Cooking Class, Almalfi Coast

Monday March 2, 2009

Our program offers activities for students pretty frequently and on Monday, I attended the cooking class. For the class, we go to a family’s house in Rome and the wife teaches us new recipes, then eat our makings. There were 5 other students there with me. The family was extremely nice and friendly. The husband is a photography professor at the University and a free-lance photographer on the side. They have an 11 year old daughter. When we go there, it was hands-on right away. The menu consisted of a pasta dish with gorgonzola cheese sauce, beer battered chicken with a delicious gravy, and a fruit and chocolate roll for dessert. I was in charge of flouring all the chicken pieces, and there were a lot. It was pretty much 2 whole chickens just chopped up, bones and all. We all had different tasks, bringing our meal together. We dined and talked with the parents, the daughter studies English at school, so she practiced her language skills with her, and we practiced our Italian with her. It was interesting talking to local Romans who had grown up in the area and to hear about things changing in the city and their outlook, and the food was delicious!

Friday March 6, 2009

Since we don’t have classes on Friday, Jackie and I decided to have an adventure day. Jackie has family from Almalfi, so we made it our goal to make it to the town. We did some preliminary research, but decided we could sort of wing it, and it would be fun for a quest through the Italian countryside. We started the day at 6:30 am and headed to the train station. From the Rome Termini train station we took a train to Naples, buying round-trip tickets. We made a rookie travel mistake though. On the roundtrip ticket we bought it to take a 10:00 train home, forgetting that Italy uses the 24 hr time system, so it was a 10am ticket, NOT a 10pm like we thought. Therefore we bought a ticket back to Rome the very same time we would arrive to Naples. Jackie realized our mistake on the train, and we were able to get a different ticket for the ride home. Upon arrival in Naples, we got on another train to go to Sorrento. This train was more of like an above-ground subway, not as comfortable as the last train. Once we arrived in Sorrento, we asked around for the way to Almalfi. We were instructed to hop on a blue bus and we would be taken there. So we got on the blue bus, driving toward Almalfi. Driving on the roads in this part of Italy is scary, but so gorgeous. The water was a color blue I’ve never seen, almost turquoise in color. The road curves around the cliffs of the landscape, and the driver was not very cautious, whipping around the corners. All of a sudden, the bus stops, the driver tells us the road is closed and we must walk 1km for another bus. Jackie and I start walking, in the rain, to find this other bus. After about 20 min of walking, we come across some locals. We ask where the bus is, and the man guarantees the next bus to Almalfi will come in 10 minutes. Meanwhile, it’s still raining, and these men begin to barricade the road off, not letting any cars through. After about 40 minutes of waiting, and no bus, we realized we needed a new plan. With the road barricade, there was a string of cars and one tour bus lined up. Jackie gets brave, and asked the tour bus driver if we could hitch a ride with them. The tour leader was very friendly and said they were headed toward Sorrento and would be happy to have us aboard. So Jackie and I boarded this tour bus to get a ride home. Almalfi was sort of out of the question at this point, it was about 12 miles away, and we had no real way of getting there. The Italian public transportation system is not always reliable, and this tour bus was a sure thing. So on board, we find ourselves amongst a tour of German senior citizens, none of whom speak very much English, and they had very German music playing the entire bus ride. Since the road was blocked, the bus had to go up and over the cliffs. The ride was gorgeous. Jackie and I got a free tour of the Almalfi coast with this tour, we were out of the rain, and we knew we could make it back to a train station. The tour leader was very friendly and was able to drop us off right in front of a train station that would take us back to Naples. At this point, we were starving, and found the closest restaurant and got a large pizza to split. After eating, we went back to Naples, then took a train back to Rome. While we never quite made it to Almalfi, we certainly had quite the adventure.

Saturday March 7, 2009

UVM spring break began today, and 7 of my friends flew over for the week. Lizzie and I picked them up at the airport, then got them all settled in Rome. Can’t wait to show them all around!