Naples Pizza

From my previous blog post you probably know that I visited Naples for couple of hours.

Naples is known for the best Italian pizza!!! And it’s so true. :)

Of course my friends and I had to stop by at the restaurant because we were so exhausted and hungry. And because we were so exhausted and hungry we realistically didn’t look at the name of the restaurant. BUT I’ll update this if I remember the name :)

As soon as we enter the restaurant, the waitress welcomed and seated us. It was a pleasurable environment: music playing, people enjoying their time. Since I’m from Canada, I’m used to waitresses to bring water as a start... Clearly, it’s not like that in Naples. When I asked for water she looked at me like I was asking for million bucks. Haha. She brought us all water and took our enormous order… Four different pizzas! It did not take them long to make those pizzas. We all shared and tried each one of them. They were so damn delicious with crispy thin dough and fresh vegetables.

As our drinks we all got Coca-Colas with different fancy things on it.

Honestly, it was a pleasant experience in that restaurant and I loved Naples pizza!

They definitely do have and make the best and most delicious Italian pizza ever!

If you ever end up in Naples, come by and enjoy their pizza :)

 

P.S Hopefully, I’ll remember the name of the restaurant and will ask my friends, stay tuned.

World's garbage

Couple of days in Gaeta, going to the beach everyday and having fun got a little boring. So my friends and I decided to go to Naples for a day just to see around. We scheduled a day, went to the station to buy tickets that were pretty cheap. Our train ride was about one or one and half hours. As we came out from the station, all we could see is garbage. Garbage was everywhere. Besides garbage, there were a lot of weird people, I guess they were homeless, but they were in dirty clothes sitting on the ground. Honestly, I never saw so many “homeless” people outside of the train station. Since I’m from Canada, seeing something like that was so shocking. It seemed like Naples was completely different country because it was so different from Gaeta, which is one of the smallest Italian cities. We were walking on the street made of garbage. Everything I could feel underneath of my sandals was garbage. It felt like the entire world threw the garbage at Naples. I wish I could take better pictures to show you what we were going through.

We started walking away from the train station, so we could head to the centre of Naples and see the tourist sights, take pictures and have fun. 

As we were walking down the street and talking in Russian, discussing our plans, some random man came up to us: “You guys are Russians? I’m Russian too, I just want to let you know, keep your purses and expensive stuff to yourself. A lot of people get robbed here, but anyway enjoy your trip, guys!!!” We couldn’t even reply to him and he disappeared in the crowd. After he said all that to us we started walking closer to each other and held tight to our valuable belongings. I really appreciate him for that.

Honestly, Naples is very pretty city! We saw the most prettiest church, the most beautiful view to mountains, very tall buildings and architecture looked so nice.

 I wish it was much cleaner and I really hope it will. But if you ever travel to Naples, here's my tip for you: do not take any valuable stuff with you and make sure you are ready to see world’s garbage everywhere. However, it’s fun to see how other cities are so much different from each other. Oh, and we lasted there only few hours and were so glad to come back to our “home” in Gaeta.

La Grotta del Turco or Montagna Spaccata

When I was visiting Gaeta for a week, I always wondered if this small city had any historical mysteries. As I did my research I found out about Grotta del Turco or “Montagna Spaccata” as Italians call it. It’s a mountain split in half located right beside the church.

My best friend and I were at the beach and we decided to ask people around where it was located. When we asked a man who worked at the beach, he had no idea what we were talking about. I tried to explain somehow in English since I do not speak Italian and their English isn’t perfect. Few minutes later, his friend jumped into the conversation and surprisingly said: “Si, si! Montagna Spaccata!” He showed us where it was. And guess what? It was right beside our beach!!! We found out about it two days before we had to leave. Even though it was really hot, we got some gelatos and started our little trip. As we got there, we saw a very pretty church. We had to pay €1 each to get to the Grotta del Turco. Luckily, few guys who were walking ahead paid for us. How nice of them though! :)

As we entered the gates, we had to go down the stairs. I counted about 276 steps… I think. When we got there, the view was amazingly beautiful! I took couple of pictures of course, but photos are different than reality. There were a lot of people, you could totally see the sea and people on the shipping just swimming by. It was a very precious view. I definitely recommend this to anyone who ever visits Gaeta. Hands down you’ll love the view!!!

There is also a photo of how la Grotta del Turco looks from the seaside. 

P.S walking back upstairs was a good workout too!

American flag

As our journey finished in Rome, we were on our way to Gaeta, south side and seaside of Italy. Prices for trains are cheap. It all depends on timing. Prices for train tickets are fairly cheap. The train ride was about two hours.

As we arrived, it felt like we were in another country. Formia, Gaeta was so much different than Rome. Well, I guess it was because more rural and more naturalistic I would say. The view of Gaeta is incredible. It’s a perfect mixture of nature, sea and architecture. I feel like Gaeta stole my heart, because I fell in love with that small city that you could probably walk around in couple of hours.

Since it was south of Italy it was less crowded, and not too many tourists. However, when we went to the beach, it looked like half of the world’s population was there. There were a lot of people. Who would not want to enjoy the beautiful weather on the beach?

Water was crystal clear and warm. The funniest part about that beach was when I saw American flag… right beside Italian. It’s common sense why there was Italian flag, but I was wondering why American flag was hanging there. It was so random and I had to kill my curiosity. I asked a man who was picking up the garbage at the beach, because he looked very non Italian, as we spoke, I find out that he works for US Navy and that there’s a big ship in the sea. That’s why there was an American flag.

P.S That's an American ship in the picture

Gianicolo Hill

Since I was in Rome for a week, I had to visit all tourist sights, it was a must! One of my friends did a research about Gianicolo Hill, and we all decided that this must be viewed from early morning when sun starts rising. Gianicolo Hill is known as of one the tallest hills in Italy. We looked at some picture on Internet and we were so stunned and excited for the sunrise n Gianicolo Hill. We woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and jogged to the hill. When we got there, luckily it was still dark. Every 5-10 minutes I was taking pictures. The view was one of the most incredible views that my eyes ever witnessed. You can overlook most of the city from the top of the hill, which makes it a very breathtaking view, especially to see the city's dome and skyline from far. Also, you could see the mount Vesuvius! Isn’t it so incredible? I never saw anything so beautiful! The hill contains very historic sights such as San Pietro in Montorio that is a very unique design of Roman architectural history. There's also the fountain (Fontana dell'Acqua Paola) It is a monumental fountain that was made from marbles and located right beside San Pietro in Montorio church.  Spending almost 3 hours just looking at the beautiful sunrise was absolutely gorgeous! I tried to make a collage from the beginning of the sunrise and the end, but honestly if you see it with your own eyes it’s so much different and breathtaking! Gianicolo Hill is a must in Rome :)