"WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS DO"...so the saying goes

Visitor's to our Amalfi Coast always ask what they should do about tipping in a restaurant, tipping the restroom clerk, how to greet someone they're introduced to in Italian and so on, so to help clear things up, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when next you come and visit La Bella Italia.

SALUTATIONS 

• Salve is 'Hello'. You pronounce the 'e' at the end as you would like the 'e' in 'elephant'. Ciao (pronounced 'Chow') is 'Hi' and isn't used between strangers.  When meeting or taking leave of someone, both friends and strangers greet each other by using Buon giorno (Good day) and Buona sera (Good evening). In Italy friends greet each other with a kiss on the cheeks, usually the left cheek first, then the right. Kissing on the lips is regarded as intimate and so is generally reserved for lovers. It is appropriate to shake hands with someone you meet for the first time. You can use 'Un piacere' for 'It's a pleasure to meet you';
• Use 'Per favore' or 'Per piacere' for 'Please'; 'Grazie' for 'Thank you' (pronounced 'gratziE' - the 'e' at the end is also pronounced); 'Prego' for 'A pleasure' or 'You're welcome'.

OUT AND ABOUT

• Use the word 'Permesso' (Permission) when you need to make your way through a crowd;

• Smoking is banned in public establishments - you'll need to step outside to light up your Marlboro;
• Drunkenness in public is frowned upon. Drinking for drinking's sake is also not well regarded and here an aperitivo (aperitif), whether it be a cocktail or glass of wine, is traditionally enjoyed with a meal. A drink will always be accompanied by a bowl of olives, peanuts, crisps - or all three!
• It is not considered good form to call a waiter from across the room - be polite and formal with waitering staff;
• The bill (il conto) will not be presented unless one asks for it;
• If you are enjoying yourself at a seaside town, like Positano, please cover yourself if you leave the beach to sit down at a restaurant, even a beach-front restaurant. It is not considered appropriate to sit at a restaurant table or at a bar in one's bikini or beach-shorts - it's disrespectful to other diners;
• Should you order a drink or something to eat at the counter and then decide to go to a table, it is the correct form for the waiter to bring these to the table for you - please don't do this yourself, however much you may yearn to put those past waitering skills to use!
• It is not common for Italians to share food from their plates - table manners are rather formal here - though should you love that pasta sauce so much that you just have to get the last bits of it up, please go ahead and do so with a piece of bread, as this is a sign of much appreciation for your meal! Just don't lick the plate!
• Spaghetti is eaten with a fork, not with a fork and spoon, though you will be forgiven if you aren't able to master the just-a-fork technique! 

• Be aware that when ordering fish in a restaurant, the price on the menu is per 100gm of fish, not for the whole fish, and this is weighed before cooking.  On average, a fish portion is 350gm;

• Cappuccino's are enjoyed in the morning, before lunch - cappuccino's go well with the pastries enjoyed for breakfast but don't combine well with lunch or dinner meals.  Espresso's are ordered after a meal, including dessert. Liqueurs (and here there are plenty to try: limoncello (lemon), finocchietto (fennel), mirtillo (wild blueberry), nocillo (walnut), fragola (strawberry), anice (liquorice) and many more) are enjoyed with dessert or in place of a dessert;
• It's polite to clean your table before you leave a self-service bar or cafè;
• Our common practice of asking for a 'doggie bag' to take home any leftovers for Fido, just doesn't cut it here;
• In general, restaurants include a cover charge per person (coperto), which is usually shown as the first item on the bill - it's a modest charge of around Euro 1.00 - 2.50  - except in chi-chi restaurantants or upmarket tourist destinations where it's likely to be more;
• Tipping (il servizio) is customary, though not expected, and is seen as appreciation of good service.  Leaving an amount of 10% - 15% of the value of the bill is appropriate and should be left in cash. You generally won't find a space on a credit card slip to include this. If the servizio is included at the bottom of the bill, no tip is necessary.  Leave Euro 0.50 or more for table service in cafè's, Euro 1.00 or more at hotel bars for a round of drinks or more; checkroom attendants Euro 1.00 per person and restroom attendants Euro 0.50 - expect to tip more in more upmarket establishments;
• Visa and Master Card credit cards are more commonly accepted than American Express, though cash is usually preferred;
• When you leave a restaurant, bar, even a gelateria, take your receipt and/or bill with you. It's to avoid any unnecessary ugliness should the Italian Guardia di Finanza (tax police) stop and ask to see proof of your payment.  They are allowed to approach you within a 100 yards of an establishment where you have eaten and ask for this.  If you haven't got it on you, you can be fined, as will the establishment owner for not providing one.  This is all in an endeavour to prevent tax evasion;
• Be sure to dress appropriately when visiting places of worship, of which there are many, in Italy. Churches are filled with wonderful art and sculpture to be openly admired and appreciated. Short shorts, mini skirts, sleeveless tops or tank-tops are a No-No in most churches throughout the country.  Carry a sweater or shawl with you, even during the summer, so that you can cover your shoulders before entering a church;
• Please don't take food into a church and refrain from sipping from your water bottle whilst inside - those sucking sounds are very off-putting when one is praying - please respect that others are here to worship;
• Please turn off mobile phones, or at least mute their ringtone;
• Please wait to enter a church until a service or private affair such as a baptism or wedding, is finished.

 There you go! This should help you not get any skew looks!  And practice that spaghetti-fork-twirling-action!

LA CUCINA DIVINA - THE DIVINE KITCHEN!

The 'Punta Reginella' part of Positano

‘La Costiera Divina’, The Divine Coast, as the Amalfi Coast, a seductive stretch of coastline lying slinkily on the southern end of the ‘shin’ of the Italian boot, is also known. And aptly named so as this was the playground of the gods! (their myth and mystery still endure...)

Today’s playground is the pearl of the Amalfi Coast: Positano. It is here that the cooking school, ‘La Cucina Divina’, is located. Positano is a magnet to both international and fellow Italian visitors. It is a fantasy destination that grabs ahold of you, forever its captive, an enchanting dream from which there is no escape, one filled with romantic light, heady nights and gastronomic delights!

What more perfect place to immerse oneself in southern Italian cuisine! Just one bite of anything here is enough to swoop you away, as if in Bacchus’ magical panther-drawn chariot to an other-worldy dimension!

Foodies and seasoned traveller’s know that through the enjoyment of a town’s local cuisine, one seemingly tastes the very heart and soul of the place – and here on the Amalfi Coast, once you’ve tasted, the memory lingers and one’s only release is to return...or at least take some of the ‘know-how’ back with you to be re-created in your own kitchen.

‘La Cucina Divina’ arranges cooking experiences which are wickedly fun, informative and deliciously hands-on and without a doubt will be one of your most memorable holiday moments ever!

Cooking on The Divine Coast

Sharon and Rachel Kirschner with Chef Salvatore

Farm-fresh eggs

Just the other day I met Sharon and Rachel Kirschner, a mom and daughter travelling here together, in the kitchen, where they were getting very hands-on with their cooking lesson! There's a Latin proverb which says: "While the pot boils, friendship endures." I've read another take on this that suggests rather that friendship blooms, and that's exactly what happened! A serendipitous encounter over farm-fresh eggs, flour, Virgin Mary blessed mountain water, pine-forest plucked porcini mushrooms, ricotta cheese and prawns (the makings of ravioli!) certainly did bloom and led to moments of tourmaline searching on Spiaggia Grande, a visit to Amalfi, with a stop at Andrea Pansi, one of only a handful of pastry shops in Italy which have been continuously family-owned and run by consecutive generations - this is now the 5th generation - and Ravello (known as the City of Music as it has inspired many a great  composer, the likes of Wagner, and hosts an annual classical music festival); a light dinner of stuffed artichokes and zucchini fries at La Cambusa down at the beach one evening and platters of frutti di mare at Il Ritrovo up in Montepertuso on another....more about these fabulous restaurants at a later stage!

Frutti di Mare - Mixed Seafood

What great company Sharon and Rachel were - and what a pleasure to have guests with whom to share the trove of treasures here - culinary and otherwise! But if it's a journey into the heart and soul of the southern Italian kitchen you're after, La Cucina Divina is a good place to start!

BUON APPETITO!

COOKING IS LIKE LOVE....

"First...
On a painted sky
Where the clouds are hung
For the Poet's Eye
You may find him
If you may find him

There...
On a distant shore
By the wings of dreams
Through an open door
You may know him
If you may

Be...
As a page that aches for a word
Which speaks on a theme that is timeless

Sing...
As a song in search of a voice that is silent

We dance...
To a whispered voice
Overheard by the soul
Understood by the heart
You may know it...
Be."  - Unknown.

Here I am in my Heaven and Earth, a 1000 miles away from my Yesterday,living on distant shores, having flown in on the wings of a dream, BEING 'the page that aches for a word', and Old Love finds me.

An antique-looking sheet of paper, tucked safely into a favourite cookery-book, lay facing me where the book fell open. So much for culinary inspiration! How did I ever let this man go?! There is no signature, but that is not important here - the words themselves reveal a man living a life with his heart, who dreams, who dances, who sees, feels, Is.  

I'm reminded by Harriet Van Horne's words: "Cooking is like Love. It should be entered into with abandon".  A favourite quote of mine, and one I sometimes rue the day I found! For it seems I've cooked and loved just like this, and BEING now on The Divine Coast, is testament to this philosophy. How apt then too, that these words of Love should be snug amongst the pages of 'stirred tomato risotto with mussels' , 'summer pasta' and 'seared swordfish'!

So here's a simple southern Italian recipe to toss with abandon into a bowl of spaghetti!

PASTA WITH TOMATO, CHILLI AND MOZZARELLA

INGREDIENTS
Extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic (press down on the clove with your palm to crack open the clove and make peeling the skin easier - this also helps to release the flavours into the oil)
2 small red chillies (dried also good - tear into pieces and add the seeds as well)
2 x approx. 440gm cans of Italian peeled tomatoes
handful of fresh basil, roughly torn
400gm  rigatoni or penne pasta
200gm fresh mozzarella or bocconcini, sliced
sea salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
handful of black olives (optional)
teaspoon of capers (optional)
boundless love (not optional)

METHOD
Bring a large pot of water to the boil and toss in a teaspoon of sea-salt to the water. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain. (You want to keep the pasta a little moist as this helps the sauce coat and cling to the pasta better.)

Whilst the water is getting itself ready to cook the pasta, heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for 3 minutes 'til the garlic is golden and softened.  Add the tomatoes and crush with a fork.  Add a little water to the can, swirl around and pour into the pan. Simmer for 3 minutes.

To the sauce add sea-salt and cracked black pepper to taste, and some of the shredded basil leaves.  Stir through.  You may want  to add a handful of black olives and/or capers at this stage. Continue to simmer a few minutes more until the pasta is ready, then toss the sauce through the pasta and place in serving bowls.

Served topped with sliced or cubed mozzarella and a couple of whole basil leaves.

EAT and ENJOY with relish! (don't forget to wipe up any residue sauce with some fresh white Italian bread!)

FOR INFORMATION ON COOKING CLASSES, ENOGASTRONOMIC EXCURSIONS AND MORE ON THE AMALFI COAST, PLEASE CONTACT THE WRITER.

SPRUNG SPRING

Pebble Cross found on Spiaggia Grande
over the Easter Weekend.

With Easter and its symbolic re-birthing of all things good, so too did Positano, the 'pearl' of The Amalfi Coast, re-emerge from its winter slumber to welcome in the start of another tourist season.

The sublime Spring weather seduced visitors into thinking Summer had arrived early. Clothes were quickly shed and creamy-winter bodies lay lusciously soaking up the warmth. My favourite spot to survey the crowds and goings-on whilst sipping on a glass of aglianico wine, Covo dei Saraceni, had its tables out again and I received the heartiest welcome from Emanuele, Franco, Mario and the rest of the gang. The beach-front restaurants of Chez Black, Le Tre Sorelle, La Bucca di Bacco and La Cambusa were filled to capacity and take-away pizza's overflowed to the beach where youngsters sat in groups hungrily devouring their Margherita's from their cardboard boxes, gummy strands of warm, molten mozzarella stretching from container to salivating palate, and washed back with cold Peroni....ahhhh, the bliss!

But up above Positano, in the Lattari mountains which rise protectively around Positano, a sense of solace quietly chimed Spring's burgeoning; the sweet sound of Nature sang out and wild scents gently perfumed the air. Away from the milieu of the 'maddening crowds' below, it was just the crisp crunch of brittle winter leaves that reminded me I had escaped to the essence of Spring itself.

                                                                                                  
Standing on a rocky ledge where, legend has it, the devil himself left an imprint of his tail after furiously flicking it against the rock in angry defeat (The Virgin Mary having perforated the mountain - after which Montepertuso is named - and the devil merely denting it), I looked upon Positano below, bathed in surreal late-afternoon light, breathed in the pine-forest perfumes, then raised my face towards the sunshine-shards piercing the pine-tree's and remembered why I'd chosen to come and live here: It's my Heaven and Earth.