(Nicole) So, you've ridden a gondola in Venice,
eaten gelato in Florence,
you think you've seen Italy;
you haven't.
No one earns that badge till they've been to Naples.
Naples is not for the faint of hearts,
it's crowded,
chaotic,
and tatted up.
But man, does this place has soul!
It's full of characters
and around every corner
it's a diamond in the rough.
That's what kept me coming back here
for two decades.
And just when I think I've gotten a hand along her,
she surprises me.
So, this time, I've come with backup.
- (Nicole) Buongiorno. - (Francesca) Buongiorno, Nicole.
(Nicole) I'm heading the historic quarter with Francesca,
my woman on the inside.
She's a local expert with context,
guiding urban explorers who want to go deeper.
In this area is where I first fell in love with Naples
- because it is full of life, right? - (Francesca) Yeah, scooters!
(Laughter)
- (Nicole) it's never boring! - (Francesca) That's true!
(Nicole) Never boring!
(Music) (Nicole) I'm here on a mission.
In our last episode, I spent a day in Amalfi
where I discovered how lemons
are literally saving the town from disaster.
Now, I'm in the big city,
to learn how lemons have inspired Italian cooking and culture.
(Music)
After the requisite coffee --
(speaking Italian)
we start at the beginning.
(Nicole) Naples was first settled by the ancient Greeks,
this was the site of the Agora,
and later the Roman forum.
Francesca shows me two Corinthians columns,
lone survivors of a first century temple,
incorporated into de facade of a XVII century church.
This is what exciting about Naples,
it's a [ ] story;
story you can walk right up to and touch,
if you know what you're looking at.
To outsiders, Naples can seem incrustable,
it's hard to know where history ends and myth begins,
where faith fuses with superstition.
Just look at these hand-made nativity scenes,
a quintessential Neapolitan fixation.
You got modern figures witnessing the virgin birth,
and there, under the terracota produce
I spot them --
(Nicole) All these fake lemons make me crave the real thing,
so we head over to Cafeteria Hipolito where they have --
(Nicole) Yes!
- (Nicole) Yes, medicinal, right? - (Francesca) Medicinal.
(Nicole) I think we should have a little bit of medicine, then, shall we?
I think we should.
(Music)
This looks like... a sugar bomb!
(Nicole) Right here is a sponge cake filled with lemon cream,
covered with chantilly cream.
(Music)
Okay, so delizia al limone, not really my thing,
a little bit too sugary, a little bit too creamy,
but it was fun, it's lemons, that's what we're doing here, right?
Luckily, it's nearly lunch time.
We're headed to a friend's apartment,
where Francesca has arranged for me to learn from a local chef
a perfect Neapolitan summer dish,
but of course, we can't arrive empty-handed.
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