monday, April 8, 2024

driving down to Sorrento, and ALLLL THE limoncello

Today kicked off the first official day of the Flash Pack trip, and we started by checking out of the Savoy and hopping on a bus to Sorrento.

It’s about a four hour drive, and we stopped at a rest stop for a quick pizza & panini lunch just outside of Caserta, a little north of Naples.

Surprising amount of French fries stuffed in things. Catering to tourists?

Back in the bus, we continued on our way towards the Amalfi Coast, and Michele pointed out the volcano Mt. Vesuvius as we passed it on our way. This trip didn’t visit Pompeii, but he talked about the history a bit as we drove past that area.

Driving along, we soon found ourselves on the coast, and immediately understood why this part of Italy is so popular. Such beautiful scenery! I am not a fan of buses on winding roads with an impossibly steep drop-off 😅 but I survived and it was fully worth the drive.

At one point we stopped in Montechiaro, a little north of Sorrento, to get out of the bus and just take in the gorgeous view. The weather was spectacular that day with the brightest blue sky, which only added to the feeling of awe. I think it was the first time I really felt like I was on vacation.

After driving a bit through Sorrento, we found ourselves at our main destination for the day: Il Convento farm and limoncello distillery, where we’d be learning how limoncello is made before making some ourselves. The beautiful weather amplified everything again, with the bright sun casting beautiful shadows through the lemon groves making everything extra picturesque.

After walking through the trees and learning about grafting, we visited the distillery and packaging area to learn how the limoncello is made.

Next, we made our way up and down a beautiful path to a workshop area where we’d get to make our own limoncello.

I always love a hands-on workshop and this was no exception! We peeled the lemons – just the outside of the rind without getting into the white pith – then pushed that all into a jar of alcohol.

Carina unintentionally took one for the team and learned that it takes your nail polish right off, which makes sense haha. Had to use the back of the peeler to push the peels into the liquid so they were submerged.

We labeled our jars, then made our way into an adjacent room for a tasting.

Leaving Il Convento, we drove a short distance to Hotel Isabella, checked in, and relaxed in our rooms for a little while.

The room had a balcony so I sat outside for a little while. The hotel was nice, but I ended up just closing my eyes, listening to music, and taking in the nice weather as the view in one direction was of some other rooftops (though a hint of the Sorrento hills), and in the other direction –the direction of the water– was unfortunately a big trash heap behind a building.

There was no formal plan on the itinerary tonight, but we ended up all going out as a group anyway since Michele had some good local recommendations. We first headed out for a sunset aperitif at a restaurant about a five minute walk from the hotel, and that spectacular view more than made up for the one from the hotel balcony!

I had a limoncello spritz, which was lovely. Apparently hadn’t had enough limoncello that day haha.

Watching the sunset here was something else! We all couldn’t stop taking pictures – it seemed like every thirty seconds the colors changed again, painting the sky in pinks, reds, and blues as we took in the beauty of where we were. Grateful!

Finishing our drinks, we walked down the street to grab dinner at a casual local Neapolitan pizza place, Il Ruttino. Pizza was invented in nearby Naples, so this is definitely the place to have it!

The restaurant had murals on the tented walls that made it look like we were outside in Sorrento, which made the pictures kind of funny. We were definitely inside haha.

As an appetizer we got some bruschetta and caprese for the table. Caprese is also from the region, though Michele warned us that the tomatoes are a bit out of season right now and he was right. But it was still really good – I’ll never argue with caprese.

My pizza couldn’t have been better. “Yellow tomato cooked at a low temperature, scalded yellow and red cherry tomatoes, drops of basil pesto, buffalo mozzarella cheese, basil, and extra virgin olive oil. “ Deliziosa!

I could barely eat half of it, so got a to-go box and ended up taking it back to my room and snacking on it throughout the night while catching up on some TV in bed on my laptop. Perfect relaxing end to a great first day of the Flash Pack trip!