field trip to naples!

Getting on a coach bus at the crack of dawn reminded me of a school field trip. Though Manu and I were giddy with anticipation at the thought of a work day spent out and about in the city that cannot be described in one blog post, we fell fast asleep on the short ride to Napoli. We needed to rest up for our important assignment; we were headed to the American consulate to complete a small step in the bureaucratic process that will be our future wedding (hello, butterflies). We arrived at the consulate and I was already freaking out  when I got to speak English with the guard outside. Inside was like stepping into America: super clean with antibacterial dispensers, air conditioning, smiling people and photos of the everglades and sequoias. I raised my right hand and swore that I was “free to marry Emanuele Chiarazzo,” they stamped a paper, and off I went, free to marry Emanuele Chiarazzo. We took a photo, because we’re both romantic like that.

The rest of the day we walked up and down the coastline, reveling in the magic of Vesuvius and the surrounding islands.

The people were extraordinary, giving us directions left and right, and making us laugh. “Neopolitans are born actors,” Manu’s dad told us later.

We couldn't wait for lunch, and found a pizzeria in a little piazza near the sea called Pizza Amore e Fantasia. The pizza was nothing short of magnificent. The dough was spongey and elastic, full of flavor, the sauce simply a pureed tomato, fruity yet robust, and the circles of mozzarella creamy and rich. Leaves of basil were both garnish and flavor enhancer, bringing all of the aromas together in perfect harmony.

After lunch is the best time to roam the streets of any Italian city, because most people are home getting their fill of the daily siesta. We window-shopped, marveled at a hidden city found during metro construction and watched some hilarious little boys playing soccer in a piazza. One of them came up to us, like a little adult, asking where we were from, if we liked his town and if we saw that amazing goal he just scored. We asked him his name and he replied, "I'm Sonny, that's my brother Michael and my other brother over there is Alfredo...you know...from the Godfather." Priceless. Absolutely priceless.

Naples isn't your typical Italian city. The hills, the narrow streets of the Spanish quarter, the volcano, the coffee, the pizza, the traditional desserts, the little kids named after Godfather characters, the people with their extravagant and colorful personalities...all of these things outweigh the trash problem, the organized crime, the daily petty theft and the terrible (understatement) school system - basically everything the media tells you that Naples is. Though it was never a must on my bucket list, our little field trip proved that in Naples there's much more than meets the eye. As our bus driver told us, "Vedi Napoli e poi muori," see Naples, and then you can die.