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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy

The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy

Old Jun 26th, 2012, 09:58 AM
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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy, Part 9


More Food, and a Striking Visit to Capri

Every time we walked between the hotel and the center of Sorrento, we passed a fruit and vegetable stand. The most striking offerings were lemons the size of your head. There were lemons everywhere in Sorrento, on trees, as plate garnish, as limoncello, as candy, as soap, as sorbet, in gelato, as marmalade, and probably in ten other things. But there is no way to use a fresh lemon when you are touring. There was one fruit I did not recognize: Nespole. Orange, plum sized, cheap. We had seen them green on a shrub at Lidia's Villa outside Rome, where no one had an English name for them, so I bought a few ripe ones in Sorrento. They were delicious. I used them for snacks. At home I googled nespole. They are loquats.

Two more meals in Sorrento to report on. We tried Trattoria da Gigino out of Rick Steves on a little alley, half outside, half inside. We had nice salads, tagliatelle Bolognese, and a mixed seafood frito misto. The food was good, but the ambiance was degraded by a raucous band of traveling musicians who positioned themselves 2 feet from my left eardrum for an excruciating half hour.

Our last dinner in Sorrento was at Re Foods (again), and we were again greeted with proseccos. I had carpaccio of beef, which tasted of concentrated meat instead of the usual salty mess of dried leather I associate with this food. Mrs. P tried another soup, chick pea with many other things, very, very good. Pastas were small ravioli and another pasta with zuccini and shrimp. Mains were fish Sorrento style and mussels with black pepper. Nice wine. Strawberry cake for dessert. Highly successful.

OK, it's time to talk about Capri. Sunday was sunny and calm, the two requirements for getting into and seeing the Blue Grotto. We took the ferry, but on arrival on Capri discovered there were no more boats to the Grotto that morning. (I did mention we don't get out early on vacation, didn't I?) So we took the funicular up to Capri town, leaving the kitchy souvenir-laden marina area below us.

The views from the top are striking. Wild cliffs, blue water, some of the village spread out below. We wandered the narrow lanes of Capri, didn't buy the luxury goods on sale in the pricey shops that were everywhere, including, of course, the required purveyors of eyeglasses and shoes. Had lunch in a cafe on the piazzeta (salads), and bantered with the multilingual greeter/hawker who propositioned every passerby to come to this cafe to eat.

Then it was coming on to the time posted for afternoon boat excursions around Capri and to the Blue Grotto, so we funiculared down to the Marina. Strangely, the ticket window was unmanned. We went to another boat company. Same thing. What was going on? A boatman explained in broken English: Today was a “manifestation” (demonstration), not really an official strike, because the boat companies had raised their prices but not increased the boatmen's pay. Fair enough if you are making a living from tourists, but a bit disappointing to the tourists themselves.

We had already absorbed the Italian spirit (if life hands you lemons, make limoncello) so we decided to take the early ferry back to Sorrento and find something else to do. Not exactly. The strikers also blockaded the ferries! It being Italy, the strike would be over in time to let everyone on daytrips to take the last ferry off island at a quarter to seven. So we went to plan C, and took a bus to Anacapri, the other town on the island. We window shopped, saw the church with the amazing majolica floor showing all the animals (including unicorns), and had a nice walk. We bused back to Capri, had gelato, bought chocolate and pistachio cream to take home, and relaxed on benches with an incredible view.

When we went back to the port, the entire daytrip population was gathered near Slip 23 waiting for the scheduled ferry, which arrived at Slip 2, starting a stampede. Nevertheless, there were enough seats for everyone. We got back to Sorrento uneventfully, hit the ATM for cash to pay the hotel, packed, had our second (and regretfully last) meal at Re Foods, and sacked out, with early alarms set.

Next report: The “Joys” of modern air travel.
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Old Jun 26th, 2012, 10:23 AM
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Still enjoying your report. Thanks.
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Old Jun 26th, 2012, 11:35 AM
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I'm happy that you were able to find vegetables on the menu as I was in Italy in may and none were to be found . Everything was pasta and more pasta.>>

syliva - it is a mystery to me that it is so hard to find vegetables on the plate in italian restaurants. i have come to the conclusion that the italians don't often go out to eat vegetables as that is what they eat at home - hence the great piles of them in markets.

they do exist - you have to look for the "contorni" section of the menu - but if they do eat them in restaurants, italians tend to eat them as a separate course. I have most often found them as parts of antipasti, and also at those sorts of places that are often called "rosticceria" - cafes selling roast meats and veg, usually at lunchtime.

>

AJ - i came across these for the first time last year on my May trip to Italy, and the best translation i could find was medlars, which was clearly rubbish. [wrong fruit altogether, and wrong season!] My co-italian students had the same problem. Loquat is a lot more like it, so thank you!
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Old Jun 26th, 2012, 12:52 PM
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"I'm happy that you were able to find vegetables on the menu as I was in Italy in may and none were to be found . Everything was pasta and more pasta."

Don't know where you chose to eat, syviathomas, but we certainly never found it a problem to find vegetables on the menu in Italy, and certainly not limited to "pasta and more pasta". Perhaps you never made it to the Secondi (main courses - meats, fish) or Contorni (side dishes) portions of the menu. These are traditionally ala carte, so if you want veggies or potatoes with your steak, you have to order it separately.

Mr. Peabody - excellent trip report! Thanks for taking the time to post this.
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Old Jun 26th, 2012, 02:46 PM
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Vegetables are no problem. Most of the places had several salads in the antepastos, and there were always vegs listed on the contorni. And, you can always ask (got us delicious cooked carrots once and nice green beans another time). Then there were pannini which were frequently half vegetable also. Part of the joy of travel is not having every plate of food as a meat, a starch, and a vegetable all at once on one plate every meal. Italy is not the US. That's a good reason to go there!
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Old Jul 1st, 2012, 02:08 PM
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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy, Part 10

(Sorry for the delay. End of month obligations and a few power failures.)

Monday: The “Joys” of modern air travel, Imodium, and how to smuggle.

Up early, pack the last stuff, gobble up breakfast, deliver cash to the hotel, and meet the limo at the door. The Savoia arranged the driver, who showed up early, loaded up, and off we went to the Naples airport. Unlike the kamikaze kabbie in Rome, this driver was careful, knew how to avoid traffic tie-ups, and was a fluent commentator on all things Sorrento. We learned about lemons, volcanoes, weather, and so on. The Naples airport was small and informal. No one cared about the buzzing from the metal detectors. We checked our bags, found our gate, and took off. The one hour flight to Rome was uneventful.

Rome Airport was one huge shopping mall. Actually, all the Italian transportation hubs we used on the trip were shopping malls. The central railroad terminal in Naples even had a shop for refrigerators and washing machines. Anyway, we had two hours to get to our flight to JFK. We needed it. We followed signs. And walked. And walked. And went up and down to different floors. And took an automated tram to another terminal. And walked. We spent maybe 10 minutes looking for stuff to use up our last euros, but all the prices were captive audience adjusted, generally 50%-100% higher than off airport prices. We did stop at a food mall for lunch (salad, porchetta sandwich, nice).

I was tempted by the shop selling buffalo mozzarella conveniently packed in styrofoam boxes, but 15 euro for 500 grams seemed a bit high, and I had no idea of how to carry fresh cheese packed in water through US customs. Then we passed a shop with the same cheese for 10 euro. Then another, right next to our departure gate for 8 euro. But I didn't buy. However, the last shop had water buffalo butter in handy 125 gram packets for 1 euro each and I had 4 euro in coins, so I bought 4 and buried them in the bag with the camera and chargers and such. The 2 hour connection was just enough time.

We looked forward to at least a bit of comfort on our flight, as we had an aisle/window 2 seat row preassigned. Not exactly. Alitalia had reassigned us to the two middle seats in a 4 seat row. Worse, the aisle seats bookending us were occupied by a married couple. In revenge, my system, somehow discomforted by a digestive problem, kept the female bookend from relaxing for half the flight until my Imodium kicked in.

At this point, I will briefly rant about the food on Alitalia. I was going to say it was an insult to Italy. It was so bad that half the passengers were discarding it without unsealing the packages. Salads were dated as made 3 days earlier and were served on their sell by dates. Other items had a 6 month shelf life, also near sell by. The pasta made one long for leftover Chef Boyardee. I finally decided that the food was a crime against humanity. And my system. Conclusion: Bring your own food or bring Imodium.

We eventually landed in NYC. I had to smuggle my butter through customs inspection. I have an honest face, but I am totally unable to lie with it straight. Nevertheless, I would have to deal with the dreaded question about bringing in food, animal products, plants and seeds. Seeds! Yes, I said. I have tomato seeds. In sealed packets. That's OK, right? Not exactly. We trundled over to agricultural inspection. I had to open the suitcases and locate the tomato seeds. Well, I located 2 packets. They did not have export/import certificates. Confiscated. Have a nice day.

And so, the 2 cheap packets of tomato seeds, 1 euro total value, were consigned to the incinerate pile, joining the sausages, fruits, and soft cheeses. Meanwhile, we blithely escaped with our butter and the 2 expensive tomato seed packets undetected. We could have carried in anything else if we wanted to. All hail the sacrificial San Marzano tomato seeds!

I then called our pre-arranged car service. We would soon be home. Not exactly. Sorry, they said. No driver available. Trying to get a car service without a rip off on Memorial Day: Priceless. Plus tip.

But we did get home, and found it intact.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2012, 07:06 PM
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I'm posting the travel tips from this trip as a separate thread.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2012, 07:32 AM
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Last part:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...m#last-comment
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Old Jul 3rd, 2012, 01:24 PM
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great reporting, i enjoyed it...
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