Vegan in Naples

[Guest guest]

I was in Naples last week - my girlfriend likes to travel so she

dragged me along. I found out about a vegan/organic cafe/shop there

(from the Happy Cows web site) called " Un SorRiso Integrale " , and

thought I'd share my experience since it was quite unique.

 

So one day we set off, and eventually found it (hidden away in a

cortyard that's not on any of the maps). The cafe part only opens

from 1 to 3pm, we got there just before 1, and just about got them to

understand that we wanted to eat. They weren't really taking much

notice of us, so we just sat down around the large square of tables

set-up in the middle of the shop and waited while a few interesting

people started to wander in. They all seemed to know each other since

they were all cheek kissing each other and chatting. All around were

posters and symbols from india etc., and shelves of packaged and

fresh food just like the healthfood shops in the UK.

 

To be honest at this point we felt a bit left out, but evetually the

waiter (a very hippyish guy) approached us and started to talk in

Italian - I didn't understand a word but he seemed OK with " vegan "

and I thought I caught the word " mixed " (and it turned out later that

this might have been right). Girlfriend was a bit miffed because she

hadn't been asked what she wanted - but again the reason for this

became apparent later. We'd been trying to translate the chalk menu

on the wall, and had just about decided what we wanted, but being

kind of shy I thought I'd just see what we got (this made girlfriend

even more angry!).

 

By ths time there were about 20-odd people all crammed around the 4

tables. Anyway, eventually there was a shout from the kitchen and the

waiter came round and placed several teapots around the tables and

everyone dived in. Then he came round each person and placed vegan

pizza, miso soup and a plate of various food in front of them. Aha!

It suddenly hit us - you get a helping of everything on the menu - a

kind of sampler!

 

The food was great - there were 4 parts to the sampler (hmm - I can

only remember the beans and tofu and salad at the moment..) - but the

atmosphere was probably the most unique thing. It was definitely like

being in a small community since everyone was sitting close and

passing around the teapots etc. And the way we all got served the

same thing at the same time added to this (it reminded me of school).

 

Some people did order extra bits, so you could probably have had a

unique dish if you wanted (but my italian's not good enough). And I

think they must do several servings in the 2 hours they're open,

because another group of people were hanging around waiting to sit

down. It was quite a large meal and came to less than £10 for two of

us (although everywhere we went was this cheap - but this was

organic).

 

So there it is - a little vegan heaven hidden away in Naples.

Definitely worth a visit if you're there. I took a picture on my

vegan-cam so I might post it on a website soon.

 

Another interesting thing was that from the cafe we went on the the

National Archeological museum just 2 streets away, and on the way

there was loads of graffiti - some in italian and some english. Must

have been done by a group of vegan anarchists because one slogan they

used was " fight for vegan! " - also captured that on my vegan-cam!

 

--

Rob

[Guest guest]

Wow Rob..that sounds like a lovely little place..and cool to hear about the

grafitti..hahaha..if only I had a passport.

 

mertle

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