Sfogliatelle

Well, I have been absent from this blog for a short while. But sometimes it is hard to find the right words, or to find words at all. So I decided to focus my virtual world on all the good stuff that has happened and that I experience. Like Sfogiatelle. Nope – this is not my new favorite hang-out, rather one of the many Italian tongue-twisters that I am absolutely unable to pronounce. Sfogiatelle are a type of delicious pastry that comes in different versions. And once – by myself having ordered a coffee at the bar and one of these pastries – I tried to pay the same at the cashier. He was an older man and started smiling when I told him what I wanted to pay. Then he kindly asked me to repeat. That’s when I tried to point at what I had, but he insited that I would repeat the word. So I tried, he came around from his desk started to crack up and asked me to repeat again. My face was dark cherry red by then and I refused. Apparently I had made up my very own version – some kind of “phantasy” word – and the old guy could hardly recover by the sound of it. He then made me repeat slowly after him until I got it half way right. What did follow? Of course, the obligatory hug and kisses. Jessas!

Since I worte last, I passed the Amalfi coast – in desperate need for a pause after many days on the bike. This little part of Italy is sure beautiful, but to cut it short – we did not become close friends. I will however share a few pictures:

What happened next was something very unexpected – I fell in love. With Napoli. I had not planned to stay in Napoli, but rather to pass right through or make a huge turn around it, but someone had told me that Napoli and Palermo are the two best cities in Italy. Not having stopped in Palermo made me somehow curious about Napoli. So still in desperate need for a cycling break I decided to give it a try. And how worth it was! What a colourful, vibrant, lively and diverse city. I enjoyed every minute of my stay and walked around so much, that I got the worst sore legs from walking (I totally hadn’t realized that I had not walked in days!). I also had the pleasure to meet Marco through warmshowers. Marco was really the best and gave me the full local tour, including many interesting insights. Ah – and of course I had Pizza. There is no way around it in Napoli. So good. As for the rest – see for yourself (and a short comment on the side: it has been awefully cold -downjacket cold – in the past week. And also very windy as you can see on my header picture. Also – all the “artsy” abstract pictures are from Napoli’s metro stations):

Currently I am a bit north of Rome, in a place called Ladispoli. I had not planned to come here, but totally didn’t pay attention to the kilometers in made in the last two days and having cycled for 220km in 1.5 days this is where I decided I need to sleep:-) I still have no plan for the following days, but I am thinking of going “inlands” towards Lago di Bracciano and Lago di Bolsena in order to avoid busy main roads. We will see- or rather: you will read about it. Have a good night and let me know how all of you are doing!