Hello :~)

Hope you are well. This is coming to you from Berlin – we have officially been here for just over a month now!

After all the sincerity and seriousness of the last email I thought it might be better to keep the Italian edition of This Side nice and KISS-y (keep it simple, stupid). I thought about what people would want to know most about our time and Italy, and to be honest, it might just be a comprehensive list of where we visited, ate, and swam.

Let's get started!

Italy

Rome

Eat

• Emma – Our very first sit down meal. On lots of lists as one of the must-eat restaurants in Rome, I think I had my favourite pasta dish here – a classic cacio e pepe. 4.5 stars
• Bonci Pizzarium – Even though the pizza is the main fare here, it was the arancini that had a lasting impact on me. So delicious, but a star deducted for the long wait. 4 stars
• Il Bacaro – This restaurant came off Conde Nast Traveler, touted for being an 'authentic gem'. The wine was great, but our pasta was terrible. 2 stars
• Tira e Molla – Two sick beans went looking for dinner and found what is supposedly one of Trip Advisor's top 100 restaurants in Rome (out of 10,000!!!). Too feverish to remember what the food tasted like but the al fresco dining was nice. 3 stars

See

• Rain inside the Pantheon – Hey, the rain was good for something :~)
• Trevi Fountain – Always and forever. Take me to the Trevi Fountain 1000 times and then some.
• Tourists – We forgot how obnoxious American tourists can be! Why are they EVERYWHERE?

Naples

Sleep

• Airbnb – A special shout out to our beautiful, large room with our very own terrace. Right next door to Pizzaria Starita, each night we fell asleep to the sounds of the numbers being called out over the loudspeaker intermittently. Be warned, the host used to live in Melbourne and therefore grilled us on the vibe of Northcote these days.

Eat

• Starita – As mentioned, just around the corner from our Airbnb so we went there for a late lunch the day we arrived. I ordered a burrata pizza for lunch that defeated me. Delicious but too big. At night, the street is filled with people drinking and waiting to be seated. We avoided all of that by eating right before lunch service closed. 4 stars
• L'Antica Pizzeria De Michele – The famous one. Who cares about the wait, Dom and I devoured two margheritas like it was our last meal on earth. Believe the hype. 4.5 stars
• Pasticceria Poppella – The best pastry shop we visited in Italy, AND their shop dog was an adorable Chow Chow. Good coffee too. 4 stars
• Pescheria Azzurra – A fish shop and restaurant all in one. Some of the finest pasta we had. 4 stars

See

• MADRE – Be sure to check out the rooftop for a great view of the city too.
• Bagni d'Arienzo Beach Club – a day trip to the Amalfi coast was relatively simple, the only downfall being my inability to find the more secluded Bagni d'Arienzo over Positano beach. As per our grand run of great luck, the Beach Club was actually opening the very next day, so we missed out on chairs, umbrellas, and lunch. Great view though.
• Pompeii – Dom and I tried to do a bit more 'traditional' sightseeing and even paid for an iPhone app for a 'guided tour' of Pompeii which ended up just being renders of what Pompeii would have looked before it was destroyed. Maybe not the wisest $4.99 we spent on the trip but what can you do?

Sicily

Eat

• La Pignolata Guinness Cannoli – Yummy pistachio cannoli found in Taormina! They also let us sample their pistachio butter (very good and nutty), and their pistachio pesto (very weird and oily). 4 stars
• Bam Bar – Good but I think we made a mistake by ordering coffee granita. 3.5 stars
• Paccamora Bio Bar – Stumbled upon a pretty great cafe in the middle of Sicily on one of the days we were driving from one end to the other. Dom had a pasta with local seasonal veg and I had a strawberry granita that ended up being my favourite granita (although I'm still not sure what exactly makes a great granita?) 4 stars
• Bisso Bistrot – Amazing pasta! Cute vibe! Great wine! Perfect date night in Palermo! Get in early to avoid dinner rush! 5 stars
• Cantina Rampa – Hmmmm, a rushed meal in Ortigia when we first arrived and were absolutely starving. Overpriced but filled our bellies. Luckily the wine was poured to the lip of the glass. 2.5 stars
• Caseificio Borderi – No words. Best sandwiches ever. 5 stars
• MOON – We went to this vegan retsaurant in Ortigia as a special night out but ahhhh it was the worst service we got on the entire trip. We waited over an hour for each course and so did almost everyone else. I guess the food wasn't memorable enough for me to comment on. 3 stars

Swim

• Isola Bella – Supposedly absolutely packed out in the summer, this was the funniest beach because no one could walk down into the water gracefully. Famous because of the island, but we didn't actually go check out the island. Find your sweet spot amongst the rocks, and then don't move.
• Cefalu Beach – Loved this beach, especially the homes that literally are at the mouth of the ocean. The perfect sand and gentle rolling waves reminded me of Perth.
• The Rocks – This is not an official name however almost every day in Ortigia we'd walk over to this ladder and descend onto our very favourite swimming spot. On our last day we shared the rocks with a group of old retired grandpas who took it in turns to dive, swim out to a rock and do push ups. I think in the summer time Ortigia has lots of swimming spots built on scaffolding but we had none of that so this was our best option. In any case, my favourite swimming hole for the entire leg.

Good Bye :~)