Sorrento, Italy - Day 2

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Our day began in Sorrento, Italy at our airbnb apartment. I got up around 6:00am to blog, and Andi woke up about an hour later. He made a nice breakfast for the two of us — scrambled eggs, arugula, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms. It tasted so good to eat our own food & such fresh flavors! In Italy, it is customary for the locals to have a cappuccino and a pastry for breakfast. Their biggest meal of the day comes later in the day, around 2:00pm, with fresh pasta and a glass of wine.

After the kids woke up around 9:30am, we started in on school work. Andi booked us a cooking class this evening, so we decided to flip our schedule around, and do school first this morning. It happened to be a more mentally demanding day for all of us, with a lot of redirecting and refocusing needed. Whenever we take a few days off from school work, it’s always harder for the kids to get back into the mindset of learning.

By 1:00pm, all four of us were ready to get out of the house and find something to eat for lunch. Andi picked a place called Basilico located a few blocks away from our apartment. The restaurant looked a bit strange from the outside (large, more like a theatre) and in fact, Basilico is a restaurant inside the lobby of the Armida Cinema Theater. Obviously, no dinner shows were happening this time of the day.

The online reviews for Basilico Restaurant said this place is one of the best places in town to find traditional Neapolitan pizza, as well as the popular "cuoppo," which is a mix of deep-fried veggies and seafood. Andi ordered the cuoppo to share as an appetizer, as well as grilled sausage and steamed broccoli for his entree. Tory ordered gnocchi, of course, and Aden ordered a hamburger. The waiter didn’t speak much English, and seemed confused when Andi requested Aden’s burger to only have the patty and the bun (no sauce, lettuce, or tomato). When Aden’s plate arrived, it came as the burger patty only. I would have made Aden eat it like that, but Andi tried his best to communicate with our waiter that Aden wanted a bun, too. The waiter took Aden’s whole plate back to the kitchen, and didn’t bring it back for another five minutes. I’m not sure if they cooked an entirely new burger for him, or if it just took that long to get a burger bun from the chef. Regardless, Aden did eventually get a burger and fries prepared the way he wanted.

I ordered a baked calzone for my meal, and oh my gosh — it was the biggest calzone I’ve ever seen in my life! I’d have to agree with the online reviewers who said this is one of the best places to eat pizza in Sorrento. I’m ashamed to say I ate the whole dang thing. It tasted so delicious, I couldn’t help myself.

After lunch, the four of us walked to Sorrento’s Old Town. We saw this area yesterday with our city tour guide, but Andi and I wanted to walk the streets again by ourselves so we could take more time to window browse. It’s pretty touristy on Corso Italia, but also fun to stroll along and see all the items for sale. There are shops selling lemons and limoncello, pasta, shoes, bags, t-shirts, souvenirs, and more.

It’s hard to comprehend that we were walking on the same black tuff stone streets from the time Romans ruled the city in the 8th century.

Andi signed us up for an Italian cooking class this evening in the neighboring suburb of Seiano. To get there, we needed to take the metro train. This was our first time taking the train, and we weren’t exactly sure of the process to buy tickets, or how long it would take us to get there. We needed to be in Seiano by 5:00pm, so the four of us made our way to the train station around 4:00pm to give ourselves plenty of time to figure it out.

Fortunately, riding the train in Sorrento wasn’t too complicated. We purchased tickets for €2 each, and hoped on the Line 1 train. Seiano was only four stops away from Sorrento station, so our train ride lasted about 12 minutes. The train was crowded with daily commuters.

When we arrived in Seiano, a friend of Chef Vincenzo met us at the train station and drove us the rest of the way to the location of the cooking class. Chef Vincenzo is a native of Sorrento, and has been sharing his family recipes with cooking class guests for the past 13 years. He hosts the class in his home kitchen, a residence originally built in the 1800’s. The terrace has panoramic views of the Bay of Naples. Clearly, much love, passion, and sweat equity has gone into making this a special place to entertain.

That’s Mount Vesuvius across the bay.

When we arrived, Chef Vincenzo greeted Andi and I with a glass of Prosecco and invited us to take in the view while he finalized preparations for the class. Then, he invited us inside to show us how to make our own homemade pizza dough and ravioli.

During the busy summer months, Chef Vincenzo said he hosts two cooking classes a day with 20 people in each group. Tonight, we felt lucky to have our own private class with him and one other guest named Matt from New York. The setting was relaxed and conversational. Chef Vincenzo liked giving Andi a hard time about his cooking skills which we all got a kick out of — especially Tory and Aden.

Tory was in her element while preparing pizza dough and ravioli. She had a genuine smile on her face the entire class. She’s a natural in the kitchen, and often makes her own gnocchi at home so she had some experience working with the dough. “Good job, Princess,” Chef Vincenzo kept telling her.

With our prepared ravioli, Chef Vincenzo showed us how to fry them in sunflower oil for a quick party appetizer, or boil the filled noodles and toss in red sauce for a traditional pasta entree. He used his own tomato sauce which he canned from his summer tomatoes and white wine, garlic, basil, and onion. It was seriously the best-tasting tomato sauce I’ve ever eaten!

As if this wasn’t enough food, Chef Vincenzo also made two wood-fired pizzas for us to eat. The crusts were perfectly charred on the outside with soft, gooey cheese and marinara in the middle. He took the same dough and made an Italian sandwich with his homemade mozzarella and salami as well.

Finally, for dessert, Chef Vincenzo taught us how to make limoncello tiramisu. He showed us the basic recipe using layers of lady finger cookies soaked in limoncello and mascarpone with an almond cookie crumble. For the kids in place of limoncello, he prepared an orange simple syrup using fresh oranges from his trees. He explained that we could use any flavor combination for tiramisu. He likes to use his own limoncello because it’s fresh, but encouraged us to use whatever fruit is local at our own homes (strawberries, limes, etc.)

To say we were stuffed by the end of the class would be an understatement! I couldn’t breath I was so full, but all the food was so, so good. It’s always difficult to watch portions in experiences like this, because we also don’t want to offend the chef. So, eat we did until we literally couldn’t eat anymore.

This class was a little more expensive than we’d typically spend on an experience, but it was absolutely worth the money. It cost €130 each for Andi and I, and €65 each for Tory and Aden. However, as Andi put it, the price also included our dinner and we felt like this cooking class was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

As the class wrapped up around 8:30pm, we thanked Chef Vincenzo for his time and knowledge in showing us how to make these authentic Italian recipes. He offered to drive our family back to our apartment in Sorrento’s city centre, and honestly that was one of our favorite moments with the chef. We were able to converse with him a bit more in the car, and hear about his passion for food.

The four of us arrived back to our apartment in Sorrento around 9:00pm. To be honest, none of us slept very well because our bellies were so full of food. We may have officially overdone it on eating pizza and pasta in Italy.

Tomorrow is our last day in Sorrento, and we’re planning to visit the ancient city of Pompeii. I’m really looking forward to that. It’ll be a double-whammy of education and an interesting sight-seeing experience.