CARPE DIEM!
By Gabbi Thomason
We started off our first morning in Naples by waking up at 8:00am to an amazing view. Nat, Sarah and I then headed downstairs to eat breakfast. They were serving a variety of Italian foods like croissants, omelets, salami and mixed fruit. After eating, we headed upstairs to soak up the view before heading to Pompeii. We departed the hotel at 10:30am and arrived around noon. We had 45 minutes before our tour started so most of us decided to stop at a sandwich shop to grab some lunch. After finally getting our sandwiches, we hurried over to catch up with the group to meet the tour guide!
We walked around the archaeological site where that lies at the base of a volcano, Mount Vesuvius, which actually destroyed the city in 79 AD. We were shown around by our famous tour guide, Gaetano Manfredi, who led us around all of the interesting things that make up Pompeii. Gaetano, who had been filmed in documentaries and featured in Rick Steves Italian Travel guide was a wealth of information. He is also a third generation tour guide and we briefly met his son, a fourth generation tour guide. We were blown away by the history, architecture, and technology of the city.
Afterwards, we got back to the hotel around 4:00pm for a quick rest, then left for the cooking class just a short, steep walk from our hotel. We made our way though a local neighborhood and were greeted by some local animals along with a very young assistant of our head chef.
We arrived to what looked to be a local restaurant and farm home named Luna D'Agerola. We split into two groups, everyone worked together to create a delicious meal that consisted of ravioli, tagliatelle and tiramisu! We started out preparing the tiramisu. The first brave souls started hand mixing the mascarpone filling and whipping them cream with a hand mixer. We then all took turns dipping the lady fingers in a coffee mixture and lining them in the pan.
Once all of our layers in the tiramisu was completed when then moved on to our most labor intensive project of the evening, ravioli! We mixed the cheese filling and seasoning, after some translation confusion on the name of the herb used (majorana (?), NOT marijuana). We next learned to mix and knead the dough. How to flatten the dough by running in through and hand cranked machine at five different levels. We then had to wet the dough with a brush, squeeze dollops of the filling, fold the dough over and cut them into ravioli shapes. We started out the process enthusiastically, which eventually turned into a who could get it done faster situation. Let's just say some of our talents are limited to the court vs the kitchen.
We used the last of the dough to make a flat fettuccine looking noodle, they called tagliatelle. We were then able to finally rest, take in some delicious house wine while the pastas were cooked. The labor and love was worth it for some of the most delicious dishes we had on our trip yet!
After dinner our wonderful young host walked us up the hill to see "the most beautiful view in the world", and Miranda made another dog friend along the way!! We got to look over the Almafi coast as the sun slowly disappeared and of course snapped a few photos together. Then we went back to eat or tiramisu dessert and headed home. After a long day of touring and cooking, we decided to relax on the patio and enjoy the fireworks of a nearby wedding! (video here). Thanks for following along on our day, see you soon!! 😄
Gabbi Thomason '24
