October Trip to Italy: Pizza, Pastries, and a Little Sunshine Before Chicago Winter

I’ve been making Italian pizza and rum babà at home and sharing the recipes here for years, but this was my first chance to try them in Italy! Of course, I wanted to know how mine compared. Here’s what we ate, the places we loved, and a few adventures during our October trip to Italy.

We flew to Naples at the beginning of October for some new adventures, and a little sunshine before the long Chicago winter and, of course, to eat.

I was excited about the scenery and spending time together, but I also knew I would be paying attention to every pizza, pastry, and bread basket that came our way. That part of me doesn’t take a vacation.

I’ve wanted to start sharing more of our travels here on the blog because so many recipes begin with something I tasted somewhere else. Sometimes it’s a beautiful pastry. Sometimes it’s a very simple loaf of bread served with dinner. I come home with an idea I can’t leave alone until I get into the kitchen.

Italy gave me plenty of those ideas.

We spent our first four days in Vico Equense, then moved to Sorrento. We explored little shops, ate wonderful food, celebrated our friends, and took a train to Pompeii, where an ancient bakery became one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

We also had a few disappointing meals, discovered that our family has very different opinions about gelato flavors, and eventually started craving pancakes.

So here’s the story, including the places we loved, the food we kept going back for, and the bread I couldn’t wait to bake when we got home.

From Naples to Vico Equense

Our first stop was Vico Equense, about an hour’s drive from Naples airport on our journey.

The drive itself was beautiful. As we followed the coastline, the sea kept appearing on our right. We’d pass buildings or go around a curve, and suddenly there it was again: blue water, high cliffs, and houses tucked into the landscape.

After a long flight, I’m usually ready to stop traveling and put my bags down. But I spent so much of this drive looking out of the window.

Everything felt different from home. The coastline had so much height and movement to it, with buildings above the water and greenery growing around the stone. There was always something else to look at.

We had chosen Vico Equense because we wanted somewhere a little quieter for the beginning of the trip. We hoped to stay away from the busiest tourist spots and spend a few days enjoying ordinary things: walking around, finding food, exploring grocery stores, and seeing what caught our attention.

That’s usually how we travel.

We book our accommodation, but we rarely organize every meal or make restaurant reservations in advance. We like to go with the flow. We might see somewhere interesting while walking, look up a nearby restaurant when we’re hungry, or change our minds because something else looks good.

Sometimes that leads to a wonderful discovery. Sometimes the meal is just okay. But I enjoy leaving room for things we didn’t know about before we arrived.

And Vico Equense turned out to be a very good place for that.

Hotel Mary, then straight out for pizza

We stayed at Hotel Mary, perched above the sea with beautiful cliffs around it.

When we arrived, the view was the first thing that caught my attention. There was so much open water below us, and the height of the coastline made everything feel dramatic. I was already happy imagining a few days in that setting.

We checked in, put our bags in the room, and went out to explore.

We were hungry, and our first priority was pizza.

Google helped us find Titos, and that turned out to be an excellent decision.

When we want to compare pizza, we usually order a Margherita. It’s simple, so you can taste how everything works together without lots of toppings competing for your attention.

And this one was incredible.

What impressed me most was the tomato sauce and how beautifully it balanced with the dough. The tomato tasted fresh and bright, without the heaviness we often find in pizza sauce back home. To me, it seemed almost as though the tomatoes had just been grated and spread onto the base.

I don’t know exactly how they prepared it, but that was the feeling: fresh tomato flavor, with enough sweetness and acidity to make the whole bite exciting.

The sauce didn’t overwhelm the dough, and the dough didn’t make the pizza feel heavy. Everything worked together so well.

I know how to make a Margherita and my recipe is very similar to the one we ate in Italy, but I love tasting someone else’s version and noticing those little differences. Sometimes it’s a familiar food that makes the strongest impression because you can immediately recognize what you love about it.

For us, this was the best Margherita we’d ever had.

The older gentleman serving us was so sweet, too. Between him, the food, and the unhurried feeling of the meal, our first day already felt very different from life at home.

We could sit, eat, and enjoy ourselves. We didn’t have anywhere we needed to rush afterward.

It was a lovely beginning.

Little shops, fruit markets, and the best peaches

After that first meal, we kept exploring.

I loved walking through Vico Equense without much of a plan. There were little grocery stores to look inside, fruit markets, restaurant menus to read, and trees that kept making me stop.

Olive trees, lemons, mandarins, and pomegranates.

The pomegranates especially stayed with me. Seeing them hanging from branches felt magical. I know that for someone who lives there, this is probably an ordinary sight. For me, it was something I wanted to admire.

There’s such a difference between buying fruit in a grocery store and seeing it growing around you.

At home, lemons are something I put on a shopping list. Here, they were part of the scenery.

We bought peaches from a fruit market, and oh my goodness. They were the best peaches we’d ever had.

Sweet, full of flavor, and exactly what you hope a peach will taste like when you choose one. Sometimes fruit looks beautiful and then disappoints you when you eat it. These were the kind that make you stop and appreciate how good fruit can be.

I could happily talk about those peaches alongside the pizza and pastries. They deserved it.

I also love exploring grocery stores when we travel. I want to see the bread, the cheese, the everyday ingredients, and the things people buy without thinking much about them. There’s always something interesting.

We tried plenty of prosciutto and wonderful cheeses during our stay. Add good bread, and I’m very happy.

Those little discoveries were a big part of why I enjoyed Vico Equense. We weren’t always on our way to an attraction. We could spend time looking at food, buy something delicious, and keep walking.

The whole place felt more relaxed to us. Meals seemed less hurried, and even conversations felt slower than what we were used to in the United States.

Of course, being on vacation helps. But from that first day, we felt ourselves settling into a different rhythm.

The line outside Gabriele

During one of our walks, we noticed a big line outside a shop.

Naturally, we wanted to know what everyone was waiting for.

It was Cremeria Gabriele, the pastry and gelato shop.

What made us even more curious was that the people waiting seemed to be locals. It didn’t have that familiar feeling of tourists all following the same recommendation. These looked like people who already knew exactly why they were there.

The shop was reopening at four that afternoon, and people were waiting before the doors opened.

Of course we joined the line.

If people are willing to wait for pastries, I want to understand what they know.

Once we saw the selection, it made perfect sense.

There were rum babàs, brioche filled with whipped cream, profiteroles with chocolate and cream, lemon pastries, tiramisu and gelato. Everything looked fresh and so tempting that choosing became its own little challenge.

This is always my problem in a good pastry shop. I become interested in one thing, then notice something else, and by the time I need to order, I want half the counter.

The rum babà was absolutely insane! I’ve made my own and shared the recipe here, but I wanted to try it in Italy to make sure mine tasted the way it should.

It had that beautiful airy structure filled with syrup, so moist and flavorful without becoming an uninteresting wet piece of cake. The rum gave it warmth, and every bite made me want another.

I love desserts made with yeasted dough, and this was such a good example of why. The baking creates the structure, and then the syrup transforms it into something completely different.

But I wasn’t standing there thinking only about technique.

Mostly, I was thinking about how delicious it was and how soon we could have it again.

The brioche with whipped cream was another lovely thing. Soft bread and cream sound simple, but when both parts are good, they don’t need anything else to make them special.

Then there were the profiteroles, with all that chocolate and cream, and the lemon pastries that fitted so naturally into the place. After walking past lemon trees, I wanted to taste lemon in dessert too.

We hadn’t tried anything quite like this before, and we were immediately very happy that we’d stopped.

Our daily pastry habit

Gabriele quickly became part of our routine.

We went back every day.

Sometimes after lunch, and sometimes after dinner too.

I realize that sounds like a lot of pastry visits, but we only had a few days there. I didn’t want to leave thinking about something I could have tried and didn’t.

Also, there was gelato. We had options.

I loved having a favorite place so quickly. At first, you’re in an unfamiliar town, figuring out where everything is. Then, a few days later, you know exactly which direction to walk when you want a treat.

It makes somewhere feel familiar in a very pleasant way.

We were still exploring and trying different food, but I didn’t feel any pressure to find a new dessert shop every day. If we had found something that good, I wanted to enjoy it.

The second visit has its own pleasure. You already know what you’re looking forward to. Or you remember the other thing you wanted to try and now finally have a reason to order it.

For us, those visits became part of the memory of Vico Equense, right alongside the sea views and our walks around town.

There was only one problem: we were setting a very high standard for the rest of the trip.

Later, when we tried gelato elsewhere, we kept thinking about Gabriele.

That’s what happens when you find a favorite early.

Still, I wouldn’t change a thing. I was very happy with our little arrangement of walking, eating, and stopping for something sweet.

Breakfast above the sea

Our first breakfast at Hotel Mary was the next morning, after that lovely first day of exploring and pizza.

And what a place to begin the day.

We sat at the hotel restaurant with those beautiful views of the sea and cliffs. I loved having time to look out at the water before deciding what we wanted to do.

At home, breakfast often happens while part of my mind is already on work. There might be dough to check, something to film, or a message waiting for an answer.

Here, it felt easier to stay at the table and enjoy where we were.

We didn’t need to rush out. We could have breakfast, take in the view, and then go for a walk.

I liked that balance during our stay: a beautiful place to start and finish the day, with a little town waiting outside.

Some mornings, the most difficult decision was what we wanted to eat later.

A very enjoyable kind of problem.

Risotto that changed my mind

Titos gave us another food memory I’m still thinking about: pumpkin and shrimp risotto.

Before this trip, I couldn’t say I’d ever eaten risotto that made me especially excited about risotto.

This one changed that.

The pumpkin brought a gentle sweetness, and the shrimp balanced it beautifully. It was comforting and rich, but the flavors kept it interesting instead of making it feel like too much.

I already love pumpkin, as anyone who follows my autumn recipes probably knows. But it was lovely to enjoy it this way, in a savory dish with seafood.

It suited the trip so well. We were there in October, but instead of chilly weather and leaves in the yard, we had the sea and this delicious pumpkin dish in front of us.

I love when a meal surprises me like that.

Sometimes you think a particular food simply isn’t a favorite. Then you taste a version that makes you realize you were waiting for the right one.

That was this risotto.

The seafood we tried during our time in Vico Equense was wonderful too. We were enjoying so much good food that it became very easy to plan the day around whatever we felt like eating next.

We had gone to Titos excited about pizza, and now I was talking about risotto as well.

That’s exactly the kind of discovery I enjoy when we travel.

Dinner under the lemon trees

One evening, we went to Il Barrio Osteria for dinner.

There were lemon trees with lemons hanging above us, and the setting was spectacular.

I’m very easy to impress with a lemon tree. Put a dinner table underneath one, and I’m already happy.

We’d been seeing citrus around town, and now it was part of the place where we were eating. It made the evening feel so connected to everything we’d been enjoying.

This was one of those meals where the setting became a big part of the memory. I remember the pleasure of sitting there together, surrounded by the trees, with no need to hurry.

It also suited the way we like to travel.

We don’t usually make dinner reservations for every evening. We explore what’s available and see what life offers us. Sometimes that means finding a place because we’re hungry. Sometimes a setting catches our attention and makes us want to sit down.

I love leaving room for that.

Not every spontaneous choice becomes a favorite, but the good ones feel especially satisfying.

Our days in Vico Equense had a lovely balance. We could enjoy an amazing pizza, then be just as happy later with cheese, prosciutto, and bread. We could spend time at the hotel looking at the water or walk around town until something caught our attention.

And some evenings, we could have dinner under lemon trees.

I didn’t need much more than that.

The beach and its 240 steps

We also enjoyed the beach, with Vesuvius in the view.

To get down to it, we had to walk about 240 steps.

Yes, 240.

But I loved every single one on the way down. The scenery was so beautiful that I was paying much more attention to the view than to the number of steps.

Looking at the sea from above is wonderful. Walking down toward it gives you another way to enjoy the coastline. You start with the cliffs and the wide view, then gradually find yourself closer to the water.

I loved being able to experience both.

Once we were at the beach, it felt good to spend some time without needing to do much. We had come hoping for a little more sun before winter, and there we were, enjoying exactly that.

Having Vesuvius in the view made it even more memorable.

Of course, walking down all those steps meant eventually walking back up.

I was aware of that.

But with all the pizza and pastries we were enjoying, including a little movement in our days wasn’t the worst idea.

The beach became another reason I loved Vico Equense. We had our little town, wonderful food, beautiful views, and a place to enjoy the water.

Four days went very quickly.

By the time we were ready to leave, we already had favorites and a routine we were reluctant to give up.

Especially the pastry part.

Moving to Sorrento

After four days, we moved to Sorrento.

I had booked an Airbnb right in the heart of town, steps from so much of what we wanted to see. The apartment was in an old building, but inside it was very clean and modern.

I loved that combination.

We had the character of an older building and a comfortable place to come back to, with everything close enough to explore on foot.

The location was excellent for the way we travel. We could go out, walk around, come back, and head out again without making every little outing into a plan.

But Sorrento felt very different from Vico Equense.

It was much busier, with so many tourists. After enjoying the quieter feeling of our first stop, I noticed the difference immediately.

I know—we were tourists too. But I think many people understand the feeling of traveling somewhere and still hoping to find a little space away from everyone else traveling there.

Sorrento was beautiful, but it wasn’t an immediate favorite for us.

Our first food experiences didn’t help very much either.

We stopped for lunch at Fauno ristorante and ordered pasta, seafood risotto, and seafood. The meal simply wasn’t as good as what we’d been enjoying in Vico.

Then we tried gelato, and that first one wasn’t as good as Gabriele either.

I don’t want to turn a few choices into a judgment about all the food in Sorrento. We were there for a short visit and certainly didn’t eat everywhere.

But this was our experience, and at first, we missed the places we’d just left.

Thankfully, we kept looking.

Sorrento had some very good discoveries waiting for us too.

Raki and my gelato experiments

Finding Raki made me excited about gelato again.

The flavor combinations were so interesting.

Fig, almond, and bay leaf. Ricotta, honey, and walnut. Stracciatella, with those lovely little pieces of chocolate.

Of course I wanted to try them all.

I love seeing a combination that I can’t quite imagine until I taste it. Fig and almond already sound beautiful together. Add bay leaf, and now I need to understand how it works.

That was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to explore.

The ricotta, honey, and walnut combination appealed to me in another way. Creamy ricotta and honey already make sense together, and walnuts bring something that keeps the sweetness interesting.

I could immediately imagine those flavors in something baked too.

That’s how ideas follow me home. I might be eating gelato, but part of me is already thinking about a filling or pastry.

My family was less enthusiastic about some of my choices.

They preferred more familiar flavors like mango, passion fruit, and tiramisu. I was the person getting excited about bay leaf.

Which was fine. We could all choose what made us happy.

I also tried an affogato. I asked which gelato would pair well with the espresso, and they recommended tiramisu.

Tiramisu gelato with a shot of espresso poured over it was amazing.

I loved the hot coffee against the cold gelato, then the way everything started melting together. Each spoonful changed a little as the espresso mixed in.

It was such a simple thing, but so enjoyable.

We also tried lemon gelato served in a lemon shell. After seeing all those lemons growing around us, it felt like something we had to have.

So pretty, refreshing, and completely suited to the place.

Between Raki, the affogato, and the lemon gelato, Sorrento was beginning to give us favorites of its own.

The breakfast place we kept returning to

Eventually, we started craving a more familiar breakfast.

Pancakes, waffles, eggs, French toast.

Yes, we went to Italy and began looking for pancakes. I’m comfortable admitting it.

You can love trying local food and still wake up wanting something familiar, especially after you’ve been away for a while.

We found Radical Cafe, and it was exactly what we needed.

The place was cute, the food was very good, and after our first visit, we kept going back for breakfast.

The French toast was incredible.

As someone who bakes, I always notice the bread, and French toast gives me plenty to be interested in. I want that lovely soft middle, but enough structure that it still feels satisfying to eat.

This one made me very happy.

We also loved the eggs and pancakes, and the tiramisu waffles were amazing.

Apparently, tiramisu was finding several ways to be part of our vacation.

Once we had found Radical, choosing breakfast became easy. I like having a little routine like that when we travel. You know where you’d be happy to eat, and the rest of the day can unfold from there.

And if the morning begins with wonderful French toast, I’m already feeling good about the day.

Our friends’ wedding by the sea

Our friends’ wedding was one of the most special parts of the trip.

They were getting married at a beautiful villa, with the sea and Vesuvius in the view. The setting was spectacular.

Being there to celebrate them made it even more meaningful. We were enjoying a beautiful place, but we also had this lovely reason for everyone to be together.

At the rehearsal dinner, the chefs were preparing Roman-style pizza alla pala and baking fresh pizza in a wood-fired oven.

You can probably imagine where my attention went.

There could be beautiful scenery in every direction, but if someone is working with dough nearby, I’m going to notice.

We talked with the chefs, watched them work, and tried the pizza. It was wonderful.

I love having the chance to connect with people who make food, especially when dough is involved. I’m interested in how they handle it, what they pay attention to, and how they work with their oven.

But I was also very happy simply to be a guest eating fresh pizza at a beautiful villa.

A good arrangement.

On the wedding day, there was lasagna, lovely appetizers, and so much delicious food. I remember the whole feeling of it: our friends getting married, everyone celebrating, the sea, and Vesuvius in the distance.

It was magical.

Some meals stay with you because of the food. Others stay because of the people and the occasion.

This had both.

I felt very lucky that we could be there and make those memories together.

A train ride to Pompeii

One day, we took the train to Pompeii.

It was unforgettable, in a very different way from the rest of the trip.

Until then, so much had been about enjoying beautiful places, trying food, and spending time together. Pompeii made me think about the ordinary lives that had once filled a place now visited for its ruins.

In AD 79, Vesuvius erupted. Ash and pumice fell over the city, followed by devastating currents of hot gas and volcanic material. Pompeii was buried, preserving extraordinary evidence of the city and the people who had lived there.

Knowing the history and actually being there are very different experiences.

Walking through the site, I kept thinking about how these places had once been familiar to someone. People had homes, work, meals to prepare, and plans for later.

And then we saw a bakery.

Of course, that was where I became especially interested.

Seeing a real ancient oven gave me something I immediately recognized. There were many parts of that world I could only try to imagine, but I understood the idea of someone working there to make bread.

Someone had mixed dough, shaped loaves, and waited for them to bake.

I know those things. I know the attention and expectation involved.

That made the bakery feel unexpectedly personal.

Then there was the story of the loaves left inside an oven.

The bread that never reached the table

In the bakery commonly known as the Bakery of Modestus, archaeologists found 81 carbonized loaves inside the oven.

Bread that had been put there to bake and never reached the people it was meant to feed.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

We don’t know the baker’s final actions or exactly what happened to the people working there. But the loaves remain evidence of a working day interrupted by the disaster.

As a baker, that detail reached me immediately.

When I put bread into the oven, I’m expecting to take it out again. I’m thinking about how it will turn out, whether the crust will have the color I want, and who will eat it.

Someone had done the work of preparing those loaves with that same basic expectation.

Then everything changed.

The round Roman bread associated with these discoveries is commonly called panis quadratus, recognizable by its top divided into eight sections.

And yes, I really want to make it at home.

I want to learn more about it, work with the shape, and explore the bread through baking. I wouldn’t claim to recreate every detail of a particular ancient baker’s recipe, but I would love to make my own version inspired by what is known.

That’s usually where my curiosity leads me.

Eventually, I want flour in a bowl.

I want to feel the dough and see what happens in the oven.

Out of everything we saw in Italy, that ancient bakery became one of the things I thought about most afterward.

Double Rainbow

While in Sorrento, we walked about 45 minutes from our Airbnb to Bagni della Regina Giovanna. We love walking, and Google Maps showed a walking route, so we thought, why not? Well, we hadn’t realized that parts of the uphill road had no sidewalks, with cars passing much closer than I was comfortable with. But we arrived, and swimming in that beautiful natural pool surrounded by rocks was an unforgettable experience. Then it started raining on our way back. Now we were walking beside traffic with umbrellas, and I kept worrying that a car would catch an umbrella—or one of us, especially the kids. Brave or stupid? I’m still not sure. I was so stressed, and then, just as we reached the top of the hill, the rain stopped. I looked to the left and saw a rainbow reaching into the sea, with a second one arching over Sorrento. After all that worry, we were suddenly standing in front of something so beautiful I could hardly believe it. That double rainbow became one of the most magical moments of our whole trip.

Coming home to bake

We tried so many breads during the trip, and I especially loved the Italian bread served with our restaurant meals.

I’m never going to ignore a bread basket.

I would taste the crust, look at the crumb, and think about what I liked, even while everyone else was moving on with the meal.

The bread didn’t need to be elaborate. I loved how naturally it belonged with the food, whether we were eating cheese, seafood, or something else entirely.

By the time we were ready to leave, I knew I wanted to make a loaf inspired by those meals.

And after ten days away, I was ready for my own kitchen again.

We had enjoyed the trip so much, but we missed home and our food. Restaurant meals are wonderful, and then eventually I want to open my own cabinets and make exactly what we’re craving.

Sorrento’s air had also felt less pleasant to me during our stay, and together with the crowds, it made me appreciate the quieter feeling of Vico Equense even more.

I was happy we had experienced both places, but I was also happy when it was time to return.

When we got home, I made the Italian bread I’d been thinking about.

And it was amazing.

There is such a satisfying feeling in taking something you loved on a trip and making it in your own kitchen. The memory becomes something you can taste and share again.

I’ll be posting that recipe soon, and I can’t wait for you to try it.

The panis quadratus is another project I want to explore. Apparently, even a visit to an ancient city can send me home with a baking plan.

For now, I’m remembering Vico Equense’s little shops, those incredible peaches, pizza at Titos, and our daily visits to Gabriele. Sorrento’s gelato discoveries and breakfasts at Radical. Our friends’ beautiful wedding. And an oven in Pompeii that made history feel very close.

We went for sunshine, adventure, food, and a celebration.

We came home with wonderful memories—and I came home ready to bake.

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