I do tourist stuff, then have lunch.

Of course, as a tourist, I need to do the normal tourist stuff. If one is in Napoli, one needs to go on a day trip out to Pompeii and Herculaneum. If I had it do over again, I might skip Pompeii altogether, both because most of the good stuff isn’t actually at Pompeii, but back in the superb Museo Arciologico in Napoli and also because Herculaneum was way more interesting.  Better preserved, more cool stuff, smaller in area (there is a lot of walking past dusty, closed-off, unexplained buildings in Pompeii in order to get to the interesting parts), Herculaneum gets my vote.  The theaters in Pompeii were pretty cool though.

Anyway, we went to lunch in the modern-day town of Pompeii, to a restaurant called Il Principe. (In case you were wondering, princeps is the Latin title that Romans used to refer to the emperor). We found out after we got there that the place was actually written up in the NY Times several years ago (I saw the clipping, but a link is eluding me). And that the owner, with whom we chatted, had cooked for Bill Clinton when he was in town in the late ‘90s. (This seems to be a continuing theme, as if Bill Clinton did not so much attend the G-7 conference in Napoli in the late 90s but instead just ate out in the surrounding area while the conference occurred around him. He does seem to have good taste at least.)

Food was certainly memorable: mozzarella soufflé-esque thing served with grilled veg (the eggplant in this country is so much more flavorful than anything I’ve gotten my hands on in the states, especially the bland, gigantic globe eggplant you can find at the supermarket), squid ink gnocchi with mussels and parmiggiano, a composed salad of fresh mozzarella, poached head-on shrimp and pesto. The soufflé thing was interesting, as it appeared to rise like a soufflé but was anything but airy. The cheese was melted and gooey and perfect with the grilled peppers, zucchini and eggplant. The gnocchi had great texture, and were just the right side of too salty, with plump shellfish and cheese with a nice bite. (Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t ever put cheese on fish. It doesn’t always work, but it has the potential to be great.) The salad was good. Refreshing after a hot and dusty couple of hours hiking around ruins. I am sure the day will come, but as of now, I cannot imagine ever getting sick of fresh mozzarella. Or the tomatoes. I’m going to have to make a pilgrimage out to San Marzano to check out the tomatoes growing before the season ends.

We drank a Piedirosso, a red varietal that neither I nor Ellen, my mom and travelling companion for this first leg of the trip, had ever heard of before we arrived in Italy. I’m not an expert on wine, just an enthusiastic amateur. Ellen, however, has some impressive wine credentials (WSET advanced certificate, Master of Wine candidate, see her own blog and check her out.  In any case, she knows wine better than about 99% of the world.) It turned out to be highly aromatic, high alcohol in a way that reminded me a little of a California zinfandel. I loved the idea that the wine was grown in volcanic soil in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, right after seeing the giant wine storage pithos at Herculaneum. We liked it so much we went to the winery, called Cantine Podere del Tirone, after lunch and bought half a case.