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Today will be the day we feel sick from eating so much pizza. We are after all…staying in Naples…where pizza was invented!
We checked into the Marriott right in the center of Naples, grabbed a map and circled the world’s best pizza places. We walked the city and started our challenging research of which pizza really is the best. It is definitely hard work but someone had to do it so we stepped up to the challenge.
It was extremely hot in the city…as in, move your pinky finger and you sweat. We walked around for a good half hour before getting to our first bite of pizza. We sat and ordered a salad and pizza from Ristorante Europeo. The pizza which was listed on the menu as chef’s surprise was kind of split into 3 types in one. One side had green canned chili’s and red peppers, the other side had fresh cherry tomatoes and the last had white beans which made a surprisingly good taste with the gooey cheese and chewy dough. The pizza was definitely a good one and the salad had all kinds of fresh mixed greens, green beans, tomatoes, octopus and sardines. But…we didn’t give this one the world’s best title although it was definitely great.
The plan was to order one pizza at all these places and share so we could keep eating our way through the city, but we were already pretty full. We decided to walk all over the city for hours checking out the different areas. It was definitely a big NYC type feel except it was extremely dirty. We’re not talking about typical city grime, We’re talking about garbage piled all over the place, trash on the streets…this is not a place for flip-flops when walking around. If you can look past all the dirt and all the warnings of being mugged…there are gorgeous statues and fountains and old architecture. There are big squares with tons of pizzerias and of course lots of cheap shopping including the vendors on the streets wanting you to buy their wanna be Gucci purses made out of the finest plastic around.
We weaved our way in and out of alleys and major roads. There were clothes hanging on clotheslines all across the streets and crowds of both tourists and locals. After much walking and many pictures we worked up our appetite and went to our next pizzeria…Sorbillo. We walked quite a while looking around for this place in the dark, we finally asked someone where this place was…and in Italian they showed us we were right down the street from it. He said something about number 2 is better. We didn’t really know what he was talking about but saw the sign “Sorbillo” and grabbed the last table available.
We ordered 2 pizzas, one was a lasagna pizza which had tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, ham and basil and the other was a classic margarita. We paired our pizzas with 2 local beers made by Peroni and cleaned our plates. Full and tired from our long day, we started our walk back to our hotel…but 2 doors down saw loads of people standing outside a restaurant and a loud-speaker announcing different orders were ready. We stopped to see what restaurant was getting so much fuss…the sign read “Sorbillo”. We suddenly realized, we were duped. We had gone to a fake Sorbillo! Unbelievable…had we just looked 2 more doors down we would have seen the real pizza place, but why would we keep looking when we saw what we thought was the right restaurant. We had mixed feelings about this all the way home. We felt we had very good pizza but were fooled by the imposter “Sorbillo” pizza place. Maybe we could go back in the morning?
Tomorrow we will eat at least one more pizza before leaving Naples!
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Published by Brandey Kabat
What I like: Dark chocolate, yoga, fresh squeezed juice, laughing, hiking, wine, travel, food, lush products, being warm, having long hair, the ritual of drinking something hot first thing in the morning…
What I don’t like: When people smell their fingers, pushing elevator buttons, confrontational situations, not being able to fall asleep quickly at bedtime…
Most random job ever: Plastic surgery consultant
As for my love life: I met my husband mid way through my junior year in college, as soon as I laid my eyes on him I was attracted to him. In fact, I made the first move which was a bit out of character but there was something about him…probably the fact that he was smokin’ hot!!
Where from and where to: I grew up in NY, went to college at The Ohio State University and then headed to CA after graduation. My boyfriend (Giff) and I had a map, a borrowed van and used stuff from his mom’s basement aka a vacuum, silverware, old Christmas ornaments etc., and about $1000 each. We thought it would be a good idea to head straight to CA since neither of us had been. Being we didn’t know anyone there nor did we have a job or job interviews set up or a place to live…I would say we did it the hard way! However with a bit of help from Giff’s mom who flew out to put us up in a hotel, bought me a suit for interviewing and co-signed a lease to get us a place to live we eventually found jobs and an apartment and have been in CA for 10 years.
Our story: After moving out to CA and living together for about 3 years we got engaged. He popped the question while down on one knee on the beach at sunset after we finished our picnic he had packed of bread, cheese, shrimp cocktail and wine. He even had the ring in a box that had a light shining down on it when opened so as it was getting dark, this amazing man was asking me to be his wife as he handed me a huge rock…Yes! Yes! Yes!
In 2005 we were married (I am biased but our wedding was absolutely amazing). By the end of 2005 we were new home owners. 2006-2009- we were both happily married, attached to our 3 cats and were focused on building our careers.
Giff and I got pregnant mid year 2009 with our first baby but what should have been one of the highlights of our life was soon distracted by the news I received at the doctor’s office.
The lump in my breast that had been dismissed the year before as nothing was now being diagnosed by a different doctor as breast cancer. Thankfully Giff is a persistent person and when we went in for our ultrasound (to hear our baby’s heartbeat) he brought up the request for testing to be done on the lump rather than dismissing it based on feeling it.
The going gets rough: Things began to move so quickly at that point, it was hard to breathe. I was 30, pregnant with my first child and going into surgery to remove breast cancer. I was about to go through what would be the worst year of my life. The plan had been discussed, we were going with the most aggressive regimen possible- double mastectomy, port surgically placed in my chest, chemotherapy, drug therapy and radiation. We also had to terminate the pregnancy. This cancer was estrogen positive and the hormones were actually feeding the cancer. That little angel whom was the cause of our going into the doctor saved my life.
Giff was my rock through every step…interviewing a team of the best doctors, memorizing which medicines I needed to take and when, driving me to chemotherapy and sitting next to me while I was so scared, telling me I was beautiful when I was bald, and so many other things…words cannot express. When you say your vows, in sickness and in health…you would never guess sickness of this magnitude at this age would be in the near future. In addition to this hardship, Giff’s dad died of a complicated prostate cancer the day we came home from my surgery. I could not hold my husband as he mourned for his dad because of the pain I was in from the mastectomy. How did Giff handle all of this pain at one time? How was he so strong for me? He is amazing. Giff’s dad was one of those people whom you naturally wanted to be around…his smile was contagious, his love for life was invigorating and he listened so intently when you talked in a conversation with him. He made you feel special. We think about him often and will miss him so much.
My family and friends were also by my side…my mom flying out from NY several times to help us with cooking and cleaning and holding my hand. It must be one of the most awful things in the world to watch your baby girl be diagnosed with breast cancer. My girlfriends also flew out to take care of me and help with anything they could. Other friends living closer would come by just to sit and talk or watch movies. There were so many cards, letters, flowers, cookies, and other gifts that came from all over the country. It’s amazing to have such great people in my life. In addition to my amazing circle of friends and family, there were the strangers with whom crossed our path. Whether it was a letter in the mail from a breast cancer survivor, the anesthesiologist who called Giff during my surgery crying happy tears that the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes, or our fertility doctor who promised to watch over our frozen embryos as if they were her own. There were so many small gestures that made such a big impact on our lives.
Looking at the bright side: Thankfully this was caught in stage 1, had it been caught a year prior by the first doctor I had gone into about the lump, it may have been caught at stage 0. Please learn from my lesson…insist the lump be tested – a lump cannot be diagnosed by touch. They were able to cut all the cancer out and after I finish the entire regimen including a pill I take over the next 5 years, they said there is a 95% chance the cancer will never come back.
Our exciting future: We’ve decided to re-prioritize, we are taking 400 days starting February 7th of 2011 to travel the world! We will travel to new places, eat new foods, taste new wines and meet new people. We will focus on healing ourselves both physically and mentally. This will be one of the best years of our lives.
View all posts by Brandey Kabat
Spinning Around The World 
I think I would like Italy.
Giff looks cute in his new hat and I think I see some new clothes. I’ll bet you are tired of the few you packed. The clotheslines hanging out of apartments reminds me of China. Anthony Bourdain commented on the trash not being picked in Naples also.