Budgie Smuggling in Italy!
Not yet sure who is doing the cycle part of the blog today, but Paul set a high literary bar yesterday! We did get an early glimpse of their new use for the RR20 cycle top and also of their new girlfriend met over lunch!
Impossible to find out how to get a Covid test in Naples due to central health controls. A friend of John, who lives near Rome, found us a drive-in center in Rome and I found a concierge medical group online to write me a prescription (50 Euros well spent if I’m negative!). John kindly drove me back to Rome this morning and we sat in a queue of cars for 2 hours. It was a study in inefficiency reminiscent of how sometimes it can be difficult to organize a piss up in a brewery (there were only about 20 cars ahead of us)! Another 66 Euros lighter, we drove to Napoli (Naples). Google took us on a hopeless route and we could hardly get down the various side streets due to double and triple parking everywhere! John did an amazing job, at one point with the help of three kind Italian gents who shuffled 5 scooters/motorbikes out of the way so that we could get through! They appear to leave them in neutral so others can move them around…not sure what happens if your car is boxed in, however! Am also not overly concerned that anybody will care that we haven’t paid the local street driving fee!
I am flying back to the US on Monday morning, but will still enjoy tonight in Napoli and tomorrow on the Amalfi Coast where we are meeting up with Louisa (one of my nieces) and Josh (her boyfriend), perhaps even for more Brunello! A fellow Board Member in Old Greenwich did ask the important question “But who will watch over Richard Saunders when you’re gone?”! I have no concerns, having seen how the team has bonded but it is a very legitimate question!
They did a lot of straight roads, they met a lovely lady, they hit an aqueduct and they suffered the same fate as us in Napoli in terms of problem roads. Had a problem with Richard S again, 2 saddle issues, redistributed tire levers. Lots of fabulous views entering Napoli including Vesuvius and somewhere along the way was an aqueduct, beautifully preserved, Acquedotto Vespasiano…apparently they caused it to flow again!
So a variety of same crazy shit as we suffered. Haha!
Lovely Bruschetta starters then super-lightly battered cod followed by a branzino (I think) and tagliatelle…fab! Now on to tiramisu with drunken grandma! Wine was local 2012 Fruda Piedirosso Sorrentino. In little resto next to Castel Nuevo! OMG this playing stenographer for them is a challenge!