Today was the best day so far! I’d booked us an e-bike food and wine tasting tour of Sorrento – and it was SO much fun!!! Here’s the link in case you are ever in Sorrento and fancy a grand day out! https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g187782-d15695568-E_Bike_Wine_Food_Tour_Sorrento_Coast-Sorrento_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html It was a fairly early start, meeting our tour guide Sergio at a nearby plaza at 8am, so we were up at 7am to go grab breakfast before heading out. He was a very cheerful chappie with a great laugh – but he was fully decked out in pro cycling gear, so we weren’t sure whether to be a little worried about that! (needless to say, neither of us looked the part other than of slightly crumpled tourists!). After a short delay waiting for 2 others to turn up (apparently the guy who picked up their bikes forgot to pick up the guests – doh!), we were all ready and were introduced to our trusty e-steeds for the day.
Oh. My. God. These e-bikes are a revelation!! I’ve seen a few bimbling around Chicago but I’ve always kinda looked down my nose at people riding them – “that’s not REAL biking” – as it just feels as if its a total cheat. I mean… if you’re not gonna get a workout then why bother? Because its a whole lot more FUN, that’s why!!! I’m not sure exactly how to describe the mechanics, but its basically adaptive and gives you a little assist when you pedal. So you still have to put in some effort – but you get a whole lot more bang for your buck! There are various levels of assist available you can choose (in addition to your regular gears) from no assist to levels 1 (light) to 5 (lots!). I gotta tell you – heading up some of those long hills that we climbed without that level 5 assist would have been MISERABLE. Especially in the heat! But with the e-assistance, it was a breeze!! So it was more enjoyable and I guess we were also able to cover more distance – I think we cycled around 25-30kms in about 2hrs. The cycling was just brilliant and totally reminded me of our trip in Vietnam & Cambodia (with slightly fewer hot snail carts) and it really is a fantastic way to see the countryside. We cycled around the peninsula and high, high above Sorrento into Massa Lubrense. The views of the harbor were breathtaking and you could see all the lemon orchards and olive groves arrayed below you, patchworking the hills. After the last few days of excess, it feel really good to be out in nature, in the fresh air getting some (modest) exercise. Matt loved it too, so we’re definitely going to look into doing additional e-bike trips – we’re hooked!
The end destination of our bike tour was the il Turuziello “farm experience”. We hung out in the square of this little village for a few minutes (watching a local sanitation worker crush bags of trash in the back of a garbage truck like some dystopian wine crushing gone wrong) and poked around in the local church before we were met by the owner, a very jolly fellow called Benedetto. Leaving our bikes with Sergio, the four of us all proceeded to cram ourselves into a very rickety looking bright red glorified rickshaw (he affectionately named it “The Ferrari” for a short and exciting 4 min trip up the hill, through some incredibly narrow winding side streets, to where his family farm was situated. There was quite literally an inch to spare on either side of the vehicle at times!
There we were treated to a demonstration of how to make fresh mozzarella – as well as ricotta plus another type of cheese called caciottine. It was really impressive to watch – especially as he made the whole process looked so easy! Farm fresh milk warmed to the perfect temperature plus thistle powder – give it a stir and boom! Instant curds! Then even more impressive was how he then started to massage the curds and – POW – mozzarella!! He then twirled it and teased it into ribbons and balls, dipped it into a heavily salted pot of water and it was done! I cannot tell you how many gallons of milk and cream I’ve gotten through at home, trying to make sodding cheese – only for the curds never to set up properly. Just goes to show that it really all does start (and end) with having the right quality of ingredients! If anyone knows where to buy raw milk from in Chicago, then please tell me!! Here’s a visual step-by-step below…..
We obviously then got to taste the cheese and then a little later, the ricotta which is made from the leftover whey after the mozzarella curds are removed (TIL ricotta means twice-cooked). We also tasted the farm’s olive oil (which was MUCH better than yesterday’s tbh!) so I picked up a few additional bottles (we’re gonna be using a lot of olive oil when we get home!). After the olive oil, there was the obligatory limoncello shot – actually yummy, so i bought a bottle of that too! And, in true Italian don’t give a shit about health and safety rules fashion, there was a whole menagerie of animals hanging around and about – including a very skinny lady cat who was hanging out under the prep table waiting for cheese scraps – plus her two adorable month-old kittens!! So cute – I miss my boys, RIP.
Fortunately after the tastings, we were done with the bike ride so we hopped back into the Ferrari, careened back down the hill and got into a van for our transfer back to Sorrento. We were back at the hotel by 1pm and then discovered a great little place for lunch called Azz. Family-owned place with terrific pizzas, giant bottles of Peroni, huge glasses of rose wine and crazy good garlic bread! It had just opened and was already hopping busy and full inside, so we had to sweat our balls off outside – but the food was so good (and inexpensive!) and service so charming that we didn’t mind. After stuffing our faces, we waddled back to the hotel for a well-needed shower and nap!
( I just licked the screen)
Dinner tonight was at Bistro Sorrento – a short walk out of the main center and up a hill, past a very mysterious looking structure down in a deep valley, just off the main road. It looked as if it should be haunted – but on further investigation, we discovered it was actually an old sawmill that had been abandoned – but was now being restored. To what end, who knows – but its a perfect location for a spooky zombie apocalypse film.
We opted for the tasting menu (again) which was delicious and included some beautiful dry-aged steak. My favorite part of the meal, though, was the little wooden chest who’s drawers were full of different types of breads and crackers! Everyone’s table could do with a bread chest!! After dinner we sloooowly wound our way back down the hill, past the now even-spookier sawmill and back to the hotel. We were too full to even go to the bar for a night cap, so just crashed out – we are going to need to go on a serious diet when we get home!
