DANCE LIKE SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: Architecure in Helsinki @ Neapolis Festival

Simona Pietropaolo ©

Si è svolta una decina di giorni fa la quindicesima edizione del Neapolis Festival. Tra gli artisti più attesi figuravano gli Architecure in Helsinki che non hanno deluso le tante aspettative. Quella che vi proponiamo oggi, è la pagina del loro tour diary dedicata alla trasferta napoletana.

Other than showtime, the most important element in life on tour with Architecture in Helsinki is food. We are all food obsessed. Each new town presents itself with a new culinary landscape; a chance to meet people, hear stories and taste the history of a city through it's cuisine.
A typical morning consists of multiple band members googling, scouring food blogs and guides for tips on where we should eat in our home for the day.
Our success rate is generally pretty high which is illustrated by our collectively increased trouser sizes come the end of tour. In fact, since touring 'Moment Bends' we seem to have developed a penchant for the 2nd dinner, which usually happens post show.
It has become a little bit of a tradition and the nutritionists amongst you would be appalled at the amount of 4am European roadhouse Sausages we have devoured, so, I'll end that part of the diary here.
Postcard From Naples
When word got out amongst the ranks that we would be playing In Naples, the home of pizza, we almost went into melt down. The Neapolitan style of Pizza (in particular the Margherita) ranks a clear Number 1 on AIH's favourite foods chart.
Motorino in NYC, Una Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, Franco Manca in London, Pizza DOC in Melbourne .... AIH's favourite pizza places (outside Italia), all replicate or pay homage to the Neopolitan style, so it was if we were heading to our own personal Food Mecca.
So, it was decided, on our one night off in Naples we would embark on a Pizza crawl in search of the ultimate. We had 5 famous places on our list, the aim being to sample a Margherita at each.
The criteria were simple - Best Sauce, Best Cheese and Best Base.

1st stop was Di Matteo, where we made the mistake of ordering too many pizzas (as well as a couple of deep fried zucchini flowers) instead of having a one slice per venue policy.

We walked around the old town soaking in the insanity that is Naples and digesting until we got to arguably the most famous joint in town - Di Michele. This is the place everyone rates as the best exponent of no-frills ultra traditional Neapolitan pizza. It wins the awards over and over. Even Julia Roberts likes it. There is but 2 pizzas on the menu - Margherita and Marinara. Both are ridiculously good.
By the time the scheduled crawl continues after a brief detour to Sorbillo, another contender, we are well and truly stuffed.

Our next and final destination and the dark horse was Europeo Di Matozzi. We ordered a Margherita amongst a plethora of other local delights including a 300gm ball of Mozzarella Di Bufala.
The Pizza at Matozzi, took it to the next level. It was truly spectacular. Far and away the stand out of the day.
The next day we headed to the festival, Neapolis, which was in a dustbowl by an old steel mine just outside of town. The show was fabulous and we got to marvel at the size of Skunk Anansie's drum kit for the 2nd time in as many weeks, suffice to say we left Naples with our minds well and truly blown.