Not long before I left, we has dinner with friends. One was German and a political scientist. We were talking about Europe and I said that Italy had only unified in the mid-1800s. He shot back that some would argue that they haven’t yet unified. Like all good humor, there was an element of truth in this statement. Italy varies greatly from north to south and from city to city. The civilizations are old and the geography lends itself to isolation. I was struck in my limited view of the country how many of these cities or regions were independent states at least once in their recorded past. All had been conquered and changed hands multiple times through their histories.
The northern and southern extents of my travels in Italy were Milan and Naples, the second and third largest cities in the country, respectively. The contrast between these two extremes was stark. Milan was clean and orderly, where Naples was dirty and chaotic. Crossing the street in Milan had no adverse effect on my heart rate or blood pressure. Drivers in Naples have little regard for crosswalks and seem to think it’s sporting to scare pedestrians. The Milan subway was clean and efficient. The Naples subway looked as if it had been used in the opening credits of ‘Welcome Back Kotter.’
The languages are also have some regional differences. The Neapolitan dialect is peppered with Spanish. My AirBnB hosts in Naples were Tony and Thelma. Tony was Italian, Thelma was Cuban. I noticed when talking to Thelma that her Italian was peppered with Spanish and assumed that was due to her being Cuban. Later, Tony mentioned that Naples had been under the control of Spain in its past and that all Neapolitans used certain words that could be traced directly to Spanish, though Thelma more than most. I later researched this a little and found a blog that listed words in the Neapolitan dialect that were attributed to Spain.
The cuisines of the two cities is also quite different. Milan’s specialties include a cotelleta, which is a piece of meat pounded paper-thin, breaded in a thick, crunchy breading and fried to a golden brown. What kind of meat? Does it matter? The breading takes up more space than the meat. They also saffron risotto, also known as saffron rice. Saffron is perhaps the most expensive spice in the world. It turns the rice yellow. Neither saffron or rice are native to this area, both gained popularity as a symbol of wealth and stuck around. Osso bucco is the another Milanese dish talked about a lot. It is a braised veal shank. Not bad, I have had it several times in and out of Milan and it never fails to underwhelm.. In short, Milanese cuisine is similar to German or Austrian cuisine and not one of my favorites.
Naples, on the other hand is best known for its pizza, but first I would like to discuss other aspects of Neapolitan cuisine. Naples is on the coast and has excellent seafood. On a street food tour, we went to a seafood stand in the market and sampled anchovies, shrimp, calamari and seaweed dumplings (for lack of a better short description. They were small bits of soft dough with seawood, breaded and fried.) All of the above were fried. With the exception of the dumplings, the breading was very light, flour only. It did not overpower what was inside, but complimented it, giving it texture, but not flavor. In short, it was the perfect way to fry food.
The Neapolitans are also known for their Ragu, which is different than Bolognese ragu. The Neapolitan ragu, I am told has only two ingredients: beef and tomato. The beef is chopped and cooked for a long time with the tomatoes and the two cook down and form a stew. It’s impossible to believe that they get this much flavor out of just two ingredients. It is served several different ways: over a variety of pastas, in a hollowed out baguette (not the right term) or scarpetta. Scarpetta is basically a bowl of ragu served with slices of the baguette to sop up the ragu with. I tried it both with rigatoni and scarpetta. I saw no way that the hollowed out baguette would end without me wearing most of it. If you decide to go with pasta, and go to a restaurant that specializes in ragu, the waiter will offer options and if their English is good enough, will explain in great detail the pros and cons of each type of pasta. My advice: try the scarpetta, if you’re only going to try it once. The bread they give you is a crunchy sourdough that is just lovely on its own. This is a fantastic dish and don’t leave Naples without trying it.
Pizza though, pizza is the one thing that only praise is allowed. The Neapolitans grudgingly acknowledge that New York has more pizzarias — but no one does it better. I tried to compliment the Neapolitan pizza by telling the tour guide that American chefs were now coming to Naples to learn how to make pizza and importing ovens from Naples. Her response was one of hurt, she said that they still couldn’t make it as good because they didn’t have the Naples water. This is the total bull argument of why New York has the best bagels. Of all the things that make pizza in Naples great, the water is least among them. I think the sourdough starter matters, the tomatoes matter, the cheese matters, the oven matters, the wood matters. The water? I doubt it. Whatever it is, the pizza is great. Try the classic Margherita and some others. To go to Naples and not eat pizza would be a gastronomic tragedy you may not recover from.
The other cities of Italy that I visited were Rome , Florence, Venice, Bologna and San Marino (actually an independent nation and not a city of Italy). Bologna, I covered in a previous blog post and won’t go into it here. Rome, Venice and Florence are the tourist darlings of Italy. I spent precious little time in each of the three. Aside from the amazing tourist sites in each of the three, they each have their own peculiarities. Rome, of course once had the world’s largest empire. Venice was probably the richest city in the world at one point. It still is a wealthy city, though most of its people have moved out to make way for the tourism industry (and climate change). Venice probably has the most tourist per square foot (0.104 square meter) of any city in the world (flooded or not). Just to give you an idea of costs, in the tourist area, if you are eating at a reasonably good local restaurant in Venice, you will be eating seafood and spending close to $50. That is what I paid for cod, a salad and wine. In Rome and Florence, eating like a local in the tourist area will cost about $30. In Milan and Bologna, about $15, and in Naples, a Margherita pizza is 4 euro. So, in Naples with a drink and cuperto, expect to pay about $10.
And what is cuperto? If you called it a tip, you wouldn’t be wrong. It is an amount added to the bill if you dine in the restaurant. Don’t dine in, don’t pay it. It was explained to me as rent on the space of a table. It is added to the bill and all you have to do is pay the number at the bottom. No additional tip is expected.
Of the cities that I visited, I spent the most time in Bologna and Naples and probably had enough time to thoroughly explore both cities, if there is such a thing. Usually, as the time approaches for me to leave, I discover new things to explore, foods to try. The major tourist sites are done at that point, but in most places, those are the least interesting places. At the time I was in Venice, the biennial was ongoing. The biennial was housed in multiple venues throughout the city. Most of these venues were not on the tourist radar. Several were consulates, most are nondescript buildings by Venice standards. Having said that, the original function of most of these buildings were private residences of the wealthy people of the day. In many cases, the artwork of the biennial had to work hard not to be overshadowed by the space it occupied. One of the benefits of going to the biennial was getting to see the insides of these buildings that you may not have even noticed as you walked by.
Rome and Florence are of course places that you must go. The crowds will be huge, but as with anywhere, move slowly and try to get outside of the tourist area, if that is possible. As I said my time in these areas was short and spent walking around looking at stuff, which is the least instructive way to see things.
In Naples, as Tony drove me to the airport, he mentioned the Spanish occupation of Naples, which I was unaware of. When I did a little research I found several examples of the Spanish influence, I wish I had paid more attention to. I spent time going to Pompeii and hiking Vesuvius, both are worthwhile. It is also worthwhile to wander the street and alleyways, and to step into a courtyard because that’s where the city is. Stop in an unknown pizzeria and sample their pie, you might find an undiscovered gem. All of these things I had time to do and did in Naples. But in a city that has been around for thousands of years, a week is not enough to excavate it.