Limoncello, Pizze, and Cheese – Oh, My!

by safarisogood

Saturday, the four of us (Hailey’s classmate Holly, Hailey, Michael and I) headed out at 9 am to have a Sorrento “Farm Experience”. We arrived at the lemon and olive orchard and were met by our guide, Claudia. She walked us through the orchard, providing lots of good information about the trees, showing us some that were over 200 years old. They do not use irrigation and she explained that the trees can survive on very little water if you never give them too much. Last year they only had 7 days of rain, but the orchard is covered in lemons! We then tasted their limoncello and seven flavors of olive oil, accompanied by some wonderful fresh lemonade. Once we were done with that, we were picked up by scooter trucks! These are vespas that have a golf cart-like passenger hauler placed on them. We were taken to the Restaurant and the family who owns the restaurant explained how their Pizze is made. We donned aprons and rubber gloves and were each given a ball of dough to work into a 12″ Marguerite pizze with sauce, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil. It was really fun, they played Italian music and each person had to throw their dough to the person across from them. Yes, a couple were dropped on the floor. But they just grabbed another ball of dough and carried on! We had to do it in shifts, but since the pizze’s are cooked for only 2 minutes at 800 degrees, it didn’t take long! It was delicious. We were then taken, by the same scooter/carts to the barns, where we met the dairy cows and were schooled on how mozzarella, ricotta, and cacciottine cheese are made. Claudia made small tomato and basil salads to go with our 3 kinds of cheese sample! Home made red wine was Included with the pizza and cheese sampling! It was especially nice to learn that all their products (i.e., orchards, cows and food ingredients) are completely certified organic. While very informative and fun, it was a very humid hot day, so we were all exhausted when we got back. It has become increasing clear why the Italians take pausa pranzo (lunch pause) every day! We have adopted this practice with ease.

Hailey and Holly are both in our room. They were here with their class until Friday afternoon and stayed an extra 3 nights with us. The hotel was completely booked and had been for sometime, so we knew Hailey would be sharing our room the last 3 nights; but Holly was a late addition after we learned she wanted to stay with Hailey. Hailey asked if it was possible and Michael, being the most generous Grandpa in the world, said yes! So, here we are, four of us in one tiny Italian hotel room. Gives new meaning to “the more the merrier”. Friday night was our first together and it went quite smoothly. It’s like a co-ed, older/younger slumber party! Wifi is not great here, and I had trouble downloading pictures, here is what I have so far. I’ll try to add more later.