Around the World with Marsha & Joel

This is a culinary/cooking tour after all. So, after missing the first day of cooking thanks to our travel “experience”, we started our day with a hands-on seafood cooking lesson.

Here’s the menu that we attempted with the instruction and help of the hotel’s professional staff. We’d better learn well since we literally eat what we individually cook. Everyone works in teams…including Marsha & me, working together. Marriages even happier than ours have ended under these circumstances.

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Before we get started on the menu for the day, we have to make the pizza dough so it can rise and relax for its trip to the wood-fired oven and our stomachs two days later. We started from scratch and soon found out how making the perfect dough is more an art than a basic skill.

Take a look at the pro’s magic hands. (We’ll see if the action comes through to you – experimenting with a video download program – let me know how to works).

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Jeff and Nancy stuffing the calamari and, later, Marsha at lunch just digging into the Seafood Biscuit of Castellamare, even scarfing down the octopus. Recipes are available. Let us know if you are interested. I must say, our three-course lunches with wine really do prep you for the afternoon excursions. We’re climbing to look into the crater of Vesuvius this afternoon – final pitch equivalent to walking up the stairs of a 60 story skyscraper. Did need the caloric intake…and the alcohol to deaden the “pain”.

Climbing Vesuvius

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It was our first mostly cloudy day, and a little chillier as we ascended the winding road to the end of vehicle access to the summit of Vesuvius. We’re greeted by this stone guy who appeared amused that we really wanted to do this. The views down were still spectacular despite the weather – down across Pompeii and Herculaneum – attesting to the devastation of Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD – and into the Bay of Naples.

We got off our minibus and started the longer than expected, steeper than expected climb toward the crater. Some people chose not to trek up, but some we never expected to attempt it, did…and successfully.

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Jeff and I took humiliating photos of each other struggling up the steep, sandy, rocky trail, Jeff on one brand new knee while the other was not particularly cooperative. Me in my boot, bracing bruised bones in my foot (happened two days before we left on the trip). A couple of people coming down gave me high fives.

We made it, a little out of breath, but so glad we did as we walked part of the way around the rim of the crater. It is hard to imagine the day it erupted. The residents below had no idea it was volcanic since it hadn’t erupted for 1,200 years. At 1 pm a mushroom cloud of ash, dust and rocks blew 12 miles into the air, continuing for 18 hours while winds blew the cloud southward. The ash settled on Pompeii and eventually collapsed roofs and floors while leaving walls intact. 2,000 of the 20,000 residents stayed instead of running.

Herculaneum, although closer to the eruption (4 miles away) escaped the ash, but after 12 hours, the eruption changed to a superheated avalanche of ash, pumice and gas. The “pyroclastic flow” raced down the mountain at about 100 mph engulfing Herculaneum and literally cooking its residents alive. It ended up being buried in nearly 60 feet of hot material that cooled into rock, stopping the city in time. We’ll be visiting Herculaneum in a couple of days to see the beautifully excavated and preserved place. The flow went south and struck Pompeii too, fatal to those left behind.

The ladies and a few others joined us a short time after, much less winded to get the first hand look as well. We had to hustle down to make it out of the park before it closed and as darkness descended, not quite as dangerous as the ash.

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next “stuffing”, actually hungry again from the large calorie expenditure (any excuse). We didn’t start dinner until 8:00 each evening, so we had a couple of hours to have some snacks, cocktails, wine, and for some of us a few hands of Mahjong while I slogged the blog. Yes, we brought Marsha’s travel set along for just this reason.

The Evening Meal(s)

For those interested a typical evening dinner (every night) included:
Appetizers –
Seared tuna with concasses of tomatoes
“Raw” ham and melon

First Course –
Linguine pasta alla Nerano
Risotto with artichokes
Calamarata pasta with shrimp and squid

Second Course –
Grilled paillard
Salmon with citrons
Omelette with ham

Dessert –
Rum baba
Ice cream
Fruit

Dinner usually ended between 10 and 10:30…and sometimes getting to sleep was difficult. But we all got up to excitedly greet the next day’s adventure. Tomorrow we’ll spend almost the whole day exploring Naples, actually 45 minutes to an hour (depending on traffic) away. Set the alarm.

Capri (accent on the first syllable) is supposedly named for the mountain goats (capra) that roam the rugged terrain beside and behind the really touristy, but beautiful towns, Capri and Anacapri. 20,000 tourists often call it the “Island of Dreams” where they can spot the rich and famous (which they never do). They only see designer shops that charge rich and famous prices. We found this guy (above) on a wonderful cruise around the entire island.

It was another magnificent day, bright and in the 70s for the 45 minute boat ride across the Bay of Naples.

The compact town’s harbor is packed with the yachts of the un-findable rich and famous, but before we set ashore, we cruised around the magnificent island and it’s natural wonders.

We were greeted by this beautiful and charming young woman just sitting on the rocks, probably singing her siren’s song to lure us in. But we avoided getting too close when we found out she was a stoic bronze sculpture.

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The brilliant azure waters flow in and out of caves cut in the stone where our captain pulls close enough to touch the rock. We keep clear of the crowded Blue Grotto where tourists get into small dinghys, lay on their backs and float into a large cave with accentuated blue waters. Some of our group have already been, and we just won’t have enough time later. Just as nice to see it this way I think.

We came across the beautiful Capri lighthouse. I had to shoot it, especially for our friend, Mark Bilak who takes magnificent photos of lighthouses everywhere. Have you been to this one, Mark?

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Finished with our circuit, we go ashore to take in the sights, first in Anacapri, the quieter and prettier of the two towns on opposite sides of the island. We’re told there is quite a rivalry between the two independent municipalities. Basically they don’t really like each other. But no war (except for prices) has started yet. Limoncello, the liqueur made from the beautiful lemons in this part of Italy is sold and sampled everywhere – everywhere I could find – kind of like the stuff. This bus is probably the largest vehicle on the tiny island with very narrow and winding roads.

We wander around, through the shops and museum of Anacapri to this spectacular overlook. Way off in the distance you can see part of the Sorrento peninsula, where we’ll be traveling to and staying next week. We fought our way back down the hill through some pretty dense tourist traffic to a nice restaurant and a good three-course meal.

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Wandering through Capri, after lunch, Randye and Michael decided one dessert is not enough, especially in the land of Gelato! We made our way toward the Gardinier Di Augusta with a stop at this other beautiful garden once a convent and now a luxury hotel.

Capri was once famous as the vacation hideaway of Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. In the 19th century it became the haunt of the aristocrats of the romantic age, and later for Europe’s artsy gay community. Oscar Wilde, D. H. Lawrence and their friends sneaked away to here, free from the unsympathetic “law”.

The Augustus Garden, and the views from it were certainly worth the walk. We had to hustle back to catch the 5 pm boat to return us to Ercolano.

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To say the trip back was spectacular is a gross understatement.

The sunset, looking over the breakwater to our west, was (not a cliche) breathtaking. What a way to end a beautiful day – even better than the special dinner the hotel had prepared for us.

Tomorrow, a full morning cooking class focusing on local seafood that will become our lunch. Then a trip up Mt. Vesuvius to look down into the still active crater. See you then.

We started again After maybe 3-4 hours sleep. This time the trip to Newark was fairly smooth (except, always follow the Waze lady. She wanted us on the Turnpike truck lane, but was outvoted by one or two passengers who hate the truck lane. Anyway there was a car fire in the car lane. So we had to get off and back on – maybe a 15 minute delay). Our plane left blessedly on time to Frankfurt, we easily made the connection to Naples, and our driver turned up close to on-time. Through the crazy Italian traffic and to our hotel (PuntaQuattroventi) a mere 24 hours late.

Naples is not a gorgeous city making pretty dull ride to the hotel, but once inside, and looking at the beautiful Bay of Naples from our room (see above), our attitude was pleasantly adjusted.

We were at the hotel by 2:30 and the tour of Pompeii started at 3:00. So the 8 weary and grimy travelers headed off for the cobblestones, and the amazing story of the 600 AD city.

Pompeii had become an important Roman, middle-class trading city. It is perfectly excavated showing the outline of the shops and stalls lining the streets. The rich and poor lived side-by-side in a large variety of modest and extravagant houses. The city served 20,000 residents with (according the Rick Steves’ guide) 40 bakeries, 130 bars, restaurants, hotels, and 30 brothels.

Most of its building were covered by bright white ground-marble stucco. It’s almost sad that the best recovered art is now in the Archeological Museum in Naples. It sure would be more interesting in place.

Every day the Pompeian streets were flooded with water to clean them up (especially from the gifts from the horses pulling wagons and chariots). That’s why you see these stepping stones allowing pedestrians to cross the street without getting their Sandler’s wet or worse. The number of stones in the street actually indicated the type of street and type of traffic allowed.

The views in every direction were quite amazing with a huge variety of trees, including many olives and several of these incredible, super-sized, sort-of bonsais.

Of course the brothels were high on the tour guide’s list, and they were pretty wild. This preserved wall painting was just one of many detailed pieces that were much more explicit, primarily a “menu” of desires. There were more tourists here than any other place in the site.

Some of the cast “remains” of the residents who were caught in the 30 feet of hot volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. It wasn’t excavated by archeologists for centuries after.

The. Forum granary and ancient produce market now houses thousands of artifacts excavated from Pompeii. We saw all kinds of kitchen ware, and even casts of victims; even a resident dog.

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The Forum and Temple of Jupiter were spectacular in the failing light (as were these two special statuettes). Never in America – Tourists were allowed to wander in the pitch dark, with virtually no safety lighting (thank goodness for iPhone flashlights) over cobblestones, holes in the road, and hidden steps. There were no debilitating injuries making it back to the bus and hotel for the first of our dinner – four delicious courses. Of course we were so hungry and tired that I forgot to take pictures of the food.

Almost crawling up to bed after filling our bellies with food and wine, we want to dream of the spectacular day tomorrow (since the weather will be cooperating) to the Isle of Capri. We didn’t even remember our heads hitting the pillows…