Italian Vacation – Eco-Tourism

We participated in two Eco-tourism events that were each hosted by a female entrepreneur. The first was a visit to a Sorrento farm and the second was an exploration of the Bay of Naples via a charter boat.

Agritourismo

We signed up for a farm tour that included classes on cheese making and pizza making. It was nestled in the hills just East of Sorrento. It was a chore just to find the farm. I gather that the most common way to access the farm is to be picked up by the proprietors. While we did manage to drive down to the parking area, it was uncertain whether we could get back to the main/paved road. It was exciting enough to just get there.

We started with a tour of the orchards, olives and fruit and met some farm animals including a two year old bull. The farm was on a mountain and steeply sloped. There were grape vines and vegetable gardens but it was early and the plantings had just gone in, so no local fresh produce. We finally got to the farmyard and were greeted by the pets including three dogs, a rabbit, Peppa the pig and some tortoises. The animals were well accustomed to the tourists and were looking forward to cleaning up the scraps.

Then onto the cheese making class. We got some recently heated/curdled milk and made three types of cheese from it. The first straining produces mozzarella cheese.

Then we made pizza dough and made pizzas with the mozzarella cheese and sauce.

We enjoyed a pizza lunch with local wine and Limoncello.

We did make it back up the hill but not without burning some rubber as we sideslipped toward a ditch.

Aquatourismo

Another great adventure was to tour the Bay of Naples and circumnavigate the island of Capri. There were multiple phases to this adventure. The first was to navigate to a local waterfall and they allowed guests to enjoy a shower. Then a trip out into the bay to catch lunch. After lunch a leisurely trip to Capri and the option to go for a swim. Being early in the season, the water was too cold for Mark to want to swim. Finally a tour of Capri including a jaunt into the Blue Grotto.

The next step was to catch lunch.

After lunch, off to Capri.

There is a statute of a boy that sees you off as you leave Capri.

Wine Tasting

One of the things Pompeii was well known for were its wines. The volcanic ash produced some very fine vintages during the Roman period. The same is true today. So we went on a vineyard tour on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

I hate to admit I wasn’t as diligent documenting the Ecotourism events as I was in the archeological. I thought I had more pictures of the vineyard tour, as the technology was amazing. The wines were good enough, Wink had a case shipped home. The Ecotourism was a nice break from the antiquities and gave us some time to unwind.

Mark, Meg and Wink