Disembarked in Italy: Traveling with the Fam through Rome, Naples, and Florence
The waitress was explaining that the spaghetti dish came with a sheep-cheese that tasted something like parm—“No I don’t want that.” My cousin shook his head. “Do you have normal cheese?”
When our food was served a few minutes later, he frowned. “It’s not even red. Why is it green?”
“You asked for spaghetti with spinach,” his wife told him. “That’s what that is.”
“But spaghetti is supposed to be red.”
We reminded him that spaghetti is a type of noodle. That he was thinking of a sauce. Marinara.
“No,” he shook his head. “Spaghetti is supposed to be red.”
I am going to bring this up again and again for the rest of our lives. He will never live it down. Traveling with family produces memories like this.
***
Traveling with family—something I hadn’t done since I was a teenager. And let me tell you, it turns out to be an enjoyable, loving, occasionally embarrassing but often maddening experience.
You see, I travel alone, and I’ve been doing so for years now. I’m experienced at navigating unfamiliar cultures and highly adept at rolling with the punches when it comes to novel, sometimes uncomfortable situations. I’m used to unchecked independence and flying by the proverbial pants-seat. So fifteen days of carefully planned travel with a bunch of family on their first venture into Europe…
Anyways, it’s difficult for me to provide a cohesive narrative to any of this, so I’m going to go about things in a different way. Instead, We’ll go city by city, and look at a few of my specific recommendations.
And I’m not talking about the big sites. There is little to add to descriptions of the Colosseum or Pompeii and so forth that hasn’t already been written. Instead, let’s look at a few things you would probably miss unless someone went out of their way to point them out.
Rome
Where to stay:
The Piranesi is in the chic neighborhood right by Piazza del Popolo, beneath the Villa Borghese park. Because I am a sucker for a good room, I decided to shred some money and spend the two nights leading up to my family’s arrival in the Panorama Suite—the nicest room in the joint with a balcony boasting a view of the piazza and the park. It’s a -luxurious hotel with gorgeous appointments, a comfortable rooftop bar, and a top-tier staff. I will likely return.
Where to hang out:
Go to the bridge over Ponte Garibaldi at Isola Tiberina around sunset. Not only is this stretch of the river stunning—fantastic, even—but it is lined with little restaurants and bars that provide substantial atmosphere at a lower cost than the more central parts of the city. And the sunset will blow the goddamn eyes out of your head. At that hour, the bridge becomes packed with locals and tourists alike who are all there to see what genuinely may be one of the most beautiful views on Earth.
Where to get coffee:
For a delicious (if costly) cup of coffee, stop by the Caffe Greco near the Spanish Steps. Nearly 300 years old, it has been a regular hangout for the likes of Goethe, Byron, Keats, Stendhal, Ibsen, Wagner, Casanova, and—more recently—Morrissey.
Naples
Where to hang out:
The more popular sections of Naples—those nearest the water—can feel a bit over-bustled and underwhelming. It revealed more of its charm the more I wondered its narrow backstreets.
Head up the hill into the old Roman quarter, where it begins to take on a sort-of New Orleans-vibe (and indeed I found a nice little jazz club called Bourbon Street). Go to Piazza Vincenzo Bellini, where you’ll encounter a collection of restaurants and bars centered around the Mure Greche—a Roman ruin some 2,700 years old. This is a lively, youthful neighborhood that is primarily patronized by locals, and that will give you a taste of the real Naples.
Where to Amalfi:
Positano is the kind of paradise you’ve dreamt about when you’ve imagined the Amalfi Coast. Picturesque multi-colored structures clustered on a hillside along the Mediterranean Sea. Sun-browned beach beauties basking in bikinis. Art and food and booze everywhere. It is just the sort of fantastic playground for the overly-wealthy that I should despise, but here’s the thing—I want to go back. Often and for long periods of time. There are a number of ways to get there, but we made a pretty easy day trip of it by taking the train to Salerno, then ferrying over to Positano. The boat-ride along the Amalfi Coast is worth the effort in itself.
Florence
Where to wander:
Go to Porta Romana at the southern tip of the Boboli Gardens and head up Viale Machiavelli. This will take you away from the tourist hoards and into a beautiful old residential neighborhood of upscale villas. Stop for a drink and a bite at Chalet Fontana around sunset, and enjoy the view over its stunning private garden. Thus refreshed, continue up Viale Galileo until you come around the backside of Piazzale Michelangelo, where you’ll be treated with a magnificent view of the city.
What to eat:
You must try two local dishes. First, Pappardella alla lepre is a traditional dish of wide pasta and hare sauce, although these days most places seem to make it with wild boar. Whatever the case, it’s delicious. Second, Bistecca alla Fiorentina—a massive porterhouse steak no less than two or two-and-a-half inches thick, heavily seared on the outside and rare as platinum on the inside. These are two dishes that are taken very seriously among the locals, and you can’t miss them.
Where to late-night:
Walk east along the north side of the river away from the old part of town. Once you pass the bridge at Ponte St. Niccolo, the river is lined by a series of beer gardens, food cart collectives, and makeshift dance clubs where the locals go to eat and party late into the night. I particularly liked the aesthetics of Wood Bar, which is an outdoor dance spot that has been constructed entirely out of reclaimed wood castoff.
The Verdict
I will be returning to Italy for a long, in-depth stay as soon as I can. There is simply too much to see, not only in these three specific cities, but in cities, towns, and regions throughout the country. There was no way I could satisfy my new-found hunger for Italy in a mere fifteen days, especially when caught up in the structure of family-travel.
On that note, what about traveling with family? I don’t think I would surprise any of them by admitting that there were exasperated moments when the whole thing drove me crazy, but there were times of abundant joy too.
We were at our best when we were sitting around a table, eating and drinking and talking about the excitements of the day. And really, what could be more Italian than that? It’s an entire culture that seems built around a vibrantly Epicurean lifestyle, around the notion that one should eat and drink heartily, laugh, discuss, and even argue freely, and always with loved ones.