Yesterday morning I caught the early train in from Piano di Sorrento to Sorrento proper to meet my sister Mary Lauren for breakfast.  (I am lucky to have both of my sisters, my Mom, and Scott join me at various points on my Italian adventure, which is a pure delight!  Mary Lauren until next weekend, Leanne and my Mom in early June, and Scott again at the end of my externship at the end of June.)  The seven o’clock train was full of commuters headed into Sorrento from Naples and every town in between.

After a lovely breakfast at the Grand Hotel de la Ville of espresso, a strawberry pastry, fresh fruit, and bacon, we parted ways as she and a friend spent the day in Capri, and I headed next door to the Museo Correale di Terranova (http://www.museocorreale.it/).  A gorgeous 18^th century art museum set up by the Correale brothers, the Counts of Terranova—the last descendents of a prominent local family, who made provisions in their wills that this villa and this artwork be turned into a museum bearing their family name at their deaths.  This museum, garden, and farm land has been open since 1942.

Three floors of 18^th century paintings, furnishings, and ceramics are exhibited here as well as a small exhibit on Herbarium, an unpublished book now owned by the museum, very well known to botanists, that contains almost 150 specimens of dried herbs placed on hand made papers produced by paper mills in Amalfi.  For each herb, the author indicates places where that particular herb grows and also information on its healing properties.  Each page also has ornamental water colors accompanying each herb’s description.  This exhibit, as well as the clock gallery of ornate wall clocks, and the room filled with marble statues, were my favorite aspects of this grand museum.  That and the view overlooking the gulf.

After the museum, I wandered around the main streets in Sorrento, adjacent to the main square, which is lined with local vendors and specialty shops.  I have been eyeing the local strawberries at the produce stands since I arrived—truthfully I have never seen such enormous strawberries, or fragole, that are also very deep in color.  For two euro I received a large container of these sweet treats which certainly do live up to their appearance in taste.

Cooking class last night was again, a lot of fun and extremely delicious.  We prepared an appetizer of Mozzarella en Carozza (a savory French toast covered in mozzarella cheese), homemade orchiette with a mushroom sauce, braised rabbit, and tart lemon spongecake with a lemon-cream sauce.  Oh joy!Another day of exploring and beautiful weather awaits me before we head back into the kitchen later this afternoon.

 

Tagged: cooking school, externship, Italy, Mami Camilla, Sorrento