Words and Light

When my mom and I visited my brother and his family in Naples, Italy, Matt and Emily made sure we saw the sights. For one thing, I’m pretty allergic to cats, and Emily wanted to minimize my exposure to their cat by getting us out of the apartment as frequently as possible. For another, we were in Italy — and who knows when or if we’ll be back?

So the photos below — a mix of landscapes, food and cute baby — are largely in chronological order of our travels around southern Italy and then our four-day excursion to Rome and Florence. Enjoy!

Costiera Amalfitana

Our first outing took us along the Amalfi Coast, where the views and seafood are ample.

© 2013. Can you tell where the sky and Mediterranean meet? View of the Amalfi Coast from an overlook near Ristorante L’Incanto in Furore.

© 2013. Matt’s platter of fried fishes, squids and shrimp at Ristorante L’Incanto in Furore.

Matt and Emily generally feed Layla “real people” food. She’s not allowed extremely salty things like prosciutto, but she can handle Indian food and a variety of other cuisines, and Emily always cuts up small samples of the meal for Layla to eat. So, nobody was surprised when Layla grabbed one of the lightly fried sardines that Matt left on his platter…

© 2013. Layla reaches for the fried fishes remaining on Matt’s platter.

…but everyone — including Layla herself — was surprised when she ate the tail end of the fish:

© 2013. What happens when a 14-month-old eats the tail end of a lightly fried sardine.

Onwards and eastwards down the coast. We stopped in Vietri sul Mare, a hamlet known for its ceramics. It also has a pretty nice view:

© 2013. View from a metered parking area overlook in Vietri sul Mare.

…and we discovered that Layla, who previously hated gelato for its frigidity, is okay with it as long as she’s holding the spoon:

© 2013. Chocolate gelato tastes even better if it’s all over your face.

Napoli

It’s easier to say Matt and Emily live in Naples, but they’re a bit removed from the city itself. Anyway, Emily took my mom and me into downtown Naples to check out some old churches (including Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo di Napoli and Museo Cappella Sansevero) and, of course, eat true Neapolitan pizza.

We learned that verace pizza napoletana (“true Neapolitan pizza”) is taken pretty seriously. There’s even a sort of governing body that inspects and approves pizzerias that produce verace pizza napoletana. Matt was a big fan of L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele — until he found out that that’s where Julia Roberts ate pizza in the movie Eat Pray Love. (Awful movie.) Since then, his loyalty lies with Pizzeria di Matteo (whose website includes an entire section about Bill Clinton’s visit there), where Emily took us:

© 2013. Pizza con funghi (mushroom pizza).

It was pretty tasty.

Roma

Matt and Emily spent their fourth wedding anniversary in Rome… with their baby and the in-laws.

© 2013. Il Colosseo by night.

And then the restaurant where we ate dinner (I had carbonara) had a pretty teeny bathroom, so Emily had to change Layla’s diaper in a dark alley between parked Vespas. Typical.

© 2013. Oh, the indignity.

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Nine months ago, we all got to meet my baby niece Layla. A few months later, I was lamenting to a coworker about how fast the baby was growing, and how her living in Italy makes it hard for me to be a doting aunt. My coworker immediately chided me for not applying for my passport, booking flights and getting my butt over to Italy, because after all, Layla’s not exactly getting any younger.

So, two weeks ago, my mother and I flew to Naples, where my brother Matt and his family live, for a 10-day trip that would be my first-ever journey abroad. We explored Naples, had a four-day excursion to Rome and Florence, ate a lot and played with the baby. And I made a lot of pictures.

© 2013.

The pictures in this blog post (which is the first of at least three to come) show home life in Naples — or, Napoli. But first, the obligatory travel photo:

© 2013. First light over the Atlantic as we flew from Houston (IAH) to Frankfurt (FRA).

I never wanted to be that person who traveled abroad and returned home with all sorts of snooty attitudes about food, culture, etc., but let’s be real: You really cannot beat super-fresh mozzarella di bufala.

© 2013. A home-made charcuterie board at Matt and Emily’s apartment was our first meal in Italy. Clockwise from the top: Olives, fresh basil, freshly sliced prosciutto, cut tomatoes, olive oil and mozzarella di bufala.

Baby moped:

© 2013. Emily put Layla on a pint-sized moped in a Pozzuoli park.

Real moped:

© 2013. Matt on his Vespa. Behind him are his landlady, who lives downstairs from his apartment, and one of the many stray cats she feeds.

And now for some scenes at home:

© 2013. Emily takes Layla for a walk around the neighborhood above Pozzuoli.

© 2013. Layla pushes against the door screen to watch Matt as he sits on the terrace.

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