Thursday October 20th
Today had 2 objectives. Ride the Amalfi Coast again, and learn how to cook some great southern Italian food. Mission accomplished. Not the sunniest day you could have hoped for, in fact it rained for a while, but great nonetheless. This time out we stopped in Positano, which some of you might recognize from “Under the Tuscan Sun.” It is my opinion that it is better to look at Positano from a distance for a while before you actually go into it. The way that the houses are built one on top of the other, from the seaside all the way up the side of the mountain is what Positano is known for. But once you are in the center you can’t see it anymore. So soak it in first so that your mind’s eye can picture where you are even if you can’t see it. Amalfi and Positano are both for strolling and window shopping. They both have a nice church, and a beach, but neither offers any major monuments. But they are fairly close together, and close to another few towns worth a stop off, that you could do them all in one day. If you decide to take the public buses, make sure you bring your nerves of steel.
Objective #2, brings us to “The Sorrento Cooking School” courtesy of www.LaCucinaSorrentina.com (However their website is still under construction, so check back later to see what they offer, in my own opinion it is one of the best ways to experience this area) The menu of the day was a “ricotta fritter” appetizer, followed by a primo piatto of “gnocchi alla Sorrentina” a secondo piatto of “pesce di aqua pazza” all topped off with a “tiramisu”. Our instructor was named Rosaria, and the English interpreter was also named Rosaria, which had us a little confused at first. It’s a whole lot harder than it looks, but once you get the hang of it it all comes together. It would take all day to recount the whole lesson, so let’s skip ahead to the part where we eat what we prepared. My compliments to the Chefs! Everything was excellent. As we were preparing the “fish in crazy water” I was pretty sure that it was going to be disgusting, but it was actually very tasty. Gnocchi is one of my favorite Italian dishes, and alla Sorrentina is the best way to do it. So I’m going to practice up and make it my signature dish. Tiramisu being heavily coffee based isn’t my favorite, but this one had the perfect coffee to cream ratio. And the ricotta fritters, which required us to roll out and fold the puff pastry a minimum of 7 times was the hardest thing to do, but it turned out flaky and melty, and oh so good. It was a fun class, a great 4 course meal, and an excellent way to spend a few hours during your vacation.
Oh, objective #3 LAUNDRY! This was the first time this trip that we are in an area for more than one day, so we wanted to take advantage of that and do laundry. And let me also say another Thank You to Napapijri. If they hadn’t hooked us up with so much great stuff we would have run out of clean clothes about 2 weeks ago. I asked an old man at a “lavanderia” if we could drop off a couple bags of clothes, and get them back the next day. He said we could drop them off, but it would take a week and a half to get them back. Not likely, so after the class we went to the only laundromat in town, and sat it out.
With fresh clothes in bag, we checked into the B&B Il Roseto www.ilrosetobedanbreakfast.it Conveniently located about a 10 minute walk along the main road from the center of Sorrento. Our room had a loft area with 2 single beds and a desk to sit at. Down stairs was the double bed, bathroom, TV, and sitting area. Plenty of storage space, and one of the only mini-bars we’ve seen. The room was very large, as was the bathroom, and at a fraction of the cost of the hotel on the same corner.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home