Sorrento

This is where our Southern Italian adventure begins!

The Itinerary:

• Milan --> Sorrento (4.5 hour train to Naples then 1.5 hour car service to Sorrento)
• Sorrento - 2 nights
• Sorrento --> Praiano/Amalfi Coast (Car service with stop in Pompei and lunch/wine tasting at base of Mt. Vesuvious)
• Praiano - 3 nights
• Praiano --> Rome (via car service to Napoli Centrale then train to Roma) 
• Roma - 1 night 

Saturday, May 11:

We walked to Milano Centrale from our hotel to catch our late morning train to Naples. Had a good belly laugh here when someone fell down at the top of the inclined moving walkway blocking the exit where everyone had to step off. Eventually the downed tourist's partner grabbed her under her arms and dragged her out of the way. It was a little hairy there for a minute; we narrowly avoided what could have been a catastrophic domino effect of people tipping backwards down the moving ramp with their luggage! 

Our first train ride to Naples from Milan was mostly great! Only one mysterious stop on the tracks in the middle of nowhere for about thirty minutes. We had an interesting conversation with a young gal who was from Italy and in University. I'm always fascinated by comparing educational systems to the U.S. She told us that they choose their career right away and go to five years of college for that degree. For instance, she was in law school, but really in her second year of undergrad college. It's also, of course, way cheaper, if not practically free for everyone to get educated in Europe. 

Which reminds me about another conversation we had with a girl from the Netherlands (who me met on a previous train ride). She told us that there are actually too many educated people with degrees in the Netherlands and not enough people to fill jobs for people that don't require degrees. This is in a large part due to the free college education that is offered to everyone. There's never a simple answer to any of these large world issues!

I digress, back to the trip - once we got to Naples, we were greeted by our driver, redj-head Rita. Rita spoke basically no English, but she was super friendly and used google translate on her phone to communicate back and forth with us. It was somewhat of a heroing drive into Sorrento - Gina and I were facing backwards and watching all the oncoming cars tailgating us and the hundreds of scooters/motorcycles zooming at and around our van. As Gina said, it felt like we were being chased in a Born Identity Movie 😂😂

An hour and a half later, we got dropped off at 10 Via Cappa, our Airbnb. Our host, Raffelle, met us there to let us in.  He loved showing us around and explaining everything he was about to do by prefacing it with, "and, now I will (insert action here)." Something new at this check-in was that we had to pay him the cleaning fee in cash up front as well as a tourist tax per person (adults only). Italy has some different rules with Airbnbs and tourist taxes than other countries we've been to. 

We were above a little market, which allowed us to get some snacks and wine to enjoy on our little balcony before we headed out to our dinner reservation. Dinner was at Benvenuti in Casa - see photos below!

Naples here we come!

Views from the drive to Sorrento

Gulf of Naples

Apero time on the balcony at the Airbnb

Sorrento! 

Stuffed zucchini pasta purses with shrimp

Gnocchi with mussels and clams

Gnocchi Sorrento style

Homemade breadsticks

Limoncello with the check - cheers!

Smiley face building off our balcony :)

Sunday, May 12th

Time to wake up and start this beautiful day! 

Finn's "Kitchen" bed 

Views from Sorrento Coast

Gorgeous!

Not much of running path, but I tried! 

Church in town - perfect morning in Sorrento

Loved these ancient apartment buildings with their striped awnings 

Today we had booked a cooking class through Rafelle, our Airbnb Host. We had NO idea what a TREAT we were in for! The class was held at the private Villa Zagara.

I have to try and describe the walk from our place to the Villa. First, we left our apartment, walked down a very loud and busy street full of motos buzzing around, cars, pedestrians, and busses. A few minutes later, we turned off the main road, into the narrow, winding old town streets. Soon, we made our way to "Sophia Loren" ally, a narrow foot path lined with photographs of the actress.

"Sophia Loren" Alley

The walk continued further downhill and onto a wider "street" with large stone walls. We turned left and saw the large white gates and entrance for Villa Zagara. 

As the gates opened for us, we entered into a magical, Italian villa paradise. At the end of one of the many garden paths, an older Italian man in a shirt and tie appeared and started to approach us. Angelo, greeted us and walked us through some of the garden to the kitchen where our cooking class was going to be held. 

We stepped into the most beautiful kitchen I've ever seen, and we were offered biscuits and fresh lemon water. It turns out the class was going to be just us five, plus Angelo and the chef, Domenico.  

The Menu:

• Gnocchi with pesto

• Pizza Montanara - pomodoro and ricotta with lemon caviar

• Lemon Tiramisu

The entrance....

Into the gardens we go...

In no particular order, pictures from our day at the Villa: 

Traditional fried pizzas - pomodoro and ricotta

Just a flick of the wrist is all it takes 

Gina's having the most fun! 

Veal osso bucco cooking for three days on the stove next to our sauces
 

The fried pizza dough

Gently pulling out the pizza dough 

Pizza dough or doughnut or both??

Finn carefully placing his pizza dough in the hot oil

Cutting her gnocchi 

Just add a little more flour to prevent sticking

My turn!

Rolling out the gnocchi dough

We had some down time to lounge and walk the grounds of the Villa while we waited for our gnocchi dough to sit. 

My little Roman God - "Feed me grapes!"

Sampling their award winning olive oil

The cutest Italian chefs I've ever seen :) 

I could sit here forever...

Ocean views at end of rose path

This cooking stuff is tiring

Chef Domenico prepping the gnocchi dough

Our table setting for lunch - what?! So magical

Cheese and meat slicer - Addison, this is your next toy

The traditional Italian Moka coffee pot

Angelo grinding coffee beans by hand

Helping with the pesto

Pesto time! 

Can you SMELL how fresh this basil is?! 

The kitchen - too perfect and cute

Tiramisu time - dipping the lady fingers in lemon water

Piping on some cream

Angelo gets "Big Boss" ready to cook

There are 4 types of lemons on this one tree

Angelo among the lemons

Maggie impressed everyone with her baking technique

Final step - add some fresh lemon zest 

Jay get's a new nickname: "An-Jay the Giant" 

Finally - It's time to eat!!

Are you drooling yet?

Someone's VERY happy!

Lemon Tiramisu 

Happy Mother's day to us! 

None of us wanted to leave the magical world of the Villa, but alas we had to go back to the hustle and bustle of the Sorrento streets. We made our way to the small beach in town and had some downtime in the sun and sand. Us adults enjoyed an Aperol Spritz that we almost weren't able to pay for...some slight panicking and running around trying to figure out how to get cash ensued when the restaurant told us their credit card machine didn't work and they only took cash. None of us had cash, nor did we have any cards to get cash from an ATM. We aren't exactly sure what happened, but, in the end, the waitress flagged us down as we were trying to figure out how to use the ATM with our phone and told us we could use apple pay all of a sudden! Welcome Italy - everything confusing - lolololol

Approaching the beach in Sorrento

Time to dunk! 

These cliffs are nothing compared to Amalfi!

Sunbathing at its best 

Mt. Visuvious 

How do two Italian men spend time together? Ride their motorcycles to the beach, take off their shirts, leave their shoes on, stand in the sand and discuss life's problems. 

Spritz time - one of MANY

Back up from the beach

Dinner - homemade Itallian "subs"

Yummmmmmm

View from our balcony - that "apartment" building is at the end of the Villa grounds 

How many Americans does it take to throw out garbage in Italy? A different colored bag for each day and each type of product to be taken out to the streets between the hours of 10pm and 6am. 

The instructions...

The blurry-eyed attempt to sort the trash through tears of laughter