Monday 8 June 2020

Of war memorials and a pizza restaurant in Vico Equense

Now war memorials should be visited and given due respect but are also about the community they serve and I think should never become just “that place to visit” once a year.

And to that end they should always be somewhere prominent, be looked after and remain a place which continues to be part of the village or town where they stand.

This one on the Corso Fiangieri in Vico Equense and faces on to busy road but looks out across the Bay of Sorrento and is located in a small park with benches, and a water fountain, making it a perfect place to reflect on those who participated in the wars Italy fought.

Some of those recorded on the memorial may well have sailed from the nearby port while many more will have known the streets and the main piazza just round the corner.

And when we visited a few days ago the municipal workers were hard at work giving the garden a fresh make over.

I have to confess we hadn’t actually planned to visit the memorial, instead found it by pure chance which is always a good way to discover something new.

We had travelled down the railway line from Sant’ Agnello with the express purpose of visiting Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza which for those who don’t know sells its pizza's by the metre

“This historic restaurant, located in the centre of Vico Equense, in the Naples province, is world renowned for its creation. Created by Gigino Dell’Amura, the Pizza a Metro has delighted its customers with its unique taste, authentic ingredients and its exclusive shape. 

The restaurant, also known as “Università della pizza” offers a big selection of pizzas, which can be enjoyed according to the “size” of your appetite. In addition to pizza, you can enjoy the chef’s specialities: large appetisers, seafood and meat specialities, and cakes for every taste.

The pizza a metro was born in 1930s, thanks to the idea of Luigi Dell’Amura, a.k.a. Gigino. Cleverness,  fantasy, intuition, hard work transformed the way of making pizza. 

The idea of creating pizzas with different sizes according to the number of people at the table was born in order to satisfy the need to serve more guests in the shortest possible time but with high quality standards. 

And finally, the Pizza a metro and the old bakery of the Dell’Amura family became a big restaurant – the pizzeria.”*

Now it all sounds a gimmick but it works.  The food is excellent as is the service and the restaurant.

And after we had finished we walked back to the war memorial and sat for a while gazing out at the bay and surrounding countryside and  on those who are recorded on its base and equally the families who derived some comfort from the memorial.

I suppose there might be the odd person who gibs at the inclusion of the Pizza a Metro in a story on a war memorial but I disagree.  Both are central to the town reflcting the past and the present and that is how I like my history.

Location; Vico Equense

Pictures; war memorial, Vico Equense, 2017 courtesy of ALTO•VISUAL

*Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza, http://www.pizzametro.it/en/index.html

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