A delightful time in Campania

I’m on the road again, this time I am flying into Rome with KLM – Royal Dutch Airlines. It’s a pity they don’t fly into Australia anymore, they were great. By now I am a fully fledged long distance flyer moving between Australia and Italy so often that my friends ask me where I am when they call me on the mobile. I get invited to a lot of wine events in Italy as an Australian representative, I judge wine shows and go to tastings so regularly that I am seriously thinking of leaving my job and living in Italy. However, I realise that by doing that I will no longer be asked to all these events as they want someone from Australia not someone from Australia who now lives in Italy.

I land in Rome and have a day all to myself as the other journalists won’t be landing for 24 hours. It’s something I’ve learnt on my trips, always arrive and give yourself time to get your bearings. I don’t suffer from jetlag going to Italy but I do need a few hours sleep to make up for sleep missed on the plane. A couple of hours and I am ready to hit the road. Australia is a long way when most of the other journalists are coming from around Europe and only have a two hour trip.

I act as a tourist wandering around Rome seeing the sights and not really caring what I do. I walk for kilometres, sometimes backtracking over places I have already seen. I don’t have a map but it doesn’t matter as I have nowhere to go and no one to meet. I am on my own and loving it.

Around 2.00pm I decide to have lunch near Piazza Venezia and I enter a little trattoria. The waiter says he can’t serve me. It appears they don’t do ones, only twos and above – ‘ones’ don’t spend enough money! I begin to wonder whether I will get the same reception from everyone and hesitate several times at different establishments. It’s the first time in Italy that I have been refused entry anywhere. Finally I find a restaurant in a little alley, it’s crowded but I find a table and sit down. The waiter comes and brings me basket of bread and he speaks English. I ask if one person on their own is okay and he has no problem saying that the other restaurant was foolish to throw away the custom.

After lunch I walk until my feet and legs are so sore I have to go back to the hotel to rest. It’s about 6pm and people don’t eat until 8pm when I’m to meet my friend Marina so I go back and lie down. At 8.15 I am woken by the telephone, Marina is downstairs, am I ready? As much as I want to go back to sleep, I can’t. I won’t have much time with Marina as it is so I have a quick wash and rush downstairs. I get back to the hotel at about 1.30am and have to be ready to leave at 7am, so much for my getting there early and resting up before the trip!

I head back to the airport, this time in luxury as Marina has organised a car to pick me up. I have to wait until everybody lands and gets through customs – I drink so much espresso with our guide as we wait the three hours to assemble the group which arrives in dribs and drabs. Thank goodness the toilets aren’t far. The last person doesn’t get to have a cup of coffee as we are now running late.

This time we head south to Campania and several wineries making wine from ‘ancient’ varieties. Most of them you can only get in Campania. Our guide on this trip will take us to a number of wineries around the town of Avellino but first we stop in Mondragone, a small town in the province of Caserta and a couple of hours north west of Naples. We have to be there at a certain time because the winery is in the very heart of the town and there’s to be a festival that night. Streets will be blocked off and we will get stuck if we don’t leave by 3.pm.

When the winery was established in 1880, it was surrounded by countryside but slowly the town has built itself around the winery. Not only does this make life difficult for us but also for the winery.

Cantine di Moio is built on land that was once part of the nearby sea. At some stage the land under the sea rose up and now four metres below the earth, the land is rich in fossils. Going down into the cellar you can see the walls which have been dug into the earth are full of shells and fossilised sea creatures.

We are met by the lovely Michele Moio and his son Luigi. Luigi, who is a professor at Naples University speaks wonderful English, Michele unfortunately doesn’t but hand signals and gestures can sometimes say as much as words. He is excited to see us and is constantly saying ‘looka, looka’ one of the few words he knows.

After we have been through a tasting of his wines and looked at the many awards, some dating back to the 20s and 30s, we are asked to have lunch with them. ‘It’s only a snack but you must join us’. We sit in the yard and they bring out Burrata, tennis-ball sized pieces of white, white mozzarella that oozes cream when cut. They had been made locally that morning. This is my first experience with Burrata and one which I repeat as often as  can. Olives, tomatoes and home-made bread were brought out and we were all given a never-ending glass of Falanghina. We could have been sitting at the best table in the world, the meal was so good.

It was sad to have to get up and go as we were enjoying ourselves so much but we knew that soon the streets would be closed and we had to make a move. We said our goodbyes and left just as the ‘municipio’ came with barricades, we got out just in the nick of time.

We headed for Avellino with full bellys and sleepy heads from the wine, some of us even had a little nap, dreaming I’m sure of the wonderful Burrata. Avellino was at least a two hour drive and we settled in, comfortable in the knowledge that if we missed dinner that night, no one really cared.

Because we had to leave the winery early, our guide told us that we would stop at Vietri for a few minutes on the way to Avellino. Vietri is a town famous for its ceramics - the only problem was we had to get through Naples first. If you think peak hour traffic is crazy here, you should see Naples! I think all drivers who manage to navigate their way through Naples deserve a medal.
Seatbelts had just become compulsory in Italy - but only in the front seat, presumably no one gets hurt in the back. We spotted a man wearing a t-shirt that had a printed seat belt on the front of it - he was waging his one man war against wearing any form of safety harness, but he wasn't the only one. Soon we found lots of people wearing them, it appeared that they didn't like the new law in Naples.

We soon left the highway and the scenery along the way was of small towns and secondary roads, nothing of any real interest. However, when we got to our hotel in Avellino it was in front of a funicular railway, one that rose up all the way to the Sanctuary of Montevergine some 1480 metres above sea level. The funicular (really a cable car) would take pilgrims up to the top and bring them back. You can drive up the mountain but you don’t get the views.

The cellar door at Terre di Paolo

We arrived at the hotel, Hotel De La Villa , and with no appointments ahead that night, we all went to our rooms, unpacked and then met downstairs to go sightseeing. Free time on these trips is rare and so whenever there’s a possibility of even half an hour, it’s taken. Looking at the area around you is just as important as trying the wines. As it turned out, there wasn’t much to see except a whole lot of buildings built in 50s and 60s – not old enough to be of interest and yet not modern either.  We went back to the hotel and had dinner.

Next morning we headed out of town to Montefusco and to the Cantina Terre Di Paolo owned by Walter Mastroberadino, cousin of the famous Antonio Mastroberardino, the so-called archaeologist of wine. Walter and Antonio didn’t get on during that time and we were pre-warned not to mention Antonio’s name. I have no idea of the current situation but it seemed odd to be going to a winery and not mentioning the most influential person in the wine industry at the time.

We were shown around the winery by Luigi Mastroberardino, Walter’s son. Walter never made an appearance. The winery was fairly new, it was built at the end of a dirt road and it looked like a big yellow box. There was still a bit of work to do but I imagine it’s been done by now and probably looks spectacular.

Casa Dell'Orco - a fairytale

We left Montefusco and travelled a short distance to Pratola Serra, the home of Cantina Casa dell’Orco. Owned by exhuberant solicitor, Pellegrino Musto, the vineyards are full of vines and stories which with Pellegrino – you don’t know whether to believe him or not. It was the first time I tried Torte della Nonna which we ate with a glass of wine. The torte has been a firm favourite ever since.

The Di Meo winery 

Vines at Cantine di Meo

From there we travelled to Salza Irpinia and met Roberto Di Meo.  The winery, which is in the old hunting lodge of Caracciolo, Prince of Avellino, was established by his father and today is run by Roberto, his sister Erminia, and brother Generoso Di Meo. Roberto invited us in and offered us lunch in a rather rustic kitchen with a huge log fire. Homemade salami, home-cured olives, fresh tomatoes and cheese were brought out and we felt like relatives who had just dropped by we were so relaxed. Roberto took us out to the vineyards which were full of yellow flowers making the vineyards look very pretty in winter. Di Meo is famous for his Fiano di Avellino, which has a mild and toasty nutty flavour, and he makes several other indigenous varieties.

Too soon we had to leave as this had been one of the nicest visits so far but we had to go and see the most talked about winery of the region, the fairly new Feudi di San Gregorio. Everybody was talking about them, they were big news. They were expected to win a number of prizes at Vinitaly so we were anxious not to miss out.

Earlier in the day when we left the hotel, we had a new bus driver. He introduced himself as Luciano and he was very good ferrying us to all the different wineries and answering our questions as his English was quite good. He took us to Feudi and joined in taking us around. The winery wasn’t as complete as it is today so he explained all the work they were doing. After we had seen the winery it was decided that we would have the wines with our lunch (yes, a second lunch) at a local restaurant in Altripalda, a nearby town. The lunch was fantastic and the wines superb, I loved Serpico in particular.  Luciano had lunch with us and we thought how nice it was as the drivers don’t normally eat with us.

During lunch we had all decided to put a collection together as Luciano had done a sterling job and in Italy it is customary on these sorts of trips to tip the driver. Most drivers really appreciated it because they aren’t exactly well paid. Luciano was very knowledgeable about all the wineries and this was exceptionally helpful. We were finishing lunch when he said ‘how did you like my winery?’. We asked him had we gone past it or something because he would surely know whether we had seen it. He answered, ‘You’ve just been there and you’ve already forgotten. Feudi di San Gregorio, I own it with my brothers’.

We all burst out laughing because we were going to give him a tip when he could probably pay for our flights home from his pocket change. When we explained why we were laughing he accepted our mistake, he thought we had all been told who he was. Luciano then drove us back to the hotel.

Next: A chef makes a mistake and we enjoy ourselves in Friuli

 A typical cake from Campania. Make sure cake cools completely before serving.

Torta Caprese  

·         300 gm chopped Almonds

·         200 gm chopped cooking chocolate

·         200 gm butter

·         200 gm sugar

·         6 eggs

·         1 ½ level tspns baking powder

·         2 tbspn liqueur (a flavour that will go with chocolate)

·         Icing sugar to dust cake

      1.       Chop butter into small pieces and cream with sugar.

2.       Beat the eggs separately and add slowly to the butter cream

3.       Add almonds, chocolate, then baking powder and finally the liqueur

4.       Pour mix into a 28cm spring form cake tin and bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees.

5.       Let the cake cool on a wire rack and dredge with icing sugar