eks-
thank you so much for posting this trip report! I just got thru reading it and we leave in a little less than 2 weeks for Rome and the Amalfi Coast. We are staying 7 nights in Positano and 2 in Capri. Hoping to see Pompeii and Naples as well. you information is truly invaluable and I can't wait to eat at some of the places you described!

ek, thank you VERY much.

Glad that this is helpful.


Caroline: That book is a "must read!"
Let me know what you think! Even includes recipes...it made me take out a map and look into Le Marche and Abruzzo-Molise.

Bookmarking

Hi eks. I've now finished the book - it is interesting, isn't it ? As well as covering areas I don't know it pointed up specialities I missed in places I have been, so food for lots of new planning !

It also made me get a fit of the giggles during a more boring part of the whirling dervishes' performance here the other week, when I remembered that "Not for them the pasta marathon" :-)

Must get the Sicily one now.

Caroline: I did not know he wrote a book about Sicily..will look it up asap and try to get it in my library!!!

Hi eks. It's called "Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons".

Caroline: I returned the Fort book to the library and am now wracking (?) my brain trying to remember the name of an eating place he adored in either Abruzzo or Le Marche..do you happen to have the book at home? (I tried to find the name by googling but had no luck..)

Can I find his Italy eating columns on a website?

Hi - even better, DH is now reading it & brought it here to work today ! Let's see... Was it La Bandiera ? That's the one urgently recommended by his SIL in Rome, with "something of the triple-Michelin-starred provincial French restaurant about it". Or the agriturismo Villa Cicchi ?

Caroline, thanks! I think it was Villa Cicchi. But a quick search of reviews on Trip Advisor for VC and others in Pescara (location of La Bandiera) turns up some amazingly wonderful finds! In place after place, the reviews are terrific! Does that mean I am going to have to follow in his Vespa tracks and head for Abruzzo and Le Marche?

I did find a few columns by Fort on the Guardian site, but none about those particular areas..

Have you been to that region of Italy? Prices look appeallingly low, even at places like La Bandiera.

Hi. I think the only place I've been in either region is Urbino, as part of the Piero della Francesca trail. And maybe we would have passed through some bits this year en route Naples-Subiaco-Assisi-Bologna ? I really don't know the east of Italy at all except Venice.

I would have suggested the Guardian website - sorry, don't know anywhere else you might find MF. He has been on TV here the last couple of years as part of 'Great British Menu', a chefs' competition thing - he was one of the judges. Seems a very amiable cove.

I agree, the idea of retracing his journey seems appealing, although scary ! I wondered just how good his Italian is - he said not very, but seemed to be able to chat to anyone about anything, don't you think ?

In an interview with Simon Barrett I get the impression that MF's Italian is quite good.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/24/0152463.php

Here are two recent news items about Naples, both from the New York Times:


Related to the book I mentioned, above:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/wo...yt&emc=rss


Naples: No trash but no tourists, either:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/ar...mp;oref=slogin

Thanks eks !

Re the first link - I'm afraid I smiled the other day when I read a report about another guy - an informer I think - who is living under an assumed identity with 24 armed guards. Wouldn't you think that would make him a bit conspicuous ? :-)

Re the secomd link - it's a shame when they put on stuff that nobody goes to; but I must admit that one of the reasons I liked Naples so much was that there weren't a lot of other tourists & nowhere was too busy :-)

We thought MADRE was wonderful.

Having spent a couple of days in Naples this week, I can say that I saw no shortage of tourists. There were several large cruise ships in, so this may have accounted for the numbers.

Topping

The latest addition to Naples' San Gregorio Armeno nativity offerings:



http://www.katieparla.com/category/naples/

topping for poster bound for Amalfi Coast..

topping for Maryanne, with info on private driver (look for day trip to Paestum) about a quarter of the way through the report, posted on 7 May.

what a wonderful report. I am now longing for Neapolitan pizza and the views of the Amalfi coast.

I hope I'll get there sooner rather than later!