Art & Cooking Positano™

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Tie on your apron and earn to cook with an award-winning team of Chefs Filomena, Fortunata, Carmine & Raffael in sunny Positano and give your creative hands a try at making Amalfi Coast ceramics – creating beautiful pottery hand painted with vibrant Mediterranean colors. Create and paint your own plates, platters, cappuccino cups or casseroles, while meeting new friends in our fun and artful ceramic and cooking class. Our studio is the perfect place to mold, paint and create, and our kitchen will have you tapping into your creative cooking talents.  Our ceramic classes and week long pottery courses on the Amalfi Coast is a unique experience with a local artist to create, paint and fire your very own handmade pottery.

Positano Cooking Classes

Our Chefs Filomena, Fortunata, Raffaele, Carmine, Giuseppe & Raffael lead your week long hands-on cooking classes using fresh, regional ingredients and have you slicing, dicing and cooking in the kitchen. Tie on your apron, join our Chefs and learn how to prepare farm-to-table ingredients and transforming them into Mediterranean cuisine of the Amalfi Coast.

The classes take place in our professional Mediterranean kitchen, giving you an authentic experience of recipes, techniques and styles. In each class, you are up close and hands-on preparing delicious recipes that you will also be able to recreate at home.

During your cooking classes you will prepare a full course lunch or dinner including antipasto, pasta, fish or meat & dessert. Choose our special Pizza Making workshop for one of your classes and make traditional Neapolitan pizza from start to finish.

In each cooking classes you will make regional recipes starting with antipasto: fiori di zucca ripieni – stuffed squash flowers, aranci, patate crochette, involtini di melanzane, polpettini di melanzane, pasta: gnocchi, ravioli Caprese and scialatielli, a main course: spigola limone, pesce all’acqua pazza, vitello Positanese, pollo con erbe, and limone and dessert: torta Caprese, torta Vesuvio, babà soaked in limoncello, gelato and crostate, to name a few.

During the week, you will also learn the technique of making authentic Neapolitan pizza with our award-winning pizzaiolo, pizza-maker, who learned to make la vera pizza Napolitano, real Neapolitan pizza. This authentic pizza making class shares the secret recipe for mixing, kneading and stretching delicate pizza dough and baking it at a high temperature in a wood-burning oven for a perfect crispy crust.

If pasta is your favorite, you can choose to add on our Pasta Making Workshop where you will make additional fresh, hand-made pasta with seasonal sauces. Fresh pasta making is an art in Italy, and in Positano you will learn to make it step-by-step! Believe it or not, Italy boasts over 1,000 different types of pasta, including gnocchi, ravioli, tortellini, cannelloni, orecchiette, casarecci, and garganelli, to name but a few.

If you are an advanced cooker or chef, we can offer the same Ceramic & Cooking Tour with advanced cooking classes and make it a tailor made menu for you. Just let us know.

Ceramics Making on the Amalfi Coast

Also during the week, learn about the ancient history of ceramics, its folkloric tales, and philosophy that reigns from the 13th century, while molding, shaping and firing it in a professional kiln. By the end of the week, you will have your own colorful Positano pottery and ceramic to serve your newly learned antipasto, pasta, main course and desserts in.

Your week includes 3 hands-on cooking and 3 hands-on ceramic making classes with our native master artisan in her studio: a unique and educational experience. Using a resource of old patterns and books to inspire, your mind will open as you learn about the motifs and colors used in this type of ceramic making.  This program has been specially designed for the artistic food lover who wants to expand their artistic talent.

The Amalfi Coast ceramic making course starts with the mixing and sculpting of the clay, firing and painting to follow. All supplies are included. You can decide what you would like to make on site. From platters, to plates, and casseroles, tiles, candles or lanterns-the sky is the limit.  You will create beautiful one-of-a-kind Amalfi Coast pottery while learning.  Shipping of final pieces can be arranged at a surcharge.

Positano Accommodations

Your accommodations for the week include a villa-style B&B property located in the center of town and overlooking the sea, a 3, 4 or 5 star accommodation. Each bedroom has its own private terrace and sea view surrounded with flowered pergola and greenery. Ceramic tiles line each large bedroom with a private ensuite bathroom including shower and hairdryer. Each bedroom offers a safe, refrigerator and air conditioning. Breakfast is served each morning, and daily maid service is provided for your convenience.  Wake up each day in sunny Positano on the sea view.

Positano, once a sleepy fishing village has a Moorish-style and one, one-way street from its top to its end. It is latticed with pearly colored houses of white, yellow, pink and violet for a reason. The small seaside town, discovered by American and British troops at the end of World War II was home to many fishermen’s families. Houses were once painted in this rainbow of colors so fishermen at sea could easily pick out his home when returning from sea. And even today, the color prism of houses still remains. As you zig zag through town, tiny cafés, terraces, and artisan shops spill onto the sidewalk and locals continue to sell ceramics, leathers, clothing, Limoncello and antiques.

Walk along the cobblestone footpath that leads to the beach and at the bottom you will see the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta in Piazza Flavio Gioia. The church was built on the site of a former Benedictine Abbey of Saint Vito in the 13th-century and was rebuilt in 1700. The majolica dome, sitting like a giant gelato, can be seen from every point in town. And inside its walls is a carved wooden Christ, a masterpiece of devotional religious art and a 13th-century Byzantine painting on wood with the Madonna and Child, known as the Black Virgin. The people of Positano celebrate the feast day of the Madonna every August 15th, when the locals carry the statue along the beach with a parade of boats and musicians. A spectacular fireworks display follows.

Positano was part of Amalfi’s Maritime Republic during the 10th century, and rivaled Venice as an important mercantile power. It was an important center to follow during the 16th and 17th centuries, when its ships traded in the Near and Middle East, carrying spices, silks and precious woods. However when the steamship arrived in the mid-19th century, less trading led to the town’s decline and some three quarters of its 8,000 citizens left for America, with most settling in New York. However after World War II, Positano once again prospered.

Property Photos & Pricing

Program is 8 days, 7 nights

~ Saturday to Saturday available all year long.

This program is scheduled from Saturday to Saturday, however you may check in and start your program on any day of the week, all year long. If you do start on a day other than Saturday, you will start your activities on that day, and all activities described will be included during your program.

Saturday: Welcome To Positano & Full Course Chef’s Tasting Dinner

• Pick-up and transfer from Naples airport or train station to the property. Arrival and check-in. Relax on your terrace, sit back enjoy an aperitivo.
• A full course Chef’s Tasting Dinner is included; antipasto, pasta, main dish and dessert. (Wine not included. Wine, drinks, Grappa and an assortment of after dinner digestives are available at a surcharge).

Sunday: Cooking Class 1 & Discover Positano

• Breakfast is served.
• Tie on your aprons and get cooking in your hands-on Cooking Class 1. Classes are held in our professional Mediterranean kitchen. Start with an introduction and time for question & answers; and then head into the kitchen. Our Chefs take you step-by-step through traditional recipes of southern Italian cuisine with an accent on the healthy Mediterranean diet. Learn how to make an antipasto, main dish and dessert. After the class, everyone enjoys dinner by the sea with the foods prepared in class. Toast with a great glass of red or white wine, included. (Additional wine, beverages, after dinner drinks and more are available at a surcharge).
• In the afternoon, take the morning to explore Positano, stroll through the main square-the Piazza Mulini, get acquainted, stop for a café at the Bar Mulini, and make your way to the main beach.  Throughout the town you will see many types and styles of ceramics, and not only in the beautiful shops that carry them.  Oversize ceramic flower pots welcome you at doorways, Virgin Marys, in blue and white, seem to guide you at every turn and lanterns and signs show you the way through the colorful town.
• The evening is free and dinner is on your own.

Monday: Ceramic Making Class 1 & Explore Positano

• Breakfast is served.
• Start off the morning with Ceramic Class 1: your first ceramic making class. The hands-on class ceramic making class shows how to mix and sculpt your clay as you work under the guidance of our local artisans. Class is 2 hours.  Follow the artist, sculpt and learn new technique.
• Following your class, take time to explore the many shops, wine bars or art galleries.
• Later in the dinner, enjoy a local fare at any one of the delicious restaurants which Positano has to offer.

Tuesday: Ceramic Class 2, Olive Oil Discussion & Tasting & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Ceramic Class 2: Your second ceramic class takes you to the next step in processing your piece. You can continue painting with the vivid Mediterranean pastels or if you are ready, go to the kiln. Class is 2 hours.
• Lunch on your own.
• Olive Oil Tasting. Join us for a tasting of our locally produced Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  At Cooking Vacations we make our own first-cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from healthy olives that have been tended and cared for all summer long. We use only the first cold press Virgin olive oil. It means that the oil we bottle is pressed only one time giving it a clean fresh taste. Virgin means it is pure and not mixed with anything else. It is DOP-Denominazione di Origine Protetta, ‘origin protected’ domain of production-and “made on site in Italy.” Grown under the warm Mediterranean sun, in rich volcanic soil, and with salt sea winds, our olives make perfect olive oil. We respect the old world process of picking just at the right time, just in October and not too late in the season. Always organic. Our olive oil it is made without chemicals or preservatives, we promise. The informal tasting provides a bit of insight into tasting, buying and using olive oil.
• Cooking Class 2: Hand-on cooking class. Learn to make seasonal specialities such as zucca, pumpkin ravioli, or pesce azzurro, a sweet local blue fish grilled between lemon leaves, and a torta Caprese, traditional Capri cake. Everyone eats the foods made in classes following. Toast with a glass of wine, included. (Extra wine, beverages, after dinner drinks are not included).

Wednesday: Ceramic Class 3 — Suggestion: Gourmet Tasting Lunch

• Breakfast is served.
• Ceramic Class 3: In your 3rd and final class, put the finishing touches on your hand made piece, whether it be an olive oil jug, a tiled cheese cutting board or a deep-dish pasta bowl!  Your family and friends will be impressed when they see you serving your Italian cooking in your hand-made ceramic. Class is 2 hours.
• Lunch on your own, try the  Gourmet Tasting Lunch with wine pairings at our hot pick Restaurant.  Just when you thought the food could not get any better, the Gourmet Lunch with local wine pairing prepared in the open kitchen will have you thinking different. From the antipasto, pasta, main course and dessert, taste and learn as our host will inform and lead you through a new experience in cooking styles. Afternoon free and dinner on your own. Choose from our Restaurant Hot Pick List.

Thursday: Amalfi Coast & Ravello

• Breakfast is served.
• Get ready for a ride along the Amalfi Coast. Getting there is half the fun, as you will see the amazing panoramic Coast, passing Sophia Loren’s home along the way. Time out along the way for some photo snapping, and a visit to the famed-artisan ceramic maker noted for their volcanic hand-painted tables.
• Amalfi: The town of Amalfi is rich in culture and history. The small city is on the coastline and behind an ancient wall, it is dominated by Amalfi’s Cathedral and its main streets are lined with small shops and elegant bars. Merchants display their wares outside and nothing could be more pleasant than browsing through stalls of herbs and spices, jewelry, shoes, handmade Amalfi paper, and local lemon specialties such lemon soap and lemon liqueurs.
• Ravello is the romantic city high above the sea and noted for its International summer music concerts. Visit Ravello is filled with villas and castles of nobles, queens & kings, and Italy’s Royalty of the past.
• One of the town’s most visited landmarks is the Villa Cimbrone, once the residence of Greta Garbo. Wander through the villa’s lush gardens and the Terrazza Della Rosa, and stroll down the path that leads to the Terrazzo dell’Infinito (Terrace of Infinity). This natural balcony magically hangs over the sea, and is lined with ancient marble busts. A spanning panoramic includes Cilento Mountains and the Licosa beyond the sparkling sea, and the lush Amalfi Coast with its distinctive terraces brimming with lemon trees, castles, fortresses, and villas that cling onto the rugged mountainside.
• Ravello’s footpath alleyways and tiny walk ways surprise you with majestic churches & chapels. There is the Cathedral, Villa Rufolo, San Giovanni del Tauro, and Santa Maria. The city’s large piazza spills with cafés, art galleries, and branches off with a labyrinth of small streets filled with local ceramic makers and artisans. You will see old-world artisans paint seascapes, mermaids, suns & moons, and romantic angels in soft pastel shades.

Add-On Our Guide For The Amalfi Food Lover’s Walk and Ravello Landmark Tour

• You may also reserve our private English-speaking guided tour and local resident, who will take you on an Amalfi Food Walk & Ravello Landmark Tour, learning about the local food, history and culture.  If you want to see the towns of Amalfi & Ravello like a local, while tasting great foods, add on this tasty food tour.  Stroll to the fish market, cheese artisan and bread baker.  Also included is a stop at one of Amalfi’s most historic pastry, chocolate and gelato makers.  Tastings are included.  After Amalfi, your guide continues her tour in Ravello, with a visit to Villa Rufolo or Villa Cimbrone and the Terrazza dell’Infinito.  (*Entrance fees not included.)  Stroll through Medieval Gardens, piazzas, pathways and by ancient landmarks while learning about the invaders, kings and queens, writers and movie stars who lived here. End in the piazza with a toast of Prosecco.  A 3-hour tour with English speaking, tastings are included. (Guide’s fee is extra, please reserve in advance.)
  You will visit a famous boutique food shop which showcases local and artisan foods including an assortment of cheeses, salumi, bread, pastas,
  olives, spices and wines, tastings included.  Your guide will explain the different foods and how they are used in cooking.  Next stop the limoncello maker with Amalfi Coast sfumato limone with tastings.  We continue through Amalfi and end with a visit to the most famous pastry shop with tastings.  We continue onto Ravello where we tour the gardens then take a seat in the piazza for a Prosecco.
• After the full day excursion, return to Positano.
• Suggestion: Enjoy a sun set aperitivo at the Hotel San Pietro. Its sunset view, and fragrant flower gardens will have you staying longer than expected. Slide into its terraced restaurant for a late night bite.

Friday: Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Cooking Class 3: Our Chef’s use their families’ traditional recipes, with their professional skills to serve you the best recipes of the Amalfi Coast. Recipe samples may include grilled eggplant antipasto drizzled with first-pressed, virgin olive oil, Positano-style pasta sautéed with seafood and baby shrimp in fresh tomato sauce, sea bass baked with novelle, new, potatoes or veal sautéed in lemon.
• Enjoy lunch or dinner with the foods prepared in class. Toast with a cold class of Falanghina or Aglianico wine and end with a sweet dessert, included. Additional wine, drinks and after-dinner liqueurs available at a surcharge.
• Last minute shopping at Vincenzo’s and do not forget to ship a case of your favorite vino back home!

Saturday: Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Departure transfer to Naples airport or train station.
• Ciao~ A Presto!

*Note: This schedule may vary due to inclement weather, saint days or festivals. All activities, in the event of rescheduling, are always included during the week.  Please note that museum tickets are not included in program price.