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Published: July 31st 2012
I think I left of just as we were about to have our first cooking lesson. This was so fun and such a great learning experience. We started with an antipasto or appetizer of eggplant wrapped in cheese and covered in a marinara sauce--all made with locally grown produce. This was outstanding! Then the 93 year old Nona came to the kitchen and she saw the fuss and she wanted IN! She started to make her own pasta, she rolled it into long slim sticks and then cut small pieces off of this, she then took a butter knife and swiped the pieces to make a shell which she then flipped over her thumb and popped onto a cookie sheet. After watching her very carefully for awhile I asked if I could help make some so she agreed and we began to make them together. It took a few tries for me to master the technique but once I did she said that I coudl come back tomorrow and we would make a kilo of them! Yeah, right! It was slow work for me but she was really cute and quite fun. I liked her and I liked the kitchen and the lesson.
Dinner began about 7:30 with the first course of antipasto, which we had made. Then we had lasagne--a small piece, the third course was a chicken kabob with a salad, then dessert. The meal was very tasty the portions were small and very flavourful so that you did not feel stuffed at the end. It took nearly 3 hours for dinner to be completed. IT was very social and fun.
The next morning we were up early and on our way by 7:00. We took the local bus down the mountian. There is not a carnival or mid-way ride that can even compare to this experience. It is like being in a glass tube going super fast down a narrow windy road with switchbacks. We choose to sit near the back of the bus so we ended up having this panoramic view of the whole thing and it was wild! One of the people in our group a fellow named JT from South Carolina is completely hysterically funny. As soon as we carreened around our first corner he looked at John and me and said "Aren't we lucky we get to be in our own movie...it is called 'Eat, Pray, DIE!"....from then on it was just funny. I think I must have looked particularly freaked at one point because JT said to me "Don't worry every time the driver honks his horn it makes the cars coming towards us smaller"....half way down we pull into this parking lot and I thought that it was the start of our hike but no, the driver stood up and announced "THE BUS IS BROKEN" he told us to get off and we got onto another bus to continue on our way.
By 8:00 we were ready to start our hike, we were warned that this would be very steep for the first half hour and it was. It was pretty much straight up for a good 30 minutes without much stopping. Then we continued on from there for what ended up being over 8 hours of pretty demanding and hilly hiking. We got lost and hiked an extra two hours! We finally ended up at this waterfall where we took some time to swim or soak our feet and then we walked down into the town of Amalfi. A cute, old town right on the seaside. I have long wanted to go to Amalfi because it is such a chic and interesting place but I did not really envision being there filthy dirty and sweating. All this time I have been thinking that I would gain a bunch of weight here, well those worries are put aside. It is hard hiking and it is extremely hot weather! After such a long hike a nice shower felt good and dinner was again a master piece and we were in bed by 10:30...
Today we went back to Amalfi for some shopping and some sightseeing and of course another hike. Today was supposed to be an easy day so we hiked straight up--mostly stairs--for 2 straight hours. But the scene from the top was outstanding and the experience in Ravello was great. The views of the coastline are outstanding. We enjoyed a seafood lunch and came back to our hotel to rest and relax. We are reading and watching Italian tv and wondering who is going to come out tomorrow. Several people have decided that tomorrow's hike will be too hard and they are opting out. Not us. I am determined to do every hike. Tomorrow is supposed to be the most challenging of all. We will see...until then. CIAO! nan and John
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Eflrieda Kroeker
non-member comment
Way to Go!
Thanks for keeping me interested and envious of the wonderful experiences you are having. I cannot envision Helmut going on a hike - almost straight up! Maybe a slow biking tour on flat terrain (make that a motorbike). Continue to enjoy!