Day 16 - Tough Life, Naples Edition

I give credit where credits due, this pic was taken by davi's friend elisa,
I think she really captured the moment :)

We start day 16 off right with a proper Italian breakfast- croissants, donuts and espresso. I'm always wondering how people can only eat sugar and bread for breakfast and not be starving, but after the huge dinner we had last night at 10pm I'm still feeling pretty full so that answers that question. Davi's mom comes down with the basket of laundry, pressed and folded. I'm in awe, she's a saint. Everything smells so good from drying in the breeze, like lavender and easy living.

We spend the day at a different beach. I like how the beaches are set up here, they are all privately owned so you pay a small amount, like 3 or 4 euro, but they give you a beach chair and there is a little restaurant with drinks, food and most times showers and changing rooms. No ones sitting on the sand with their towels, it's all class here. You have to pay to get on the beach in jersey and you don't get shit for it. I joke with Davi that he leads an incredibly tough life out here in Italy. He laughs and says its a sarcastic saying they have in his town- it's a tough life. To be fair, he was on vacation the week we were there so he had a lot of free time. Usually he works very long hours at his fathers restaurant. After bill turned into a lobster from the sun we decide it's time to go, and all of us are getting pretty hungry.

We return to the house to eat lunch at 6pm, again I guess that's pretty normal when you eat dinner at 11pm. Davi disappears to his parents house upstairs and comes back with the most amazing thing I've ever seen. His father goes octopus fishing at 5am every morning. His mother cooked up that mornings catch in a homemade sauce. Virgina made linguine to go with the octopus and Davi pulls out a bottle of wine that his father made. Like made in the backyard with his own hands from scratch. And the vinegar that went on the salad was made from scratch too. And this man runs a successful restaurant. How?! How does he do this? I can never complain that I have no time ever again. Of course everything was amazingly delicious. It helps that bill and I are huge Pulpo (octopus) fans.

So after this feast is over, Davi is going out the door to drive Virgina home so she can get ready for a bachelorette party that night and on his way out he says that we should be ready to go to dinner with his mom at 10. What? Dinner?! After all of that?! Bill and I look at each other and laugh. This is why I didn't care about eating Chinese and mcdonalds in Rome, I knew I was going to do all the real eating here in Naples.
We go to a restaurant down the street that is very rustic and small. Davi's mom has her friend with her who doesn't speak english and the two of them are hysterical together. I didn't need to understand Italian to know a lot about what was going on. They were super fun and it made me hope that I have as much energy and life in me when I'm older. They explain that this restaurant doesn't have a menu. They grow everything out in their garden and get their meat fresh that day so whatever they have for specials is what you have to choose from. After the ante pasta Adele (Davis mom) suggests to bill he try the beef and mushroom ravioli and I get the pasta with anchovy pesto. Every meal I have seems better than the last, if that's even possible. The pasta is obviously handmade as it's thicker and the texture is different than box pasta. They aren't serving barilla here. One thing we are learning is you can't refuse dessert here. There is no such thing as being too full for dessert. So we get an array of desserts that are a blur to me now as I'm trying to remember, it was all creamy sugary goodness melting in my mouth with every bite. Then a espresso to top it off, then offers of limoncello.... It goes on and on. We roll ourselves to the car and go to another beach club for samba night. We don't get very far into our first drink when davi gets a call from Virgina's friend who says she had a little toooo much fun at the bachelorette party and is sick outside. I've been there, I think we all have been there, and it sucks to be feeling that badly. So we don't hesitate to help her home and we go straight to bed as well, with very happy stomachs.

-Claire