Eating Vegan In... Naples

Day Four

On day four of the holiday, we woke up bright and early to catch a train to Naples to complete our trip to Italy. I had a surprisingly good experience eating vegan in Rome, so I was eager to get to Naples to see if I would have a similar experience.

The train journey was extremely long, so we each took a packed lunch with us. I made tomato sandwiches with the tomatoes we got from Rome which lasted me the whole journey. I did not get any photographs of the sandwich, but I’m sure you can imagine what a tomato sandwich looked like.

We arrived in Naples at around 4pm local time and we headed straight to the apartment to dump our stuff and explore. We only had a day and a half in Naples, so we really wanted to make the most of it.

Naples was beautiful! Whilst walking around the area we were staying in, to my surprise I saw a vegan restaurant after only ten minutes of exploring. However, as I made my family eat in a vegan restaurant last night, I think they would have killed me if I made them eat vegan for a second night in a row.

Surprisingly, Naples was so quiet and we did not see many other people in our area. We decided to walk a little further out to see if we could find anywhere a bit busier.

We walked for MILES and by the time we chose somewhere to eat, it was 9pm and the sun had set. We walked down a few side streets and settled on a place that we were all relatively happy with. To be honest, we were all so tired and not to mention running on empty stomachs, we would have eaten anywhere at this point.

I decided to go for pasta that night, as I had been in Italy for four days now and I have only eaten pizza. I also ordered a side of zucchini cooked in mint, garlic and vinegar.

I have to say, this was one of my favourite meals of the trip. The pasta was delicious and cooked to perfection. The servers were extremely helpful and understanding when I questioned them about the menu. They gave me several food options and I did not feel like an inconvenience. The food was ridiculously cheap also, which was a bonus. I was blinded by hunger that night, so unfortunately have no idea what the restaurant was called or even what area we were in, so I cannot recommend this restaurant.

After eating, we walked back to our apartment (which took about half an hour) and went straight to sleep feeling satisfied.

Day Five

On the last day of our holiday, we went to Pompeii. The bus ride was cheap and only took around half an hour, so if you are in Naples I would really recommend venturing out there.

We spent the whole day in Pompeii, visiting the ruins and eating crisps for our lunch (vegan of course). There was so much to see, and as you can imagine the restaurants near the ruins were so expensive, so we did not stop for food. To be honest, there was too much to look at that surprisingly, food did not even cross my mind.

We got the bus back to Naples and headed straight to a restaurant. After a full day of walking, we did not want a repeat of last night, so we settled on a restaurant pretty quickly. It looked relatively busy, which is always a good sign.

When ordering, I explained clearly to the waiter that I was allergic to dairy (I had learnt this from my experience in Rome). He nodded his head and said that was fine.

For a starter, I ordered the bruschetta, which unfortunately never arrived. I decided to let it go as our mains started to come out and I did not want to delay my family’s meals. I was a little disappointed but it was not the end of the world.

For my main, I ordered pasta again. After last night, I was really impressed with the pasta and wanted to try it again.

When my main arrived, it arrived with a dollop of mozzarella in the middle. I asked the waiter if I could have a fresh one, with no cheese, as I had previously ordered. He denied that I said no cheese, but I did not want to argue with him, as it was possible he did not understand me.

My family had finished their food by the time my main had arrived, so I ended up eating alone. The pasta probably tasted amazing, but I was feeling pretty disappointed about my experience in the restaurant, so I did not really enjoy it.

 It was our final night, so we walked into the centre to find some bars we could drink in. On the way to find drinks, we spotted a slushie bar and being the child that I am, I ordered a raspberry one. It really cheered me up after my bad experience in the restaurant.

We then headed to some bars, drank, and went home ready to fly back to England in the morning.

I had an amazing time in Italy and would love to go back, perhaps with my vegan friends to try some of the vegan restaurants I spotted when walking around. If I was to advise any vegan who are going to Italy, I would suggest you always explain to your waiter you are allergic to dairy and do not eat meat. This makes it so much easier when ordering food and they take allergies much more seriously than if you were to say you were a vegan. I learned that you can pretty much eat in any restaurant in Italy, as pizza and pasta is so easy to veganise, just make sure they do not use egg pasta!

I can't wait to travel some more and find even more vegan food!

Emma xx