Torna a Sorrento

Ma nun me lassa.



Nun dame stu turmiento!



Tomo a Surriento



Famme campa!







Please don't say farewell



And leave this heart that's broken.



Come back to Sorrento



So I can mend!







My time is very limited here in Sorrento..... in less than 24 hours I will leave this magical place. I have taken the last 24 hours to return to all of my favorite places in the city.

• Bellview Syrene Hotel & Memorial Park




• The alley to the laundromat to see my little kitty friends




• The old city walls




• Tasso Square to people watch




• The view of Mt. Vesuvius from the overlook on my walk home from Il Buco




• Il Buco

Chef Biagio asked me what I wanted for my last dinner, I chose rabbit... coniglio. It's braised in genovese sauce. Onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes & wine. We also had sorbeto (sorbet but in the gelato form) in a brioche like an icecream sandwich! I shared two bottles of wine I had picked up over the last few weeks with my fellow students. We had a very nice meal on the patio. Sorry to say there are no photos of my last dinner.... we neglected to take any! UGH!

This last week has been amazing! Since my last posting I have visited two Olive Oil fabrica's & tasted oil! Had a chance to see mozzarella cheese being made, tasted wine, eaten some really great food and determined what things needed to be tossed before I leave Sorrento so my suitcase weighs in under the regulation MAXIMUM weight for Delta.

First things first....

Last Wednesday I attended an Italian tri-fecta! Tasting Olive oil, Cheese & Wine! With some some young ladies from Holland we began our adventure at a local mozzarella cheese factory in Sant'Angello. This very small company has only three employees and produces cheese for the local Sorrento market. The milk arrives daily to this plant a 4AM. The crew works to separate the solids from the liquids and begins to cheese making process. It takes 250,000 liters (65,975 gallons) of unpasteurized milk to make produce 250K (550 lbs.) of mozzarella cheese & 12.5 k (27.5 lbs) of ricotta. I have an entirely new view on eating cheese knowing the volume of milk required to produce such small amounts of cheese. We were able to watch the cheese being poured into the machine that then heats and stretches it, forms it into the famous balls of mozzarella and then quickly cools those balls in cold water. It is then "rinsed" in salt water and packed. Tasted the cheese in various stages, just after being separated, before and after it is salted. The flavors were amazing and fresh! The morning had a bit of drama when I squatted down to take a photo of the cheese selection in the case and managed to loose my balance and wobble like a weeble and FALL down!! Camera flies, butt onto the milky wet floor that is everywhere in this place and a bit of bruised pride! The cheese followed us for the next several hours as my pants were soaked.......

From the cheese factory we made our way to a little Olive Oil facility in Piano di Sorrento. The olives are not in season so the factory is closed. We did get to see how the production line works and each of the processes for producing that great Extra Virgin Olive Oil we love to eat! The EVO oil comes from the earliest harvest. The olives are all still very green on the trees and it requires a very large volume of olives to produce EVO. Those olives must be pressed within 2 days of being picked. 100K of olives yields 13L of oil.... 220lbs. yeild 3.4 gallons. The acidity level must be below 1% to classify it in the EVO status. I have a much better understanding to why Olive oil costs what it does!!

Then we were on to one of the oldest lemon groves in Sorrento and to taste some wine from the grove owner. He makes a very small amount each year. His family consumes it, he sells it to some small restaurants & we drink it here at Mami Camilla's if we pick rosso wine for dinner! The wife of this grove owner prepared bruchetta, sat out assorted cheeses & meats for sampling with the wine and welcomed us into her home. It turns out the lady that shuttled us to on the tour and translated for the cheese & oil proprietors grew up on this lemon grove! She shared some wonderful history regarding Sorrento, the wines & the people of this area. What a morning!

I ended my time at Il Buco on Friday. The restaurant was very busy those last two nights and I continued to be amazed at how quickly the evenings went. Also how the "hot" menu item of the evening is ever changing! Pasta with Clam sauce one night and octopus the next. It was difficult to say good bye to this amazing group of people. Even with the language barrier we formed a good working relationship and the beginnings of friendships. One young man is coming to the states in the winter (Chicago... Ouch!) and shared his email so we can maybe connect when he arrives. Ciro, my chef, refused to say good-bye and made me promise to come to dinner before I departed Sorrento. SO... just Tuesday evening I had dinner and let the chef decide my menu. The photos are posted and you can see what my seven (yes 7) courses were! Upon my departure from dinner Tuesday there were hugs and kisses, promises to return & a reminder that the keys to the restaurant would always be available & that I had a new family there at Il Buco! My cup (and my heart) runneth over!

The weekend involved a 10 mile hike with one of my fellow students. We departed Mami Camilla's at 10:30AM to begin our journey. The Sorrentine peninsula is really rather small and manageable. The tourist office offers hiking path suggestions for those who wish to discover the area by foot or bicycle. We chose route 1A to Massa Lubrense. After a uphill climb through crooked narrow streets (upon which I was certain this 45 year old body was going to give out) we arrived in the charming little town of Massa. We treated our selves to some lunch and gelato and then set out again. This time we hopped a bus to Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi and planned to hike back down the hills to Sorrento. Sant'Agata is THE MOST IDYLLIC little town! It name comes from being the highest town on the Sorrentine peninsula and due golfi literally means both the bays can be seen from the town. The bay of Salerno & the bay of Napoli. We wanted to bring route 3A back into town but had a difficult time finding it so we followed the main road. We could see our destination at the bottom of the hills but the road we were on seemed to be leading us away from there.... eventually we were in areas that seemed familiar and arrived back into town. We hit the door at Mami Camilla's at 6:30PM. Best I can figure we walked for 6 hours! What an afternoon! I exercised my body, took in an abundance of fresh air & learned a good deal about a new friend....Galley (She works as a chef in the yachting industry)!!

Sunday Galley and I had yet another adventure. The island of Ischia has been of interest to me since arriving here & I wanted to make the trip before my time ran out. I was up and ready early and she asked if she might join me for the day. Absolutely! The boat to Ischia departs Sorrento port at 9:30AM (only once a day) and returns from Ischia at 5:30PM (again only one boat!). We arrived on the island without a set plan so our first stop was the tourist office then on to grab a caffe to plan our day. I knew there were wineries on the island as it is an old volcano & the soil is rich for grape production. We grabbed a bus and took the 30min ride to the opposite of the island to a little town called Forio. After a brief visit with the bus driver (she speaks better Italian than I) he agreed to let us know the stop we needed. It was an adventure! We managed to locate Pietratorcia (rock-smasher) Winery. For a small fee we tasted 4 wines each (she ~ rosso's / I ~ bianco's) and tasted some great olives & cheeses. This little winery still makes wine in the old fashion way. They use the Pietra (Stone) and teeter totter method to crush the grapes. The vineyard is only 8 acres big so the production is very small. The wines are great and they ship to America!! Wahoo! Check out the website if you are interested in Ischia wines! http://www.pietratorcia.it/. We then took the young ladies suggestion for a restaurant in the next town over. Seafood antipasta, Fish for main course and some wine... We met the chef, sang with the waiter & singing stroller. We escaped just in time to make the last bus that would get us to the port to catch the 5:30 ferry.... LITERALLY just made it! I ran as fast as these legs would take me to the dock while Galley was tripping along behind. We decided there may have been something more in that wine than wine .... an Italian mickey perhaps?

My chef from Il Buco had set up an Olive Oil tour and tasting at Olio Gargiulo! I arrived at 9:30AM and toured the plant and tasted 7 different oils. This facility is much larger than the one from the week previous & they produce and ship oils all over the world. Out front they have the original stone & crushing mechanism from 1847 on display. The process has changed a great deal over the years I can't imagine how hard the donkey turning the stone had to work to produce 1L of oil in those days!!!

It's early in the morning the day of my departure from my home in Italy. I am melancholy. Ready to go but wanting to stay. I pray that someday I will be blessed and able to Torna a Sorrento.....