Pepe’s
We heard about Giuseppe’s place from Michael, a traveller we met in Zadar. He raved about his stay with Giuseppe’s (Pepe) family, in particular about the pool in the back yard and the amazing Italian food he had there. Pepe operates a B&B in Pompeii and Michael’s experience there convinced us to give it a try. I first booked for only two nights, but once we were there, we liked it so much we decided to stay for another three and use it as our base for exploring the Amalfi Coast, Naples, and of course the Pompeii ruins.
The B&B has several types of rooms, including hostel like dorm rooms which we opt for. Pepe runs it with his wife, Lorena, who is Paraguan, his 65 year old father, and a couple other assistants. They also have a little boy, Marcello, but we didn’t get to meet him during our stay.
Pepe speaks good English, his father speaks good French, and Lorena is fluent in English, Italian, and Spanish of course. Between the three of them, they’ve got most of the tourist market covered! The place is laid back and clean; the backyard area with the pool is where most of the guests hang out. The only downside is that the house is located right next to the Circumvesuviana train line, but luckily the trains stop running after 11pm, allowing a quiet night’s sleep.
For 10-12 euros, we have amazing three course Italian meals, made from their kitchen. The antipasti platter is huge, the best I’ve had, filled with grilled and roasted veggies, salami, prosciutto, and best of all, fresh mozzarella di bufala. The secondi is usually a pasta of our choice. Over the three nights we ate there, I had spaghetti carbonara, pasta with mussels, and tortellini with pesto. While the pasta was good, the star of the meal was always the antipasti.
For Carter’s birthday, Giuseppe kindly prepared cake (tiramisu of course) and bought candles for it as well. Carter was quite embarrassed when they brought out the lit cake and I started singing Happy Birthday in front of all the other guests having dinner in the backyard. We rounded it off with a bottle of Prosseco I bought and shots of limoncello. Sadly (but thankfully for my waistline’s sake) we have to leave for Rome today and say arrivederci to this Italian family. Hopefully I will be back someday.
If you ever go to Pompeii, I highly recommend Pepe’s.
