Episode 5 – Italy / Napoli / Sorrento
Naples is a seaport and a hub. Besides from all, it is famous for its Mafioso (this part looks like a synthetic truth though lots of people swear by it). Actually the most impressive thing is the lemon. These fruits are growing wild in this region. The soil is rich from the volcano nearby. They grow exceedingly beautiful grapes here and the wine is supposed to be first class. I did not stay long enough to taste the juice of Bachus.
We travel to Sorrento. This is a typical tourist heaven with all the brand names compacted into one street. Me and Danny just found a spot and sat on a bench at the town square watching all the girls walked by. People have a different understand of Italians. They always say Italian men are good looking and Italian women are good looking till they are 21. I think it depends on the region. In the south of Italy you can expect people with olive oil skin, dark complexion, heavily built bodies with a shorter statue. Whereas the people from the north inhabit blue eyes, fair hair, milky complexion and they have lanky built bodies. But one thing for sure, the Italian language sounds harsh and brassy compared with other Latin origin languages. This does not help in the scoring of the most beautiful people.
Lunch time came upon us. We were introduced to this restaurant that set up its dining area in the court yard of a house. Naples is supposed to be the originating place for pizza. We ordered that. The bruschetta is famous and we ordered that. The pasta should not be missed and we ordered that as well. With the help of Italian wine, I could do no wrong.
The pizza was cooked with a wood-burning stove and the dough was soft and sweet at the same time. The mozzarella cheese tasted fine and lovely. The tomatoes on the Bruschetta were so sweet and we thought it had been marinated in syrup. The pasta was simple and yet elegant enough to deserve respect. Pasta has different levels of el dante and it is difficult to get it just right. This would have to include the sitting time of the pasta before consumed. I was happy, everyone was happy and I kept my wine going.
The town of Pompeii was destroyed over-night by the volcanic eruption. Renovation had been carrying on for the past while and we could not differentiate which are the new stuff and which are the old stuff. The tour guide told us there are phallic symbols carved on the walls or on road tiles to indicate the location of the brothels during Roman times. Of course this deserved an exploration. Danny found them but the sizes seemed very small. It is a mystery waiting for the archaeologist to discover. This should make the topic for a thesis.