![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A very nostalgic dinner...
Jan. 8th, 2009 08:58 pmI don't usually wax poetic about what I eat. Tonight, I make an exception.
I went to dinner at Settebello, where they serve authentic Neapolitan pizza. Having lived in Naples for about 18 months, and having eaten pizza all over Italy, I feel like I'm both qualified and allowed to pass judgment. My assessment:
I had a "Quattro Stagioni", which basically means 4 Seasons - 4 different sections, with kalamata olives, mushrooms, and two different types of sausage. Followed with a pistachio gelato that transported me to the 7th level of Heaven and back. Followed by much reminiscing about Naples.
Naples is a city of thieves. It's also a city of artists, musicians, directors, singers, lovers, writers, players, fishermen, hard workers, cameo makers, rum babas, fortune tellers, used shoes, sali e tabacchi, public letter writers, ceramic geniuses, St. Gennaro of the Old Faithful Blood, The Sansevero Chapel, carnevale, and pizza. Never forget pizza, which can only be had in Naples. Everything else is a poor mockery by comparison. The heart of Italy's mezzogiorno - conquered and re-conquered so many times that it didn't know whether to speak Latin, Greek, Turkish or Klingon and settling finally on Neapolitan, which makes Finnish seem like child's play - Naples has been synonymous with poverty since the Cumaeans built Neapolis in the 7th century BC. And poverty does strange things to people. It breeds crime, but it also breeds inventiveness. It makes people do strange things to survive, and it also makes them philosophers. It robs them of hope, but puts a song in their hearts.
( Photos of Naples behind the cut )
People as old as Vesuvius, living by their wits and sheer tenacity, most of them good people surviving in an environment of bureaucratic complexity that makes the concept of "earning an honest living" the stuff of street theatre.
"See Naples and Die", they used to say. Nowadays we like to joke about not making it out of the city alive, but shed the tourist's dress... learn a bit of the language... worm your way under the skin of the city and begin to see it as the locals do... and one finds that there is indeed much to sing about.
At night, when the city has a chance to reflect on itself, in the all-night sidewalk cafes of Mergellina and the open-air bars, the Neapolitans trade ideas, feelings, customs, sentiments, and habits. "This is a city of apathetic people!" "No, pessimists!" "People are lazy here..." "Our laziness is the brain..." "Too much brains..." "Brains and heart..." "The heart, that's our curse..." (Napoli - La Citta' Parla)
Evviva Napoli!
(And if you're ever in Salt Lake, with a hankering for real Neapolitan pizza, eat at Settebello!
I went to dinner at Settebello, where they serve authentic Neapolitan pizza. Having lived in Naples for about 18 months, and having eaten pizza all over Italy, I feel like I'm both qualified and allowed to pass judgment. My assessment:
Holy Flapping Scrith, That Was Good!
I had a "Quattro Stagioni", which basically means 4 Seasons - 4 different sections, with kalamata olives, mushrooms, and two different types of sausage. Followed with a pistachio gelato that transported me to the 7th level of Heaven and back. Followed by much reminiscing about Naples.
Naples is a city of thieves. It's also a city of artists, musicians, directors, singers, lovers, writers, players, fishermen, hard workers, cameo makers, rum babas, fortune tellers, used shoes, sali e tabacchi, public letter writers, ceramic geniuses, St. Gennaro of the Old Faithful Blood, The Sansevero Chapel, carnevale, and pizza. Never forget pizza, which can only be had in Naples. Everything else is a poor mockery by comparison. The heart of Italy's mezzogiorno - conquered and re-conquered so many times that it didn't know whether to speak Latin, Greek, Turkish or Klingon and settling finally on Neapolitan, which makes Finnish seem like child's play - Naples has been synonymous with poverty since the Cumaeans built Neapolis in the 7th century BC. And poverty does strange things to people. It breeds crime, but it also breeds inventiveness. It makes people do strange things to survive, and it also makes them philosophers. It robs them of hope, but puts a song in their hearts.
( Photos of Naples behind the cut )
People as old as Vesuvius, living by their wits and sheer tenacity, most of them good people surviving in an environment of bureaucratic complexity that makes the concept of "earning an honest living" the stuff of street theatre.
"See Naples and Die", they used to say. Nowadays we like to joke about not making it out of the city alive, but shed the tourist's dress... learn a bit of the language... worm your way under the skin of the city and begin to see it as the locals do... and one finds that there is indeed much to sing about.
At night, when the city has a chance to reflect on itself, in the all-night sidewalk cafes of Mergellina and the open-air bars, the Neapolitans trade ideas, feelings, customs, sentiments, and habits. "This is a city of apathetic people!" "No, pessimists!" "People are lazy here..." "Our laziness is the brain..." "Too much brains..." "Brains and heart..." "The heart, that's our curse..." (Napoli - La Citta' Parla)
Evviva Napoli!
(And if you're ever in Salt Lake, with a hankering for real Neapolitan pizza, eat at Settebello!
