…so back they went under Heroin Alley. I sucked it up and ran as fast as I could, while looking down of course to make sure I wasn’t stepping on any, until I was safe again. Gah just writing that makes me feel sick to my stomach.

After that little fiasco we gave up on the church we had been looking for and headed back down to the center hoping to either find the underground city or make it to the port before dinner. We ran into a castle, pretty typical now, and paid the money to explore it. It was located right next to the port and had the most beautiful view of Naples and the sea. 

We left to see if we could find the underground city and on our way we stopped at a bakery, because Tiffany (my roommate) and I, now have a tradition to get a canoli whenever we’re in a different city, or just whenever we see one. And there we met Giovanni. He was one of the bakers and after giving us our canolis and determining that one of the boys wasn’t my boyfriend, kissed my hand and declared that he was going to move to Roma to be with me. And gave me a free pastry. Hey, I wasn’t hating it. We talked to him for a little bit and he told us that the underground wasn’t open right then but if we would wait he would call his friend to give us a free tour. Unfortunately by this time it had been decided that we were going to skip dinner in Naples, and try to catch the 6:30 train back to Rome, and the guys were itching to leave so we said goodbye to Giovanni and told him next time we came we would take him up on that offer. It was a mad dash to the train station and we made it with only minutes to spare. An hour into the ride I was regretting the decision not to stay and eat dinner, especially pizza, but when we finally got back we made a pit stop at Mickey D’s and then headed home. It was a wonderful day, full of cheap traveling, expensive water bottles, delicious pizza and sweet pastries.  I hope to make it back to Naples when it’s warmer and have some more of that pizza and go out to the Isle of Capri, which is supposed to be beautiful.

Oh, the next day on Sunday, Mike and I woke up early and went to the Trastevere market, and did some bargaining again, i got two scarfs for 3 euro. And then he took me on a little trip to the Colesseum and Forum on the way to the Trevi Fountain where we were supposed to meet some friends. I finally saw some of the touristy stuff in Rome, and I plan on returning to actually go in them when Lucie and Lauren come visit. Oh and I went into the Pantheon. It only took me 3 weeks but I'm finally starting to conqeur Rome!