La Bella Cucina Naples™

Join Chef Maria for a week of hands-on cooking in the heart of Naples. She invites you at home and into her kitchen where you will learn to prepare and enjoy classic traditions of the region. Maria is a chef and true food lover. Even though you will be given a recipe booklet, she know every Neapolitan recipe by heart! She cooks with passion and her philosphy is “I cook a lot,…whether its 10, 15 or 20 more who show up to each…what is another few at my table,…there is always plenty!”
She uses fresh ingredients bought the market each day and brought to the kitchen for the class. She carries on the love of southern Italian cooking for her family and guests 7 days per week. Guilia prepares the food of Naples, – peperoni e patate alla salernitana-peppers and potatoes Salerno-style; pommarola alla Napoletana con pasta-classic Neapolitan tomato sauce with fresh pasta, zeppole con fiori di zucca-zucchini blossoms fried lightly in a batter, pesce spada ripieno-stuffed fresh swordfish steaks, Baba alla crema-Baba layer cake soaked in rum, or cannoli alla Napoletana-Neapolitan cannoli stuffed with ricotta cheese. These are only a sampling of her recipes.

Naples

Lying in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius is the vibrant, animated city of Naples. About Naples, author Herbert Kubly once said, “Built like a great amphitheater around her beautiful bay, Naples is an eternally unfolding play acted by a million of the best actors in the world. The comedy is broad and the tragedy violent. The curtain never rings down.”

Just two hours south of Rome, Naples sits magnificently on the northeastern coast of the Baia di Napoli-Bay of Naples, which is one of the most beautiful bays in all of Italy and the most important harbor in Southern Italy. Naples is wonderfully full of history, rich with beautiful artistry and treasures, and its narrow, winding streets lend great character and life to the ancient city.

The chaotic streets of Naples serve as the main transportation hub of Southern Italy, boasting an amazing subway system, several major train and bus lines, the Aeroporto Capodichino, ferries, trams, funiculars, and two special lines-Ferrovia Circumvesuviana which brings you to the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the town of Sorrento, and the Circumflegrea and Cumana which take you to Pozzuoli, Baia, and Cumae.

Spaccanapoli embodies the spirit of Neapolitan life like nothing else. Teeming with people, this arrow-straight road cuts through Naples from East to West along the main artery settlements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Spaccanapoli branches off into a string of narrow, winding roads each bearing names of significance and their own special air and charm. A wonderful place to wander around and mingle with Naples.

In matters of food, Naples is the homeland of pizza, and thus pizza is of great importance and taken very seriously. Seafood is in great abundance in Naples and prepared delicately and deliciously, infused with the passion and liveliness of the people. Neapolitan cuisine is the epitome of the Mediterranean diet.

Naples is a city of juxtaposition. A marriage of old and new, high tech urban feels in some parts and ancient old world in others. The people are boisterous and lively, and live in the moment, and life in Naples is enacted fully to every extreme. When traveling to Naples, be sure to pack a good sense of humor.

Naples-Cooking At Home with Chef Maria

Your cooking classes are held in Chef Maria’s home, in her own kitchen, not a hotel or restaurant. Her everyday passion is cooking for her family, and what better place to learn her Neapolitan style of cooking than in her home. Her cooking classes are truly something different.

She learned from a very young age how to select, slice and prepare the best vegetables, fruits, meat and fish. The table was always the center of life in her family, and Giulia learned and continues to pass on three generations of family recipes.

Over the years, she has traveled all over the world always saying: “Buon appetito!” at every table. Maria states, “she wants to spread the true Italian dolce vita, the sweet life,” to everyone she cooks for!

Itinerary:

5 days, 4 nights

Day 1:

Arrival and Welcome

• Arrival and transfer from Naples Airport or train station to your Four Star Hotel in the heart of Naples.
• Check in and relax.
• Pick up for your Welcome Dinner at the home of Maria.
• Enjoy a full course Welcome Dinner and get to know her. Sample delicious tomato and garlic bruscetta, pasta al ragù, a slow cooked meat sauce stewed for hours at home, parmigiana di melanzane, eggplant parmesan each family with their own special recipe, and of course for dessert the famous Neapolitan babà, a light rum soaked cake. Wine and water included. Recipes included.
• Return to the hotel after dinner.

Day 2:

Hidden Naples Walking Tour and Cooking Class 1

• Breakfast is served.
• Depart for your morning Walking Tour of Naples, hitting the famous and hidden places of this alleyway city that you would never see from a bus. Visit the Galleria Umberto with it’s immense vaulted-glass ceiling, the Piazza Plebiscito, this vast piazza was inspired by Saint Peter’s in Rome. Stop at the Neapolitan landmark café for a pastry and cappuccino or a short and steaming Neapolitan espresso served in delicate hand-painted china. Continue to the shop the café lined Via Toledo on the border of the colorful Spanish Quarter, the Vomero Hill topped by Castel Sant’Elmo, built originally in the 14th century, and the Naples’ centro historico, historical center of the city.
• Visit the famous San Gregorio Armeno also known as the Via dei Presepi, street of the nativities. This ancient quarter of this ancient city is filled with botteghe and bancarelle, with the most intricate, beautiful characters and full nativity scenes. These artisans create masterpieces with lights in the windows and bursting from the ‘wood-fired’ ovens, water running in the mills, teeny baskets of fruits and vegetables from the fruttivendolo, thimble-sized copper pots, miniscule espresso cups and locket-sized prosciutto hanging in a salumeria that could fit in the palm of your hand. Artisans create these detailed scenes slowly and patiently featuring figures either in terracotta or carved wood, and anyone can appreciate the detail in these intricate dioramas. Characters include the traditional Wise Men, Joseph, Mary and (on Christmas eve) the baby Jesus. Yet there are also traditional Neapolitans: the macellaio, butcher, the panettiere, bread-baker, pasticciere, pastry maker and many shops and shopkeepers from a typical Neapolitan town.
• Spaccanapoli embodies the spirit of Neapolitan life like nothing else. Teeming with people, this arrow-straight road cuts through Naples from East to West along the main artery settlements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Spaccanapoli branches off into a string of narrow, winding roads each bearing names of significance and their own special air and charm. A wonderful place to wander around and mingle with Naples. Watch the masters twirl and stretch pizza dough to make the infamous Margherita pizza. Pizza demonstration, with traditional Neapolitan pizza and drink included.
• ‘Shop Like a Chef’ and pick up the ingredients from the market to bring back to Chef Giulia. Rows and rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, cacciocavallo cheese hanging in pairs, bakeries bursting with the perfume of yeast and flour old world breads await you in the marketplace.
• Transfer to Chef Giulia’s house for Cooking Class 1, your first hands-on cooking class, featuring traditional Neapolitan foods including fresh pasta kneaded, rolled and sliced into all different shapes, fresh traditional sauce such as patate e provola, potatoes and smoked cheese, to go with each specific shape of pasta. Menu varies by season. Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class, wine included. Apron and recipes included.
• Return to the hotel in the evening.

Day 3:

Fields of Fire and Cooking Class 2 at Home with Chef Maria

• Breakfast is served.
• Depart for your morning with private English speaking guide to the historic Campi Flegrei, Phlegrean Fields meaning Fields of Fire, to the west of Naples. The towns of Pozzuoli, with its amphitheater that once held 40,000 spectators, Arco Felice, Bacoli, and Baia. Though now almost completely below the sea, Baia was once the seaside resort for Roman aristocracy, and it is said that Cleopatra was vacationing at Baia when Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C. Continue to Capo Miseno and Lake D’Averno, where myth claims were the sites of the river Styx and the gates of hell and sulfer lingers in the air. Also visit Quarto, these towns lining one after another bring to mind a Cinque Terre–type picturesque postcard. These still active volcanic towns continue to burst with puddles of boiling mud and water.
• Return for your Cooking Class 2, your second hands-on cooking class. Roll up your sleeves and work with Chef to whip up some traditional Neapolitan street-foods. Frittata di patate e cipolla, a tall potato and onion omelet, pizza fritta, little fried pizzas, and crocché di patate, fried potato and cheese dumplings. Menu varies by season.
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class, wine included. Apron and recipes included.
• Return to the hotel in the evening.

Day 4:

Panoramic Naples by Horse & Carriage and Cooking Class 3 with Chef Maria

• Breakfast is served.
• Set out for a morning ride with your English speaking coachman. Ride through the ancient city to Piazza Municipio, Via Marina, Piazza Vittoria, Riveiera di Chiaia, Mergellina, Posillipo, Via Caracciolo and Via Partenope. Enjoy amazing panoramas from atop Naples with plenty of time to take pictures along the way.
• Pick up for Cooking Class 3 to learn Neapolitan dolci. Learn delicacies such as the torta al caffè, espresso-flavored cake, with crema al burro, buttercream frosting among other seasonal specialities.
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared in class. Aprons, recipes and certificated of participation included.
• Return to the hotel in the evening

Day 5:

Ciao Napoli~ A Presto!
-Until You Return!

• Breakfast is served.
• Departure transfer to Naples Airport or Train Station.
• Arrivederci Naples!