Back from Naples

The pizza as we know it was created in the southern Italian city of Naples, and I have now eaten at three of the places that occupy spots on most top five or ten pizza places in the world: DiMatteo, DaMichele and Sorbillo. They have not disappointed.

The Neapolitan pizza is cooked quickly -- a minute or so -- in very hot wood-burning ovens. They are 13 or 14 inches across, uncut and with spots of char all around. The dough is soft and chewy. The basic Pizza Margherita is topped with only tomatoes, olive oil, mozzarella and basil.

The price? One can pay more at some restaurants, but the top pizzerias in Naples charge just three or four Euros. And when at DiMatteo, be sure to get the frittatini -- pasta and cheese deep friend with a center of meat and peas. Wow.

As good as it is, the food in Naples isn't what most amazes a visitor. It is the congested and crazy traffic on the narrow and seemingly patternless city streets. A feverish ballet of cars, scooters and pedestrians navigate the squares and streets with daring and skill. There appears to be few rules and fewer people to enforce them.

I've now been to Naples twice, and the city is both scary and exciting. It is the beating heart of southern Italy.

For art's sake

Atlantic Works is hosting an exhibition of the work of Valentina Oppezzo, "a young Italian photographer now living in Cambridge." The subject of the photos include toys, food and Italian landscapes. The exhibit, sponsored by Italia Unita, runs through Oct. 31, with a cocktail reception next Thursday.

The gallery is also hosting "Phallic Confessions and Flaccid Truth" -- new work by Laura Torres and Samantha Marder -- through Oct. 24.

A fortnight in the Old Country

Earlier this month I visited Italy for two weeks, spending time in Naples, Rome and Florence, as well as a village in the mountains above the Mediterranean coast. It was a fantastic trip. Our hosts -- relatives of a friend of mine -- were wonderful, and we ate like kings.

The village is called San Mauro Cilento, and you can see in the photo what sunset looks like from the house where we stayed. It happened to be the weekend of a town festival, which provided the most bizarre moment of the trip: children dancing on a stage built in the village square to the songs of Grease while a band played the music, singers performed the songs in Italian, and clips of the film played on a screen behind them.

In Naples we ate some of the best pizza in the world and stood at coffee bars several times a day for expertly-pulled shots of espresso, but the real revelation in the densely-populated city was that there are virtually no traffic rules. Driving is seemingly an adventure everywhere in Italy, but hitting the road in Naples is well beyond anything I've seen in the United States.

I'd been to Rome before, a decade ago, so we didn't replicate the usual first-time must-see things: the Sistene Chapel, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter's. We did make a trip to see some a couple paintings by Caravaggio, a personal favorite since I saw a program about him on PBS. We also took part in a bit of Roman nightlife, visiting a wine bar and having a drink along the Tiber.

Florence was at the top of my list for places I wanted to see, so I spent four days there, visiting churches, checking out public art, and spending time in the Uffizi, one of the world's top museums, where I saw more of Caravaggio's work. I didn't see the actual David, as the line for that site was too long, but I saw the copy outside the Palazzo Vecchio, and I walked across the Ponte Vecchio as well. Florence was clean and calmer than its southern Italy counterparts, and the architecture and art are phenomenal.

After two weeks away, the nine-hour flight from Rome to New York was a chore, and I arrived to a nine-hour layover at JFK because of weather-related flight cancellations and delays. It was nice to be back, but the entire experience -- the people, the places, and the food -- will not easily be forgotten.