Neapolitan Feast

My culinary life is now complete; I’ve had pizza in its birthplace of Napoli. It’s almost 8 hours since I ate and I’m still completely stuffed! I gorged myself at lunch today. I went with the photo staff and a few of the dancers and we started with 4 different antipasti. One was sort of like a calzone stuffed with 3 different types of cheeses. Another plate had mozzarella, parmigiano, another soft white cheese, mascarpone, bruschetta, tomatoes, arugala, melon and prosciutto. Then there was a fried plate that included fried rice balls, fried polenta, fried dough, fried zucchini, and some other fried thing….I ate more grease today than the past 2 years combined! The fourth plate was a seafood plate with heron, squid, anchovies, octopus, and shrimp. After this I had a pizza caprese with fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. Oh, let me just say it was heaven on a plate. The crust is so thin and you have to fold the pizza over to truly experience all the goodness. My only complaint was that things seemed a bit over salted. The meal was accompanied by plenty of red wine of course.

After the feast we took a stroll to a gelateria where I had a lemon and melon gelato capped with a delicious espresso. I also stopped by at the Teatro San Carlo which was the world’s first opera house. I don’t know when I’ll return to Italy, but my stomach may quite possibly be stuffed for another month! All the grease and fried foods has left me with a bit of gas….just thought you might like to know!

I hope all you tennis fans were able to watch the men’s final at Wimbledon. It was probably the most exciting match I have ever watched and I’m happy that Nadal won. Tomorrow I’ll be in Corsica lying on what may be my last beach for a long, long time. Only 12 more days!