Sorrento

Dear Charlie and Polly,

When we were in Italy in 2005 we stayed in Sorrento for a week, and we found a restaurant there we loved so much we ate there twice. The problem was we couldn't remember the name of it or where it was. So Thursday we decided to take a trip to Sorrento and see if we could find the restaurant. We decided the best way to get there was by boat. First we had to climb the steps into Ravello to find a cab to take us to Amalfi, a small town on the coast below Ravello. Since Ravello is high on a cliff, we had to get to the ocean to get on the boat. We met a very nice cab driver, Stefano, who drove us to the harbor in Amalfi. That is the short orange line on the map. The boat ride is the red line.

This is a view of Amalfi. The skies were dark and stormy, but we didn't care!

Our boat was huge!

The inside of the boat was nicer than the inside of our plane flying from Chicago to Rome!

This is another view of Amalfi as we sailed away. I bet it was hard to build those buildings into the sides of cliffs!

The water got very choppy at some points on the trip. It was almost like a roller coaster ride!

We saw this cave as we sailed down the coast. Do you think it is man-made or naturally made? What do you think is in there?

Then we passed by this yacht anchored in a bay. I wonder who is on it!

We stopped at Positano to let some people off the boat and take some more people on the boat. It's a beautiful little seaside town. Can you find it on the map?

We saw this fortress built on top of the hilltop. I wonder who built it and why?

This is the point when we turned back to the north to get to Sorrento. Can you find the big turn on the map? I think this must be a very old lighthouse.

After about an hour and a half on the boat we arrived in Sorrento. Look, the sun is shining!

We were very hungry. I hadn't had anything to eat since Mamma Agata's house the day before! We climbed straight up from the harbor into Sorrento and found this little restaurant at the top of the stairs.

Ristorante L'Abate

First course, bruschetta on warm focaccia bread.

More prosciutto with melons, this time honeydew. Yum!

Our first pizza of the trip!

One of the fun things about Sorrento is wandering through all the little winding cobblestone streets. There are shops and merchants everywhere!

We even found the cobbler who made me a pair of shoes when we were here eight years ago. Guess what, I got some more shoes!

New flip flops!

Salvatore Dali is one of Aunt Neenie's favorite artists. I thought she might like this bronze sculpture.

We looked and looked for our favorite restaurant, but we couldn't find it. We found vegetable markets…

... and stores that sold anything you could possibly make with lemons.

And old Italian men playing cards in the Dominova Seat.

After all that searching, it was definitely time for gelato. How many flavors do you think this gelato store sold?

I had chocolate and Nutella! My favorite.

After our gelato break, we walked and walked and walked some more. Then, guess what? We found it!

I remembered that it was up some stairs and had a beautiful outside eating area.

And there it was.

We made reservations for dinner and continued to walk around Sorrento some more. We finally had to find an outside café and sit down and have a cup of coffee. We were exhausted!
First course for dinner - zucchini flower with ricotta cheese, ham, fried in tempura, served with a sweet vinegar sauce,

Second course - spaghetti with goat cheese, pepper, served with beef ragout Neapolitan style.

Main course - fillet of pork in mustard, savoy cabbage, apple, blueberry sauce and rosemary potatoes.

Unfortunately, there's no picture of the dessert. That's because we ate our desserts before we remembered to take a picture! But here is the empty plate- it was delicious!

L'Antica Trattoria was every bit as great as we remembered!

Stefano, our wonderful driver from the morning came to pick us up and deliver us safely back to Ravello. What a great day!
We love and miss you both very much!
Sweetie and Doc
PS After I posted this, Doc noticed there ARE pictures of our desserts. The waiter took the picture of the two of us before we ate them!

Mamma Agata's Cooking School

Dear Charlie and Polly,

Wednesday was a very fun day for us in Ravello. We went to Mamma Agata's cooking school! Mamma Agata's is a famous Italian chef, and she and her daughter, Chiara, have a cooking school in their home. Their family has lived in the same house for 250 years! It is just down the street from where we are staying, so their view is much the same as ours.

As you can see, we were very excited to get started. We had our own aprons and everything!

This is Chiara in her kitchen.

The first thing we learned to make was eggplant parmesan, So for breakfast we each had some eggplant, pumpkin, and bread. It may sound funny, but it was delicious!

Here Mamma Agata is making the batter for some fritters that we're going to have with our lunch. She doesn't speak any English, so her daughter does all the talking for her.

Chiara is showing us the eggplant parmesan ready to go in the oven.

Mamma and Chiara at discuss cooking tips well the church bells ring in the background.

Mamma Agata doesn't like any American food except Heinz catsup. Chiara said she likes it so much, she will even eat it out of a bowl by itself.

Here, Mamma Agata is cooking Italian sausage with peppers and tomatoes. Yum!

Pasta sauce with two kinds of olives and capers on the left and sausage and peppers on the right.

Doc is getting ready to sample some of the sauce.

This is the view from their terrace. There were just 12 of us in the cooking school so we had fun getting to know each other.

 

This is part of their garden. They only use the food they grow in their garden for their cooking school.

Doc and I were very happy to be there!

Chicken, sausage and peppers, pasta sauce.

Now Mamma is cooking the fritters.

Very tasty!

Eggplant parmesan cool and ready to slice.

First bite was delicious!

Delicious pasta sauce - I can't wait to try this at home!

Looks as good as it tastes!

The chicken was wonderful too.

No wonder Chiara told us not to eat breakfast and to make no dinner plans on this day. We were so full after six hours at Mamma Agata's, we went home and collapsed for a while. Then we decided we better get some exercise to burn off all the calories we consumed at the cooking school. :-)

So we climbed back up to Ravello and wandered around for a while. On our way home, we took a different path than we ever had before. We saw some beautiful umbrella pines.

And then we saw this…

It is the same place where all the pictures of the famous view from Ravello are made. But, it's from the opposite side!

Love you and miss you both very much!

Sweetie and Doc