We began our last morning in Praiano with a whirlwind of packing and straightening up. Then I made breakfast with all the things we had left. We had caprese salad with arugula and avocado again. We had some of the leftover tortellini as well. We took a few last snaps of the apartment and walked up the road to meet our driver from Italy Limousine car service. We were happy to see it was the same driver we had when we got our ride into Praiano from Naples originally.
He drove us into Naples winding along the Amalfi Road again and through the narrow sketchy tight turns and crowded streets. He was a pro. I took a long video of it, but haven't reviewed it yet. I'll share it here eventually.
As we got closer to Naples the streets became much more congested and traffic was terrible. It was so bad people were getting out of their cars and pulling their luggage along the highway. We decided we'd wait it out and enjoy the AC in our van. :)
We said goodbye to our driver and went into the train station. The train station is a zoo. There are no places to sit hardly at all and everyone is running around crazy. Eventually we did find one seat for Deanna to sit and rest. While she was resting I went on a mission. I wanted to try the world famous pizza at L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele. Everything I've read says that this place makes some of the world's best pizza. It won a Michelin star in 2019, and it was featured in Eat Pray Love.
We had just an hour and a half before out train was arriving. The pizza place was a 15 minute walk according to Google Maps. I left Deanna behind and began my power walk half jog over to the pizza place. I crossed through lines of panhandlers, restaurant advertisers, roundabouts and trinket vendors. I almost got ran over by 2 scooters along the way but made it to the front of the restaurant in about 10 minutes. The scene outside the restaurant was like nothing I'd seen before. There were probably 50 people standing around outside waiting to get inside. I quickly pushed past all of them acting like I knew what I was doing and went inside. I asked the guy if I needed a number for take away and he ask me what I wanted and then I told him 2 Margheritas. He asked me for $10 Euros which blew my mind that this pizza was so cheap. I went inside to stand in the to go line. There were only 2 people in front of me in line which made me feel like we were in good shape. I stood there watching this pizza factory in action. They definitely have a system down. Time past by pretty slowly and after awhile it was about 40 minutes of waiting before it was me in the front waiting for my pizza. After 45 minutes I was on my way back to Deanna and the Naples train station.
As I ran through the streets of Naples bobbing and weaving people I felt like I was carrying food gold. I kept thinking of those scenarios where people fall but they don't drop the things in their hands. I was ready for a pizza fall and how I would handle it. I stopped along the way and bought a couple trinkets. I had to!
As I ran through the streets of Naples bobbing and weaving people I felt like I was carrying food gold. I kept thinking of those scenarios where people fall but they don't drop the things in their hands. I was ready for a pizza fall and how I would handle it. I stopped along the way and bought a couple trinkets. I had to!
I made it back to Deanna with about 15 minutes to go before the train arrived. We finally got to try the pizza. We both sat there in the Naples train station, sweaty, folding over our pizza slices and taking our first bites. YUM. This pizza is simple, tasty and made with love. The sauce has a ton of flavor and the smoke from the wood fire oven is evident in the soft and crispy crust. The crust is so good you want to eat it at the end because it's soft and enjoyable.
Before we knew it the train was at the station and we had to hustle over to get on. We had club seats again and got the seats that look at each other this time. Our train to Rome was only an hour long, but we still took the time to scarf down the rest of the pizza with some Prosecco from the train. It was still good cold.
When we pulled into the Rome station we made our way outside to the Taxi stand. We have been reading about the horror stories with unofficial taxis in Rome and wanted to avoid getting ripped off. We stood in the line for only a minute before we were loading in our own car. Our driver didn't speak English but I was able to show him the address and he said he knew it. He said some other things in Italian but we couldn't follow.
He dropped us off at our place in the Prati district of Rome. We found a room through booking.com at a boutique hotel called Ara Suite. We went upstairs to the 3rd floor using the crazy looking elevator. This elevator reminded us of the little one we had in Paris.
We checked in and went to our room. It was really nice and modern. We immediately asked for more pillows, a stand or table for my luggage, extra towels for our in-room hot tub and for them to repair the broken towel rack that fell off the wall and hit Deanna in the foot. We felt like high maintenance but they were very responsive and handled it all.
We relaxed for a bit and then headed out for some dinner at a Cantonese restaurant called Stella d'oro. Deanna wanted a break from Italian food and this place had good reviews and it was literally around the corner. It did turn out to be pretty good overall. Deanna had veggie fried rice, broccoli and vegetable egg soup. I had fried calamari (not very good), steamed sea bass and hot and sour soup.
After dinner I went on a hunt for some Gelato and groceries. I was able to find both fairly easily within a few blocks of our hotel.
We watched a bit of the lightning storm that was happening and then went to bed.
After dinner I went on a hunt for some Gelato and groceries. I was able to find both fairly easily within a few blocks of our hotel.
We watched a bit of the lightning storm that was happening and then went to bed.
That is the end of Day 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment