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05/06/2008 Entry: "Come to Italy with Me"

Everywhere I go, you are asking me if I still take people to Italy. The answer is a BIG YES. I suppose, after delaying certain decisions until this moment, it’s time to tell you what’s up with me and these Italian trips.

Let me start by pounding my chest and telling you the woes that the continually sinking dollar has caused. Besides increasing the price of gas at the pump, heating oil in your house, eggs in your basket, and bread in your breadbox, the sinking dollar means that restaurant meals that used to cost $50 in Italy now cost $80-something. The buses we hire, instead of being $1,000 a day are more like $1,600. As you can see, if our price for Cook at Seliano stayed the same as last year – which was already something of a bargain at $3,150, as high as that sounds – we would be losing quite a bit of money.

That said, the price for our next session, Oct. 12 to 18 (the week after the Jewish High Holidays are over), will have to be $3,950.

The dollar could easily get even worse, but we’ll stick with that. The exchange rate was $1.61 to the euro last week. I have checked other Italian cooking programs and although we are not the least expensive, we are far from the most expensive, and I think we offer more activities and value than most. Some don’t even include all your meals. I even found one that charges extra for wine. Wine? At Seliano it flows like water, which is, incidentally, plentiful in this formerly marshy area.

As for other dates, I have had to suspend Cook at Seliano this spring and summer because I have a book to finish writing. My deadline is the end of summer. I return to Italy in mid September with a photographer to travel through southern Italy for three weeks. If anyone would like private sessions with me the week before Oct. 12, I should be available on a custom basis. If any of you are going to southern Italy during the summer or fall, you should know that Cecilia gives private cooking lessons on her farm. The cost of a day with Cecilia is 300 euros for two, 100 euro for each additional person. For more information about both Cook at Seliano, and the agriturismo (farm-inn) itself go to the Come to Italy with Arthur section of my web site. There you’ll find a link to Cecilia’s web site, too.

Let me tell what you can expect if you come with this October.

Let’s start with us: Baronessa Cecilia, Bob Harned, our historical and archeological guide, and general hand-holder, and I are with you from breakfast to buona notte – that means goodnight. The group is limited to 12. Everyone gets their own work space on the white marble counters of our large teaching kitchen, which is, literally, only steps away from Cecilia’s herd of water buffalo. During breaks (as if I give them) everyone loves to watch them romp, or wallow in the mud. (The are called water buffalo for a reason.)

You arrive on Sunday at Azienda Seliano, Cecilia’s farm-inn in Paestum, just south of the Amalfi Coast, which, in fact, you can see from her farm. I can arrange land transfers from wherever you are coming (at additional cost). You are welcome to arrive for lunch, and I will certainly join you, but our first official activity is an orientation session early in the evening – with aperitivi, of course – and then dinner.

You’ll get your first taste of mozzarella di bufala at one or both of these meals. If you have only eaten mozzarella di bufala in the States, then you have a real treat coming. By the time it gets to the States, it’s too old; decomposed and sour, or, as some unknowing chefs describe it (I have heard this on TV), “creamy and tangy.” In its prime, mozzarella is the opposite of creamy and tangy. It is firm and sweet. You’ll get to eat it within hours, even minutes, of its production, which is when it is at its best.

On Monday, we’ll cook from about 9 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m. (with a snack and an aperitif in the kitchen sometime after 11 a.m.), then sit together and eat the food we cooked for lunch. On Monday afternoon we usually take to the hills behind Paestum for views of the countryside and for a visit to a basket weaver, or to a very tiny, artisinal dried fig production … something like that.

By the way, if you have a spouse who says he or she is not interested in spending so much time in the kitchen, Bob Harned is available to take spouses on special jaunts to local acrchaeological sites, of which there are several that are very interesting. They’d have to be back for lunch, however. We don’t allow anyone to miss a meal.

On Tuesday we will go to Naples. On the way, we’ll stop at the Pompeiian era Roman villa of Popeia, who was the “wanton wife” of Nero. Like nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Popeia’s villa was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 70 AD. Now it has been unearthed and it really gives a sense of how rich Romans lived, better in fact than anything in Pompeii – in my not-so-humble opinion. Besides its awesomeness, there are rarely any tourists here. We often have the whole place to ourselves, and that Popeia had quite a spread. And quite a sex life. Bob will take us on a guided tour. I’ll chime in with ancient Roman gossip and some details about ancient Roman eating habits.

We arrive in Naples in time for lunch at Europeo di Mattozzi, which is, as hard as it is for me to pick just one, my favorite restaurant in Naples. They prepare all the traditional Neapolitan dishes beautifully, including pizza, although we eat many other things in addition to a little tasting of Mattozzi’s famous pies.

After lunch, we take you on a walking tour of Naples, through the colorful oldest quarter, Spaccanapoli, and on to the hub of the city with its historic landmarks and very good shopping. We have learned over the six years that we have been conducting these tours about four times a year that our people always want a little free shopping time, even with a weak dollar. We end the day with a drink and a snack at the most elegant café in the chicest residential and shopping area of Naples.

Wednesday morning we go to see the mozzarella being made at the dairy near Cecilia’s farm. She sells her buffalo milk to this dairy. Then we take you to get a glimpse of the famous “beaches of Salerno” where the American forces landed in 1943, pushing the Nazis north. The beach is literally down the street from the dairy. Then Bob guides a tour of the ancient Greek temples of Paestum, which are just a mile from Cecilia’s farm. These three Doric temples, from the 5th and 6th centuries BC, are considered among the most perfectly preserved in the world. Across the street is a small museum that we also tour. For such a tiny, rural museum, it has many gorgeous world-class treasures.

After a morning out and about, we return to our kitchen and learn to make pasta – ricotta–filled ravioli and fusilli in particular. Our lunch on Wednesday is a buffet of local cheeses, cured meats, other local products, plus a cooked dish or two, usually including crepes (crespelle, in Italian) filled with buffalo milk ricotta and baked in tomato-cream sauce. Anna, Cecilia’s head chef, prepares that for us with her crew of other local women. They also prepare the meals that we don’t prepare ourselves or eat in restaurants.

On Wednesday afternoon, after a little rest in Cecilia’s very comfortable hall (next to our kitchen), filled with cushy furniture and a fireplace, we’ll cook. We’ll prepare the ragu that we’ll put on the pastas we’ve already made – and a few other things for dinner. It’s a light cooking session, however.

Thursday is another excursion day. We’ll go to the weekly outdoor market in nearby Battipaglia, then take you to a very famous winery for a tour and lunch. In October, it is possible that the grapes will have just been harvested or the winery will be in the midst of the harvest. It’s all up to the weather this summer and fall. In any case, we hope for some winemaking activity. Montevetrano is the name of the wine (which, by the way, I saw on a wine list jut the other day priced at $206! a bottle), and it is considered to be one of the 100 best wines in the world, according to Robert Parker, the wine guru.

After lunch, which is prepared by the winemaker Sylvia Imparato’s sister, Anna Imperato, and served in her beautiful dining room at the winery, with views of the countryside, we take our bus to Vietri sul Mare – 20 minutes away -- the first town on the Amalfi coast. It’s a town full of pottery workshops and retail pottery stores.

After Vietri, we go down the hill to Salerno, the beautiful seaside city at the head of the Amalfi Coast. Here, in the narrow medieval streets, there is great shopping, but also the Cathedral of Saint Matthew, who is actually buried in the crypt. Salerno is a delight during the passegiatta hour, before dinner. That’s when everyone in town takes to the streets to strut their stuff and meet friends – or at least be seen by everyone.

When we have walked and shopped enough, we eat pizza at the most colorful pizzeria I know. It’s called Pizzeria Vicolo della Neve. By the way, our meal will be more than just pizza. Among other things, we usually order stuffed peppers, eggplant parmigiana, meatballs, baccala baked with potatoes and olives, and great desserts from the local bakery, Panteleone.

Friday we’ll cook in the morning again. Besides putting the finishing touches on a grand timballo that we’ll eat for our farewell dinner that night, we make pizza. And we have a pizza lunch, with some other good things we have cooked. If everyone is not exhausted by now, we go for an afternoon stroll in the nearby seaside town of Agropoli. It is picturesque. And it has an excellent gelateria!

Incidentally, we drink good wines from Campania all week. Cecilia’s son, Ettore, is an expert on the wines of his region (as well as other southern regions) and he goes out of his way to select interesting good wines, different ones for every meal.

Saturday is departure day, but you are certainly welcome to stay into the afternoon. In October it may be too cool to take a dip in Cecilia’s pool, but you never know.

Every last thing – all meals, classes, excursions, wine and other alcoholic beverages – is included; everything except air fare and land transfers. Okay, it’s nice to tip our bus driver and the chamber maids. Our rooms, courtesy of Cecilia’s sublime taste and addiction to buying antiques, are much better decorated and much more comfortable than those at typical Italian farm-inns. Truly, everything is taken care of. Our guests have told us many times that our program and hospitality exceed their expectations.

Note: Many people come to Seliano with me as part of a larger trip, and I am happy to help plan that for you, too.

Speaking of larger trips, I am still trying to work out a tour that I have been calling “The Jews in Southern Italy.” My idea is to go in late February or early March. It would include three days in Rome, staying at chic Caesar House, seeing all the Jewish sites, of which there are many, and eating Roman Jewish dishes. Sorry, but the tour cannot be kosher.

After Rome, we would fly to Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, and stay in Siracusa, just south of Catania, for a few days – in a hotel that is on a street called Via Giudecca (Jewish Street) and that stands over a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, that dates to about 500 AD.

After a few days in Sicily, including a day-trip to Modica, where the Buonajuto family, originally Jews, make some of the best chocolate in Italy. Finally, we’ll get on a bus and drive north through Calabria, ending up in Naples, or back to Rome.

The Jews, along with the Arabs, were very prominent for more than 1,000 years in Sicily and Calabria, until the Inquisition arrived in the 16th century and both groups were forced to either convert or leave. In Calabria, we’ll stop in Nicastro for one night. In this small Calabrian town there is an old Jewish community. It is also the home base of one of our guides, Rabbi Barbara Aiello, Italy’s only woman rabbi..

With perhaps a detour in Basilicata (I know something nice and Jewish there, too), the whole trip will probably be 10 days. The tour is not completely plotted, and certainly not priced out yet. If limited to 18 people, which I think is about my max, it should run less than $5,000 a person. But we’ll see. Maybe I can get some bargains. What I need to know now is how much serious interest I have. Please send me a note if this is something you’d like to do: cookatseliano@aol.com.