Talking About the Magic of Ischia & Napoli with Annie Ojile
Issue #4
This is part two of a two-part interview with Annie Ojile, founder of the successful Vespa tour company Scooteroma and Personalized Italy, which organizes bespoke tours in Rome, Tuscany, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, and Ischia. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Annie teamed up with Alexandra Lawrence, a Florence-based art historian and accredited guide who has worked with high-profile clients including England’s royal family, to launch All Street Napoli, a series of three-day retreats that delve into street culture in Napoli. You can read part one of our interview here.
Laura: Well, enough about Scooteroma because I want to talk to you about a couple of your other passions in work and life: Napoli and Ischia. Ischia first of all is kind of interesting because it was very under the radar until a few years ago and now it’s very much on the map and was just voted best island in the world by the readers of Travel + Leisure over Fiji and the Maldives.
Annie: I know, I was talking to Manlio at the Regina Isabella, where you’ve been. I stayed there for a night during my vacation and he said the minute the article went out, people started booking for 2023 and also for the fall. The power of press, as you know. So what do you wanna know about Ischia?
I wanna know what you love about Ischia.
So many things! It was a very serendipitous trip how I went there. I was also reading the Elena Ferrante books. I went there in August 2016. I was so excited to find a new place that was in the backyard of Napoli and the Amalfi Coast. And then I felt how I imagined my clients feel. Of course I live in Italy and I speak Italian, but I didn’t know anything about the island. It was this new exciting adventure, but it was right there. I mean I could have gone all these years! At that point, I had lived in Italy for 11 years. And I thought, this is brilliant.
It’s a great location, completely—especially back then—under-the-radar, but it has everything. It has land, it has sea, it has really good five star, it has three star, it has everything. It has accessible beaches and stabilimenti that you’re not paying way too much like on Capri. It just checked all the boxes. But apart from the tour operator perspective, I just fell in love with it because it’s magical. And every person I bring there, whether a friend or a client, they’re just totally enamored with the island.
It has this magical kind of energy, I don’t even know how to describe it.
The locals say it comes from Epomeo, the former volcano, and I don’t know a ton about it, but between you and me it’s like one of the seven doors to the other world. There’s all this mystique and legend and myth about Epomeo. I explored it very little, but I need to go there. It would probably be a good thing to go in the off season because you’re not in the water. There’s just this magic there.
Because the island has so much history, right? I mean, the ancient Greeks used to go there to soak in the hot springs.
Yeah, it’s not just like, “Oh I go there and there's great beaches.” It’s all the villages, like Baia di San Montano is where Magna Grecia was formed. And anything near Napoli I’m obsessed with. So there’s Naples, there’s Vesuvio, the whole area is just next level.
And Napoli I wanted to ask you about because Napoli is a city that’s kind of misunderstood, right?
Yes, great way to put it. I mean, I know people who’ve lived in Italy for a long time who are like, “Is it safe to go there?” I’m like, “Come on!” Someone just said it to me the other day and I was so surprised he said that.
Napoli as a city is misunderstood. Now, am I sending my clients there alone? No, unless you’re a younger, scrappy kind of adventurous spirit, but I’m literally telling you go here, go here, go here. But Napoli isn’t dangerous during the daytime and certainly not in the historic center. I always say Napoli is the future. I mean, it’s already starting to explode. It’ll be amazing to see, and I want to be part of, this cultural evolution in Naples.
That’s why you teamed up with Alexandra to start All Street Napoli, right?
Yeah, Alexandra and I have this separate love and passion for Napoli and we’re like, “Okay, let’s join forces.” So that’s what happened in 2020. She lives in Florence and has all these amazing contacts with Americans who live there. And you could only travel within Italy, so we started planning these trips to Napoli. You know, when you already own a business, you don’t have a lot of time to start a new one. That was one positive of Covid, that Alex and I could start this official journey in Napoli with All Street Napoli.
So how is that going now? Are you guys sending clients there for tours?
The thing with All Street Napoli right now is this season—coined revenge travel—has been so very challenging to manage. Myself in Rome and all the other things I do and Alex in Florence and all her projects as well. We didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to All Street Napoli. We do private tours when we have requests, but we didn’t do the weekend retreats. But it’s not going away. We are dedicated to it and we are brainstorming what we’re gonna do in the 2023 season.
So what is it that you want to show your clients who might go on one of these retreats?
It was just naturally born on the street, but not because of Covid. Because we wanted to show the clients the real Neapolitan life, how life just plays out on the street. It’s an open air theater. We wanted to show them the architecture, from this amazing Baroque architecture to the very gritty contemporary street art. We wanted to show them the markets and the artisans and the street food.
Most of our clients have already been to Naples, so they’ve seen the archeological museum or they can do that during free time. We pop into some churches, but we’re not going to see Cristo Velato. You’ve already done that or you can do it on your own. Come with us and we’ll show you a very vibrant, dynamic Napoli. You’ll meet the Neapolitans. We’re gonna show you things you wouldn’t find on your own. And since Alex is such a genius, amazing storyteller, she’s waxing poetic about Baroque art and architecture in San Gennaro and then 20 minutes later, I’m talking about San Gennaro being depicted in this super hyperrealist mural by Jorit, this Neapolitan street artist who’s just becoming so famous. So lots of contrasts.
One of our favorite themes is sacred and profane. And Napoli is the capital of sacred and profane. We’re not doing cookie cutter Napoli and it isn’t for everyone. But if those things sound interesting, it’s for you. It’s certainly for a person that's already been there, but we’ve done many tours where it was the clients’ first experience and they absolutely loved it.
I definitely wanna do it because as I’ve told you in the past, Napoli is one of those cities that has always eluded me. I’ve been there, but usually just end up going from the train station directly to the port to catch a boat to the islands.
We’ll go. It’s a little more chaotic and you’re like, “How do I navigate this?” There’s one day when we go to Pozzuoli, but the other days we’re walking on the street. It’s very manageable on foot. It’s not easy like Piazza di Spagna, Trevi, Pantheon, Navona—it’s not that, but the distances are the same. It’s just there’s more chaos. But Alex and I love that. Napoli is a super dynamic city—way more dynamic than Rome.
So other than Napoli, are there places in Italy that you think are unsung destinations that could use a bit more love?
Sicily. I mean, the south. You’re a lover of the south. Before Covid they announced direct flights to Napoli and Palermo. So if Covid didn’t happen, people would just start passing over Rome. That’s very telling if there’s direct flights to those cities. I think those will continue to grow in popularity and in the beginning there will be a certain kind of visitor and then they’ll become more popular. There’s plenty of places in Sicily. Sicily is so big, it takes weeks—you know better than me. But one place in Sicily I love, which happens to be another island, is Pantelleria.
Oh that is definitely on my list.
I can definitely give you tips. That one isn’t for everyone. That one’s a little more complicated, but when I went there I thought this is like Ischia but more raw, più selvatica.
Rugged and wild.
There's not a lot of infrastructure and you have to be prepared, but I’ve sent people there. I mean, you’re looking at Tunisia. It’s special. I haven’t been to a lot of islands, but the few I have been, there’s this magic quality to them.
Before I let you go, can you share a couple of favorite places to eat in Rome, Napoli, and Ischia?
Rome, well kind of just my favorites. Retrovino & Caffè. There’s Retrobottega and there’s Retrovino & Caffè. Have you been?
I have been to the wine bar.
What’s great about it is caffè is equally as important as wine. So that’s my neighborhood bar, I absolutely love them. If we wanna do very neighborhoody to make it different, Laganà in my neighborhood on Via dell’Orso. They’re like family, it’s just down the street from me. Super Roman menu, pastas that are huge. It’s very charming, outdoor seating. There’s the mom, the dad, the daughter, the son. It’s fantastic. Obviously everyone knows me for Santa Lucia. So I would say those three for my Rome.
In Napoli, my favorite pizza is Concettina in Rione Sanità and Mattozzi is a great restaurant, very Napoli per bene. They also do pizza, which is phenomenal, but it’s more classic restaurant vibes in a Neapolitan way. And then you have to go to Poppella for fiocco di neve. It’s a pastry shop and the original one is in Rione Sanità.
What’s fiocco di neve?
Fiocco di neve is like this sweet bun and inside there’s cream—the lightest cream that you’ve ever tasted. The owner said he’s gonna be opening one in Prati, so we’ll see. But it was a neighborhood pasticceria that made this and the Neapolitans from all over the city would come to buy the fiocco di neve on Sundays and special occasions. Then I think he was on Cake Boss, that might’ve blown him up, but he has several locations in Napoli and it’s divino. So instead of sfogliatella, fiocco di neve.
Ischia, something very casual but fantastic—bruschetta as big as your head—is Bar Gino, a three minute walk from the Casamicciola port. It’s the bar of a stabilimento. It’s fantastic—always a line going out the door, even at night. And then if we switch to high end, the Eden beach club. I would just go there for the day and have lunch. No one does it better. It's like Capri in Ischia. And then Zio Jack. It’s in Forio up in the hills. It’s the most phenomenal experience. They give you a meeting point, they send you a Jeep, and they drive you up the mountain. It was a cantina of Jack’s and now they’ve made it into a restaurant with fantastic food. It’s more terra, so there’s no fish. You go early for sunset, it’s unbelievable.
Thank you so much, Annie. It has been so fun to chat with you.
We’ve known each other for so long, but now we’re filling in the gaps.
This is part two of a two-part interview. It has been edited for length and clarity. If you missed part one, you can check it out here.
Further Reading
In addition to being an amazing tour guide, Annie is also a fantastic photographer. I used some of her photos to accompany this article about Elena Ferrante’s Ischia, which features a tour that she organized through her company Personalized Italy.
After Italy’s lockdown was lifted in 2020, I revisited Ischia and reported on how 12 entrepreneurs from the island teamed up to try and bring tourism back.
This year, Ischia was voted the world’s best island by the readers of Travel + Leisure in their annual World’s Best Awards.
Thank you so much, Laura ❤️