{"id":2639,"date":"2014-02-24T19:03:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T18:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=2639"},"modified":"2021-02-03T20:42:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T19:42:46","slug":"visiting-caserta-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/visiting-caserta-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Caserta Palace and Naples Pizza"},"content":{"rendered":"

I must be getting sentimental in my middle-age.  A few weeks ago I talked about weddings and now I\u2019m recalling a Valentine\u2019s Day a couple of years ago\u2014Jessica and I visiting Caserta Palace<\/a>, strolling around the gardens, just outside of Naples, in the clear, crisp February air.  Soon after arriving, I had noticed a man with a horse-drawn carriage riding around the grounds and thought, \u201cMy, how romantic.  Maybe I should inquire into his services and impress my fidanzata.\u201dSure enough, as he drew closer, he began to shout.  I couldn\u2019t really understand him, but it seemed obvious enough I was being subjected to his sales pitch.<\/p>\n

\"visiting\"visiting<\/span><\/p>\n

I cut to the chase, \u201cQuanto costa?\u201d\u00a0 How much?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think he actually heard my words, as he continued his passionate monologue, determined to make me hear the whole spiel before the bargaining process began.\u00a0 Finally, I reluctantly gave up my role in the \u201cconversation,\u201d shrugged, and turned over the reins to Jessica and her knowledge of Neapolitan dialect.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From that point, I could only watch.\u00a0 But what struck me was that while Jessica was attempting to engage him, he continued to look squarely at me.\u00a0 I was the man, after all, and this sort of hard bargaining is clearly not women\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201c80 euro?!?\u201d Jessica scoffed, \u201cDai, nun pazzia\u2019\u2026quanto?\u201d (80 euro?\u00a0 Let\u2019s get serious, how much?). <\/p>\n

Still looking at me, he replied, \u201cSigno\u2019, voi siete un gentiluomo, nun volete porta\u2019 questa principessa in carrozza?\u201d (Sir, you\u2019re a gentleman, don\u2019t you want to take this princess on the carriage?)<\/p>\n

This, Jessica could not stand for. \u00a0\u201cNon ci sono principesse qui; dai, facci un prezzo onesto.\u201d \u00a0(There are no princesses here; come on, give us an honest price).<\/p>\n

\u201cSigno\u2019, onesti comme a mme nun<\/em> ce ne stanno! Vi faccio 50 euro e trattate la signorina dalla principessa che \u00e8. \u00a0Oh, signo\u2019!\u201d \u00a0(Sir, there are no others as honest as me. \u00a0I\u2019ll make it 50 and you can treat the Miss like the princess that she is.\u00a0 Oh, sir!)<\/p>\n

Jessica was quick with her retort, \u201cNiente, non ci accordiamo. Buona giornata.\u201d \u00a0(No deal. \u00a0Have a good day).<\/p>\n

Now he got even more theatrical with his gestures and tone of voice.\u00a0 \u201cSigno\u2019! Aspettate! Tengo famiglia, mio figlio \u00e8 disoccupato, mugliereme \u00e8 disoccupata, il cavallo mangia assaje… Facciamo 25 euro? \u00a0\u00a0(Sir! Wait! I have a family, my son doesn\u2019t work, my wife doesn\u2019t work, this horse eats so much\u2026 Let\u2019s make it 25 euros?).<\/p>\n

That last bit I understood. \u00a025 euros. \u00a0I nodded and reached for my wallet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee?\u201d he said, addressing Jessica for the first time. \u201cThese are men\u2019s businesses. \u00a0See? \u00a0The gentleman here knows how to treat a princess.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he took us for a lovely ride that lasted about 7 minutes, which certainly did not\u00a0significantly\u00a0<\/span>increase the horse\u2019s appetite. \u00a0But it was lovely. Here, see for yourself:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

History of La Reggia and Visiting Caserta Palace<\/h2>\n

The sprawling royal complex at Caserta was built by the Bourbon kings, starting in 1752, and was meant to rival Versailles and the Royal Palace in Madrid. One of the most beautiful features is the way that the buildings\u2014the last remnants of the Baroque era\u2014blend in with the natural setting, never taking away from the parks, gardens, and surrounding woodlands.<\/p>\n

\"ceiling<\/a>At the end of World War II, the royal palace served as the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander. \u00a0In April 1945 it was the site where they signed the unconditional surrender of German forces in Italy. \u00a0The first Allied war crimes trial took place in the palace in 1945.<\/p>\n

The Caserta Palace has also been used as a filming location<\/strong> in a number of movie productions. \u00a0For example, it was used as the Queen\u2019s Royal Palace in the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,<\/em> and then again in the 2002 sequel, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones<\/em>.\u00a0 Other films such as Mission Impossible III<\/em> and Angels & Demons<\/em> have used the palace as a substitute for the Vatican.<\/p>\n

If you have a chance for visiting Caserta Palace, I highly recommend this destination as a nice weekend away from Rome.<\/p>\n

Here’s their website for tickets and info: La Reggia di Caserta<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where we stayed and ate:<\/p>\n

Our Bed and Breakfast: http:\/\/www.lanticocortile.it\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Our restaurant: http:\/\/www.ristorantemassa.it\/cucina.php<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of food\u2026<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not \u201cjust\u201d pizza!<\/h2>\n

The next days we went to visit Naples. This city deserves much more attention than most tourists are willing to give it\u2014and more than I can write about in the rest of this post. But I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t at least give homage to that icon of the Neapolitan kitchen: pizza<\/p>\n

\"wikicommons\"Naples is the birthplace of pizza and to try the original version will make you believe that you\u2019ve never eaten pizza before<\/strong> in your life.\u00a0 In fact, it is so good and so original that the Italian government has petitioned the European Commission to designate Naples\u2019 three (and there are only<\/b><\/span> three) versions of pizza as Specialit\u00e1 Tradizionale Garantita \u201cPizza Napoletana.\u201d And I quote:<\/p>\n

In the designation \u201cPizza Napoletana,\u201d we define the following names: \u201cPizza Napoletana Marinara,\u201d \u201cPizza Napoletana Margherita Extra,\u201d and \u201cPizza Napoletana Margherita.\u201d<\/p>\n

The products that provide the base for “Pizza Napoletana” include wheat flour type “00” with the addition of flour type “0,” yeast, natural water, peeled tomatoes and\/or fresh cherry tomatoes, marine salt, and extra virgin olive oil.<\/p>\n

Other added ingredients can include, garlic and oregano for \u201cPizza Napoletana Marinara;\u201d buffalo milk mozzarella, fresh basil and fresh tomatoes for \u201cPizza Napoletana Margherita Extra;\u201d and mozzarella STG or Fior di Latte Appennino and fresh basil for \u201cPizza Napoletana Margherita.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it!! No other ingredients are allowed including \u201cpepperoni,\u201d (either the Italian sweet peppers, or in the English language, spicy salami), mushrooms, onions, or God forbid, pineapple. These guys aren\u2019t joking around by putting Thai chicken, mango chutney, barbeque sauce, or other such sacrilege on top of their capolavori (masterpieces).\u00a0 They take pride in doing one simple thing.\u00a0 But doing it perfectly.\u00a0 So sure, eat what you like, but don\u2019t ever call it \u201cpizza\u201d unless it has earned the right to carry the name.<\/strong>\"pizza<\/a><\/p>\n

So there we were in the center of Naples, and of course we were keen to locate the aforementioned culinary treasure in situ<\/em>. We had a short list of recommended places and finally found ourselves inside the hallowed walls of a genuine Neapolitan pizzeria<\/strong> where all the magic takes place.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t repeat the whole dialogue, but suffice to say it was almost an exact replica of the horse carriage conversation, if you replace the phrase \u201ccarriage ride\u201d with \u201ctable for two.\u201d Once again I found myself merely observing a conversation that was directed at me. It\u2019s such an odd feeling, an out of body experience, as if you\u2019re watching yourself in a dream.<\/p>\n

And the pizza itself was a dream<\/strong>. So if you don’t have a sweetheart for Valentine’s Day, just make a date with una pizza margherita<\/em>. It might not be “romantic” in the classical sense, but at least you won’t have to cough up\u00a025 euros for a 7-minute carriage ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I must be getting sentimental in my middle-age.  A few weeks ago I talked about weddings and now I\u2019m recalling a Valentine\u2019s Day a couple of years ago\u2014Jessica and I visiting Caserta Palace, strolling around the gardens, just outside of Naples, in the clear, crisp February air.  Soon after arriving, I had noticed a man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,42],"tags":[156,48,32,203,204,205,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12085,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions\/12085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}