La Cosa Nostra

I'm off on the night ferry to Sicily this evening. Should be a 10.5 hour steam over to the old country where my Jewish mafia ancestors used to run the bagel rackets. There's said to be some mean cannoli and Marsala there to name a few good bites. It was hailing and thundering last night in Napoli and the gentleman who runs the desk at the hostel in the morning, a student named Luca, came in with his helmet beaded with water and soaked to the skin said, "It's uh snowinga on the Vesuvius uh!" True story because when it weather cleared today you could see the white peaks of the Volcano right across the palm trees on the bay.

I've eaten a pizza a day since I've been here and my associates and me agree that this little Pizzeria da Michele was the best. There were no tourists at this one and the pizza with a soda cost all of €5. The other two shops were equally excellent: Pizzaria di Matteo and Pizza del Presidente, but Michele has a little more sauce and their crust was perfectly blistered and chewey. Only one or two basil leaves per pie though.

There's a great book called "The Dark Heart of Italy" that I spied on the shelves of the bookstore in town that has lot's of great chapters on all that's weird or wrong with Italy. Everything from Gov't corruption to the shadiness of the football leagues. I read it for a while and it made a great contrast to the picturesque authenticity of the old world that people have loved about this place for centuries. I recommend it to all who would travel through here.

Naploi has been a slightly chaotic, horn-honking, traffic clogged, trash strewn, graffiti splattered joy ride to be sure. I've been warned by every Italian north of the Volcano to keep my jewelry hidden and my wallet in my front pocket. Luckily I'm not much for pearls and my wallet looks more like something you'd throw away than something you'd steal, but I've got my NY eyes sharpened to the scene and pulled the change off the stylus.

Pompei, by the way, was one impressive ruin. This was no little town, but a thriving city the size of a university campus with a highly evolved infrastructure of roads ans sewers, theaters, basilica, prisons, and taverns. Most of the buildings are perfectly in tact save for the roofs, and you can still see ancient political adverts written in red on the city walls. The marble in the theaters was as it was two thousand years ago, I'm sure. The museum in Naploi where they hold all the bronze and pottery recovered from the site was a vast and boggling catalogue of artifacts made by artisans practing at the height of their craft. One of the nicest places to stoll around in Pompei is on the out skirts of the ruin near the unexcavated areas where you're out of the way of the herds of classes and tourist inspecting the area. The old roads around the perimeter were wet and green from the moss and shade trees where a few homeless dogs would wait for someone to walk by and keep them company. Someone like me. I threw this one yellow Sheppard a pine cone and he ended up following me around with his tail wagging for almost two hours. If I didn't feel like throwing the stick he would just drop it at my feet and bark until I changed my mind. It was lots of fun to have a pet for the afternoon. The good company of a dog is hard to beat.