After visiting the stunning 2,000 year old temples in Paestum on our last day, we went to the Mozzarella di Bufala creamery and had an amazing tour, cooking class, and later a mind blowing lunch.

Here are some facts:
Bufalo's have been here for about 1,000 years.
Bufalo milk is 3 times richer then cow's.
They give 10L of milk/day in comparison with cows who give 40L.
The male Bufalo's are separated from their mothers right after they're born, because the milk is needed for the Mozzarella production.

And here they are!



This is the production:







I had the fantastic opportunity to try some other Bufalo products than Mozzarella, which included yogurt, gelato, cakes, milk, and some other pastries. I chose plain yogurt with some honey, because I wanted to taste the true flavor of Bufalo milk and I tried gelato from my friends :)



I must say, the Bufalo taste is pretty strong and it literally coats your mouth with fat, but it's very good. Definitely a good way to start your day!



For the cooking class we went to the Tenuta Seliano Agriturismo, very close to the creamery. They divided us into teams and I was determined to get into the one that was making the ''Pastiera'' which is a ricotta based cake with the addition of eggs, candied fruits, sugar, butter and enrobed in pate sucree, and it's traditionaly made in the Easter time. And yes, we used ricotta di Bufala and also burro di Bufala.



This next photo is Bufalo meat in tomato sauce, it was fantastic, so tender!



And then they finally started bringing out all this food...I was eating it with my eyes, how could I not?



Mini mozzarella



Local salami



Ricotta



Mozzarella!



Again mozzarella, all kinds of shapes...



Smoked mozzarella



See how much we loved it?



And of course, ice cold Limoncello to top it all off!
La vita e bella!!

Napoli is a crazy city, nothing like I ever experienced before! It has a rich history, tradition and...there are many dirty areas, but that's the part of the whole experience.
I believe you want to hear more about food, so I will share with you my two favorite things to eat from Napoli which are: Mozzarella di Bufala that originated in the Campania region and Pizza Margherita. I must admit the pizza was exceptionaly good. The dough was made perfectly and the toppings were just right. How can it not be good with fresh tomatoes, Mozzarella di Bufala, and basil.
I really took the advantage of being in Campania and I had Mozzarella whenever I could, it truly is fantastic. This one that you see on the photograph was literally melting in your mouth, while the Bufalo milk was oozing out.





Next time I will show you how the production of Mozzarella di Bufala looks like ;)

The city of Pecorino! And not just any kind, they received an award for the best Pecorino of Italy in 2007. Yes, I ate and tried all of them :)
It truly is fabulous. Our cheese tour was held by a very kind and funny Guiseppe. It's hilarious how most Italian men are called either Francesco, Guiseppe, or Giovanni, hehe, I love it!



The cheese is made from the Pecora sheep and on this family farm there are 1000 of them. The sheep give a liter of milk per day each for 6 months and the rest of the year they are carrying little lambs :)



After our little cheese tour, we proceeded to a beautiful restaurant ''Locanda l'Amorosa'' where except exceptional food, the interior design was breathtaking.
Bread was very good, except the unsalted one, but that's the way it is in Tuscany!







The first little appetizer were fried sage leaves. I only missed a pinch of salt.



Fried goat cheese with cream of peas



Risotto with asparagus and black truffles



Chianina veal with hash browns and fresh tarragon sauce



And finally....Zabaglione with fresh strawberries and tuille cup! Wonderful and light!





Bye bye Tuscany!!

Siena was probably one of my favorite cities for a few reasons. It's a city located in Tuscany and it has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is a medieval city that has been protected and preserved by its people throughout centuries. The city is devided in ''contradas''(districts) and each one is represented by an animal or mascot. The rivalries among them is especially strong during the ''Palio'' - horse race that takes place at the Piazza del Campo each year.





People from Siena were popular bankars which is why they have the oldest surviving bank in the world, ''Monte Paschi di Siena'' founded in 1472 and it operates until this day.



Something I was very happy to (finally!) try were the cantucci dipped in Vin Santo (holy wine). It is a traditional Tuscan dessert wine representing the blend of different grapes such as Muscat or Trebbiano. Once picked, they get hung to dry and sometime around January they are pressed.
I must say that I really enjoyed it, maybe because I love cantucci to start off...
At the same place where we tried Vin Santo, I got the opportunity to try the famous ''Panforte'' or in translation strong bread. It was created by the poor, because it could last for a longer period of time without going bad. It consists of different dried fruits, honey, spices, and nuts. There were 5 different varieties and each one of them was good, with the flavor changing slightly with the addition of orange peel, cinnamon, or some other spices.



The next day we had a full tour of the city with visits to some famous historic sights. The most memorable for me was the beautiful view from the top of ''Museo dell' Opera''. Opera is the institution that built the cathedral and this is basically the cathedral's museum with a collection of the most important historical pieces. This is the Duomo or cathedral of Siena. Beautiful architecture.



And here's the view from the top...stunning!

I am back! I am sorry for the lack of updates, but I really didn't have much time during my crazy trip in Sicily. I am finally back at school and let me tell you...I am glad to be back. 5 weeks of active travelling is not that easy, but I enjoyed it so much, it was an unforgettable experience.
Now I will continue with the highlights of my trip and hopefully you can enjoy it at least to some extent.

Now look at those sights. You could just stay there and stare at it forever.





The region of Chianti was something I was really excited about (like everything else on the trip) and we had a wonderful tour of the Brolio wine maker where we had a tasting of three different Chianti wines.
The rule for Chianti Classico is that it needs to have at least 80% of Sangiovese grape and the rest is upto the producer.



They are using French oak barrels.



They export 2.5 mill. bottles per year world wide and by the Chianti Classico rules, the wine has to be aged in the bottles for 3-6 months prior getting in the market.




After the tour we had lunch very close to the winery, and it was definitely one of the memorable ones.
We had an eggplant flan, Stracchino cheese and Salsicca sausage on a crostini - probably my favorite. As you can see on the photo below, we had a typical Tuscan salami called Fanocchio which had fennel in it and it was served with fresh fennel flakes and olive oil.



Then, the famous Papa al Pomodoro - Tuscan tomato and bread soup. Simple and delicious.



After that we had a fantastic spaghetti with vegetables and it was so rich; I believe the vegetables were first roasted and then purred.



There was a very unusual dessert - I was very surprised, maybe even disappointed when I found out what it was. I am sure it was ricotta cheese combined with whipped cream and lots of lemon zest and then served with fresh strawberry sauce. I was wrong about the ricotta part - It was vegetable cream!! Ok, I really really reeeeeally don't like vegetable based cream, which is what all pastry shops in my hometown use. I must say, this tasted very different. They probably overwhipped it, which would explain the grainy texture...Nevertheless, I loved it! :)

I was really looking forward to our lunch in Liguria, because that is the region of Pesto and I loooove anything with pesto. It was in a small trattoria where we first had a demonstration on all the dishes we were having for lunch and then we had a fantastic meal.



There was a large appetizer that consisted of different ''quiches'', which is the best way to describe them. It is a type of crust made of water, olive oil, flour 00, and salt and then let to rest, rolled and filled. There were four different kinds of fillings: eggplant, zucchini, onions, and rice with saffron. All the vegetables were first sauteed with herbs, olive oil, salt and, pepper.

Together with it, we were served some regional prosciutto, fried bread dough (my childhood favorite!), and something like a blini or small pancake with lots of pesto. I enjoyed watching the lady prepare the pesto in a hige pestle and mortar, because at home I usually make it with an immersion blender....





This is Genovese style baked ''cima'', which is a slice of veal in a shape of a pocket that is filled with various herbs, eggs, parmigiano reggiano, and pine nuts. It is stuffed like this, then sewed, baked, sliced thin, and served cold.



Another interesting dish we had were this little ravioli in a tomato and meat sauce, which were filled with Borage or starflower - the plant is hairy all over and leaves were used for this particular dish as a filling. Very unusual, but good.




I really enjoyed this red wine that was served and it was probably one of my favorite reds - Tolceto, Ciliegiolo and Sangiovese from 2008. Just so you know, we had SO many different wines so far that there's a big confusion in my head, but I still picked my favorites.



And of course we had a dessert which consisted of lemon sorbet, very dry chocolate cake, and my absolute favorite - ''Torta di miele'' which was a fantastic homestyle apple cake.



At the very end we had a tasting of different liquors (staring from left) - grappa, Erba Luiga (lemon verbena liquor, definitely my favorite), Limoncino as they call it there and claim they were the first ones who invented it, and famous amaretto.



Next time.....Tuscany! :)