Lost in the back streets of Sorrento

Strictly speaking we hadn’t got lost. 

And even if we had there is something about wandering the back streets of Sorrento on a hot August day.

That said it was one of those days that alternated between heavy showers and spells of blistering heat.

Not that we cared over much.

Picture; Via S. Paola, Sorrento, August2001, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Pizza by the metre ....... a history lesson, a culinary experience and just a bit of fun

Now I have to say I was a tad sceptical about the metre pizza, having been introduced to the real thing in a tiny side street in Naples.

And I was more than satisfied by our meal in the place.

But when the metre pizza is served in the restaurant which styles itself the University of Pizza you just have to check it out.

Of course pizza is one of the world’s original street foods and is still sold as that pretty much everywhere.

That said I was intrigued by ordering by the ruler and I wasn’t disappointed.

We had travelled down the railway line from Sant’ Agnello just a couple of stops to the Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza.*

“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.”**

So there you have it.  There were six of us and the waiter suggested we should have a meter and a bit which we did, topped with mushrooms for me and an assortment of other “things” for the rest.

It was daunting to say the least when it arrived but we ate it all.

We could have had a selection of other Neapolitan dishes and there were plenty who were ordering some enticing food.

But we stuck to the pizza.

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

And as they say in all the food magazines were pleasantly surprised at the bill which along with the meter and a bit pizza, and four beers and two still bottles of water was just €64, which was when we worked it out even cheaper than my favourite place in Naples.

In the last few months his pizzas have gone up from €3 to  €4.

Leaving me to say that the meter pizza was indeed the real thing.

Which is a god point to close.  I don't of course want to accused of being pretentious.

Location; Vico Equense

Pictures; inside the Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza. in 2017 courtesy of ALTO•VISUAL and in an earlier time courtesy of Pizza a Metro da "Gigino" L'università della pizza


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

Remembering those who went to fight from Sant’Agnello

Sant’ Angello is just outside Sorrento and like everywhere has its own war memorial.

It stands in front of the Municipal Building in a small open space filled with flowers and sits perfectly at the heart of the town.

To one side are some street benches, and on the other a series of cafes from which you can stare back at the statue and the names inscribed on the four faces of the memorial.

It is easy to forget that Italy stood with the allies in the Great War and while the Fascists took the country into the that second war on the side of Nazi Germany there were many who opposed that alliance with Hitler.

And there were many who not only opposed Fascism and the Fascist adventures in Africa, and then from 1940 in Greece and elsewhere, but also were killed by the regime and later by the German army for that opposition.

All of which makes those tired jokes about Italian bravery both bad taste and inaccurate.

From the socialist deputies murdered when Mussolini took power to the partisans who fought both his government and the Germans that opposition was fierce and determined.

All of which were in my thoughts as I sat in the sun yesterday beside the war memorial of Sant’ Agnello.

The life of the town moves past it and I doubt that many give it much of a glance, but then that I suspect is how most memorials are regarded.

They are a memorial to those who died and are venerated as such but remain just a part of the towns existence.

And that is how it should be.


Location; Sant’Agnello






Picture; the war memorial, Sant’ Agnello, 2017, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

At the Tasty Corner in Sorrento and a lesson in why you should always wander

Now it is one of those little streets which you only find by accident.

We were following the line of shops along Via San Cesareo and cut through an arch in a building which opened up on the even narrower via degli Archi.

There will be the sniffy travellers who see only an alley but in the short distance it took us to walk its length there was a tiny sweet shop specialising in a range of bagged sweets including the sugar coated nuts which always go down well with the family and this tiny restaurant with a handful of tables inside and offering these two out on the street.

It was called L’Angolo Del Gusto or the Tasty Corner and its one review described it as  a family run “café and bakery [with] good food that is very reasonably priced. 

They are very accommodating and it has just a few tables so you can eat there or take out. We enjoyed the service and the good food.”

Now given that we had paid €75 for a meal the Tasty Corner had an appeal but I couldn't fault where we had eaten and our position commanded a fine spot to watch as people went by so I was content.

I suppose I should have slid across and asked the couple if they were local but it isn’t the done thing.

So I shall just leave you at the tasty corner on hot day in Sorrento in late July with that observation that when is a new place never be afraid to wander off the beaten track.

Pictures; the via degli Archi July 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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

Watching the hail storm and much more in the Bay of Naples

The VIA R. REGINALDO GIULIANI  July 23rd

Never underestimate the surprises offered up in the Bay of Naples

We arrived in Sorrento in the blistering heat of late afternoon and that was how it was for two glorious days before the rain.

Now I am used to those Italian thunderstorms which come out of nowhere, rage with the full force that nature can devise and are over as suddenly as they came.

But in that brief few minutes the sky darkens and the low rumble of thunder becomes defeating as streaks of lightening flash and the rain just comes down like stir rods.

All that we had and hailstones too which even the locals claim were bigger than anything they had seen before.

Then in a matter of minutes the storm had passed leaving a carpet of fast melting hailstorms and a few broken leaves.

But as ever the storm had cooled the air and cleaned the streets, so that the evening stroll on Sorrento was a pleasant affair despite the crowds of tourists who were all intent on capturing that little bit of Italian life.

And Sorrento did not disappoint, all of which is why we returned the following day.

Eating in the VIA R. REGINALDO GIULIANI 

We took in the odd museum and a fair number of narrow streets each with a bewildering number of shops offering all manner of stuff to entice the tourist and which were pretty much replicated in the next half dozen streets.

All of which led us by degree to VIA R. REGINALDO GIULIANI and a meal at one of the many restaurants that spread out across the road from its beginning to the point when the it becomes too narrow.

The meal was good and of course the position offered up plenty of opportunities to sit and watch.

It cost just €70 which for four seemed acceptable until that is we sampled the delights of Naples a place I have fallen in love with.

Rome will always be my favourite city which has the power to draws us back but Naples is something else.

But that is for another time.

Pictures; Sorrento, July 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting Italy .......... lost on a back street in Sorrento

We were following the line of shops along Via San Cesareo and cut through an arch in a building which opened up on the even narrower Via degli Archi.

Now if I am honest we were not actually lost, because as we had discovered countless times already you just can’t get lost in this bit of the city.

Still it offered up some opportunities to take pictures and when I showed the collection to Peter he chose to paint this one, which may have something to do with  L’Angolo Del Gusto or the Tasty Corner which one review described as  a family run “café and bakery [with] good food that is very reasonably priced."

Painting; Via degli Archi © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2014

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Facebook: Paintings from Pictures, https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures

Postcard as promised, bought in romantic Sorrento, posted in romantic Manchester

So who still ends picture postcards?  

Now I know I don’t, and I guess that is true of many.

After all texting, camera phones, and the internet all instant ways of telling someone you are having a
wonderful time on holiday.

Of course back in the late 19th and early 20th century it was still the cheapest and most reliable way of sending a message.

Cheap postage, and frequent collections and deliveries meant a card sent from Blackpool in the evening would arrive the following morning.

So you could not only warn the family you would be home for breakfast but also arrange to meet a friend later in the day.

Today all that has changed, so it was nice to receive this in the post today.

It is of a place that I still find fascinating,  a period of history which always draws me in. and is a postcard the first of the year.

No more needs to be said other than an apology to Joe and Bron for not sending them a similar card when we were in Sorrento in July

Potscard; from Joe and Bron.

Out along the Ashton Canal discovering another ghost sign

Seen from the canal

Ghost signs are often all that is left of a business which once thrived, served the community and have long since vanished.

You can find them almost anywhere and until recently I took them for granted.

But these faded hand painted signs and their glass enamelled equivalents tell a story of our commercial and industrial past encompassing the corner shop to the giant enterprise and I am fascinated by them.

And so are other people.

Ron Stubley captured this one while on a walk along the Ashton Canal at Crabtree Lane in Clayton commenting that he took them with me in mind.

On Crabtree Lane

Angie Thomas followed this up with some research discovering that “Eva Brothers Ltd were Forgemasters and Engineers since 1889.”

And with that as a start I wandered off to that excellent site Grace’s Guide* to find that in 1909, “the partnership of James Eva, Archibald William Eva, Victor Eva, Arthur Eva, and Frank Eva, carrying on business as Forge-masters, at Crabtree-lane, Clayton, Manchester, under the style or firm of "EVA BROTHERS," was ended. 

All debts due would be settled by Archibald William Eva, Victor Eva, Arthur Eva, and Frank Eva, who continued the business under the same Style.”

And during the rest of the last century it was acquired by various companies until in 1982 it was bought by Anglo-Indonesion Corporation plc which is where the story ends although I am sure there is someone who can add more.

On the VIA LUIGI DE MAIO

So I shall leave the Ashton Canal and Eva Brothers and end with another ghost sign but one I found in Sorrento a few days ago which no doubt will get a few people muttering about holidays in the sun.

But given we were there I couldn’t resist capturing this one on VIA LUIGI DE MAIO.

It was according to the fast fading sign a shop selling furniture but was now a pizzeria and one day I shall try to find out more.

Pictures, Eva Brothers, Crabtree Lane, Clayton, 2014, courtesy of Ron Stubley and the ghost sign on the VIA LUIGI DE MAIO, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Grace's Guide, British Industrial History, http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Eva_Brothers