Cilento

04/15/11

     Our entire group had to be up and ready and at the Trastevere Train Station at 8:30 the following morning. We got on the bus and prepared for our four-hour journey down the coast. Somehow, me and three other of my roommates each wound up snagging our own row making it much easier to fall asleep! It’s safe to say that I slept the entire ride there other than at our pit stop half way for a bathroom break. 

     When we got there, we had a tour of Improsta Agricultural Farm that followed lunch. For lunch, we were served pasta with Parmesan cheese, as well as several different types of cheese from this area on bread, in particular, Mozzarella di Bufala. After lunch concluded, it was time to tour the farm. This was really difficult for me because it smelled worse than any farm I’ve even been to and it was a long tour. I used my scarf to cover up the horrid smell and it made it quite a bit better! 

Bufala- major zooming since I wouldn't get too close

     From the farm, we had an hour bus ride over to a seaport. As we quickly learned, with how jam packed our days were, we had to take advantage of every minute on the bus to nap. Not being a napper, I was worried about this. However, because I was so tired, I was out within a matter of minutes every time we got on the bus. When we arrived at the seaport, we had a bit of free time. Had the weather been sunny, it would have been even more beautiful than it was with the weather as is. We hung out along the coast on the rocks just taking in the sight until the boats we were meeting with came into shore. When they got in, we got to see all the fish they had caught that day. They explained that the men had been on the seas since 3 am and it was 5 at night. I can’t imagine spending that much time out fishing! 

Hanging out at the seaport

The port itself

Some freshly caught fish

Onboard the fishing boat!

Biggest fish ever

Rome Food & Culture 2011 group shot at the seaport

     When we finished seeing all the fish that they brought in, we loaded back onto the bus and headed to our hotel in Eboli. We had about 10 minutes to freshen up before heading to dinner. We were able to walk to the restaurant, which was called Ristorante Pizzeria Sorriso. When we got there, we were served our antipasta, a massive Mozzarella di Bufala ball. I couldn’t even eat half of it! After this, we were served pasta with sauce, followed by a tasting of their pizza. The whole time, the owner was serving us red wine. In the meantime, our program was taking turns doing karaoke with the owner both in English and in Italian. By the time dinner was over, our table had been served 5 bottles of wine and there were 6 of us sitting there. This was one of the most fun nights I’ve had abroad just hanging out with everyone in our program all together in one place! From dinner, some people were going to try to go out, but my roommates and I came home, changed, and were asleep before you could have said goodnight!

Big Mozzarella di Bufala ball

The table with our Mozzarella balls

04/16/11

     Saturday morning we had to be ready by 8, but breakfast was being served from 7-8 am. We got down there at about 7:30 after having quite the experience with the shower. Our shower had no shower curtain so it was impossible to take a standing shower. Therefore, in order to successfully bathe ourselves without freezing, I had to block the drain and take a half bath half shower. From breakfast, our first stop was the Vannulo Production of Mozzarella di Bufala. If possible, this place smelled even worse than the place the day before. However, while the smell wasn't the most flattering, the experience was really cool! We started out by seeing where the Bufala are kept, fed, milked and eat. One fact we found out that I was surprised by was that when they produce leather from the Bufala, the male ones are killed by the age of 40 days. Females are rarely killed as they are important for reproduction. From the place where the Bufala are kept, we traveled to the small stand where the actual Mozzarella di Bufala is made. Here we got a chance to try extremely fresh mozzarella. I also learned something I found fascinating. Vannulo Peoductions doesn't ship their Mozzarella di Bufala to any restaurants, but rather, all clients are required to put in an order at least two weeks in advance and then are required to travel to their facilities to pick it up. It seems to me that a place like this wouldn't succeed in America as there are clearly faster, more efficient, and cheaper ways to achieve the end product. However, in Italy where there is a culture of obtaining the best of everything, it is a little different and many restaurants are willing to do whatever the necessary means are to get the very best ingredients!

Vannulo Production

Bufala waiting in line to be milked

     After this tour, we went to the Mediterranean Diet Museum & Museum of the Sea in Pioppi. This was a quick tour where we just saw some of the most used fish in the Mediterranean diet. Luckily, this was a quick stop because we were all hungry. We were on our own for lunch, the only meal of the trip. Most of us went to a Panini place where we got to pick the ingredients to put on it. I’m pretty sure this was the most customers the place had had in a long time. After we finished eating, we had some free time before we had to meet at the bus and we hung out along the coast.

One of the fish

View of the Mediterranean Sea from the museum

Group shot along the coast

A couple friends and I hanging out

     From lunch, we headed out to Paestum to have a guided tour of the archeological sites here. While this was very interesting, our tour guide was very hard to understand and it was a two and a half hour tour of both the site and the museum. After this, we traveled to Fabbrica dei Sapori for dinner. Upon arrival, there is nothing more our group wanted to do than eat, but first we took a tour of their factory. They make glutton free pizza so we got to see how that differed and then also watched a pizza being made. It was fascinating that once the dough is made, it takes less than five minutes for the pizza to be made and cooked with how hot their oven is. Finally, we were seated for dinner. We got a chance to try a slice of every type of pizza they offered. I had a little of each in order to save room to try everything. My favorite was the dessert pizza, which was a pizza with Nutella and nuts.

One of the temples at Paestum

Second Temple

Third temple

Top of a column, really puts into perspective how large the columns truly are

Slice of pizza from Fabbrica dei Sapori

     After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out as a program with our program director and her friend who is from Cilento. She took us to her friend’s bar. Because the town is small in general, the bars were tiny so we couldn’t all fit in them. Luckily it was nice outside so we hung out at the tables outside for the night.

Two of my guy friends and I before heading out

04/17/11

     After having gone out, it made it a little more difficult to be up and ready again at 8 am again. We were headed to Salerno for the day, one of the towns on the Amalfi Coast. We only had one stop in Salerno and that was at Giardino di Minerva, a botanical garden. It was cool to see all the plants here. After this, we had two hours of free time in Salerno so a group of us headed down to the beach where we relaxed and walked along the water line.

View from the Botanical Gardens

Hanging out on the beach

Study Abroad 2011

     After this, we met back up together and went to lunch at a pizzeria. Here I had some of my favorite pizza I’ve ever had. I ordered a pizza that had tomato sauce, cheese, and spicy salami. It was extra spicy and hit the spot! After a long weekend, from the restaurant, we boarded onto the bus and headed back to Rome. When we got back to Rome that night around 7, our guys friends were back to so we went out to karaoke night at Scholars. There were a ton of visitors in town so it was really fun and we actually wound up staying there until 3 in the morning when we were under the impression it closed at 2!