When the moon hits your eye

Ok, so they say you either love or hate Naples, and I can say without equivocation that we absolutely loved it. Sure there was a trash strike for a year that left the city filthy and sure there was a riot the week before in the suburbs due to the harsh crackdown on the immigrants who did not secure mafia permission before opening up new drug routes, but the boundless energy of the city just overshadowed all that.
Yeah, it is a bit rough around the edges, a bit dirtier, more off-track betting houses and more insane traffic, but that just adds to the atmosphere. We read enough bad things about the city to almost keep us away, but we not only stayed two days, we added another one on. It was so different from the rest of Italy it was a bit refreshing. More ruggedly beautiful with Vesuvius looming in the background and the bay of Naples spreading across the heart of the city, grittier in the style of people, but with more families and comraderie in the street. People were so affectionate with each other, almost every girl walked arm in arm with her girlfriend, young couples were making out about every 15 feet or so, and there were more babies here than we had seen in the rest of the North. It was Saturday, and we just sat along a main shopping drag with a beer and watched the parade go by. I could have spent a lifetime there but pizza beckoned.

They invented pizza in Naples and it shows. We went to a popular spot and waited one and a half hours for a table. No worries, we had to wait in a narrow street with cars whizzing by, but cheap beer and fried zucchini kept us and 40 others in high spirits until our table was ready. This place was the real deal. Small and chaotic inside, when we finally sat we ordered to Margheritas and a liter of house wine. Now, this is what pizza is supposed to be. The crust was thin, but not too thin. chewy, but not too chewy and had a little bit of crispness and wood fire burning on the bottom and edges. The tomato sauce and cheese were light and the basil fresh. They all somehow almost melted together on the pizza and perfectly compemented each other. It was absolutely as pizza should be. It was 10 Euro for the two pizzas and a liter of wine and that just cinched the deal. We would return to this place twice before we left, and would have returned more if they weren´t closed on Sunday.