Mari's Travel Blog: Europe Summer 2013: Villa Ida in Sorrento

Villa Ida in Sorrento

Me, Mari @ Villa Ida in Sorrento

Villa Ida Cooking Class Kitchen

I have just returned from an extraordinary experience in Sorrento. I've been to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast many times. In fact, the last time we were here was 9 months ago.

Today, we wanted to experience life in Sorrento rather than do the walking around Sorrento shopping thing that we had done before. I worked with I.C. Bellagio to help plan this wonderfully perfect day!

"outside" kitchen with our instructors!

Happy Maddy with Chicca!

Hydrangeas & Grape Vines

Hospitality must have been born in Italy. Our cooking class at Villa Ida was a perfect example of how to make outsiders from various places in the world feel like a part of your family. Villa Ida is this magical villa away from the city center. We arrived and were greeted by the chef, Rosalba's niece for our private cooking class and welcomed “home”. There were 2 of my daughters and their spouses and our 2 year old granddaughter. I had arranged for a babysitter for Maddy and was so pleasantly surprised with the arrangements. Chicca

Another secion of the backyard

(pronoiced Kee-Ka) was the 42 year old babysitter extraordinaire!! So loving and patient but what made this so perfect was that Villa Ida is a home ... complete with a play area for
the grandchildren of the owners. Perfect! Maddy was in heaven and so were her parents.

Jeff (my husband) READY to cook!

After Maddy was settled, we walked down the beautiful pathway with huge hydrangea flowers down the path and grapes hanging over our heads. We were invited to sit at our table set outdoors under the lemon and orange trees to enjoy a light breakfast of coffee, lemon cake and strawberry water. The weather was sunny and ranged from 75-82 degrees as they day passed.

After breakfast, we were invited to meet with Rosalba and her niece, Roberta who helped translate. Rosalba was a lovely engaging woman who interspersed her insight and cooking tips throughout our class. EVERYONE learned something!! It was like cooking along side of your Italian Grandmother.

The table we sat at to eat all the courses of food

We started with learning how to prepare zucchini blossoms by separating the blossoms from the zucchini. We cut the zucchini into small slices for our lightly fried (only in corn or sunflower oil) zucchini which would be added to our spaghetti. Next, we moved onto cutting squash which would later be lightly fried. We added mozzarella to the squash slices and rolled the squash up and put it on a baking dish to heat in the oven.

Homemade meatballs - Villa Ida version

We cut large, fragrant tomatoes for our Pomodoro Salad, and made beef meatballs served in a simply delicious tomato basil sauce. Finally, we made our amazing dessert, Tiramisu. This Tiramisu was not the American version. This Tiramisu consisted of ladyfingers, strawberries and strawberry syrup made with sugar and a little water and a lovely custard sauce.

After we finished “working”, Rosalba's husband, Carlo invited us into his wine cellar to taste his handmade wines. These were not “fine wines”...these were local table wines meant to enjoy with the local food. We came away learning more about his family's history and how important Villa Ida was to his mulch-generational family that all worked together in this piece of heaven.

We had started around 9:15 and began enjoying our lunch 3 ½ hours later and what a lunch it was. All during our class and lunch, Maddy was being lovingly cared for by Chicca. Believe me when I tell you how perfect today day was!

Jeff (my husband) always finding the animals

After enjoying our simple, perfect meal, Carlo and Rosalba's grandchildren, Andrea and little Rosalba Junior joined Maddy to play together in total harmony. Children don't need to communicate in words. They played in the toy house together and in the end gave each other hugs and kisses goodbye.