Spaghetti With Clams — Or Anything You Want!

The Isle of Capri tour promised spaghetti with clams — or anything you want

When my wife, Catharine, and I were traveling around Europe for six months in 1974 — back when touring Europe was literally cheaper than staying home — we took a ferry from Naples to the Isle of Capri early one sunny morning and settled into seats on deck.

On the ferry was an English-speaking tout trying to line up customers for Capri tours, approaching all the deck passengers who looked to be tourists and showing off booklets of pictures that highlighted the sights of Capri.

One of his key selling points was a restaurant lunch that featured “spaghetti with clams — or anything you want!”

This would have been forgettable except that his voice carried across the deck and by the time he reached us, we had heard him say “You can have spaghetti with clams… Continue reading →