Art & Cooking Positano™

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Tie on your aprons and pack your brushes for a full week of Cooking Vacations Amalfi Coast cooking and painting classes!

Once a sleepy fishing village is every artist’s dream place. From afar it looks like a surreal palette of pink, yellow, and white-whitewashed houses built on a vertical cliff. The houses line up like rings on a paper chain and are horizontally perfect. Narrow winding stairways, ancient stone archways, lemons growing laterally and old wooden fishermen’s boats on the shore are the images of Positano. Let this dreamlike magic inspire your creativity in our Watercolor Painting & Hands-On Cooking Class program.  Cooking & painting Amalfi Coast & Positano is a total immersion experience with local chefs and our resident artist!

Whether you are a beginner, an experienced artist or just want to brush up, this watercolor painting and cooking class is fun, educational & relaxing. You will have 3 days painting, (classes are very small – 1 to 3 painters in one class – where the maestro, masterpiece artist, pays careful attention to each person’s experience and level accordingly) and 3 hands-on cooking classes in the heart of Positano.  Cooking and painting Positano is the perfect art vacations in Amalfi Coast.

Amalfi Coast Painting & Cooking

Positano Cooking Classes

When you are not painting, you will be in the kitchen with our team of professional Chefs Filomena, Fortunata, Carmine, Guiseppe & Raffael. Learn the local recipes and the principles of the healthy Mediterranean diet, using fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, in hands-on classes that are educational and informative. In each class alongside our Chefs, you will prepare an antipasto, main dish and dessert. Learn how to make hand-made gnocchi with a steamy tomato sauce and baked with creamy Mozzarella, or lemon Risotto, Insalata di Mare-a fisherman’s fresh catch of baby fish slowly sautéed, or Neapolitan Pizza Margherita, Foccacia and Calzone. And always desserts, Semifreddo, a caramel half-frozen ice cream topped with a raspberry sauce, Caprese, or Tiramisu. Learn to cook classic recipes of the Amalfi Coast that you will be able to recreate at home with our local professional Chefs. Toast with a glass of local red or white wine and enjoy the view. End with a sweet dessert.

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 Neapolitana, real Neapolitan pizza, in Naples. 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 Watercoloring and Cooking with advanced cooking classes and make it a tailor made menu for you. Just let us know.

Art Classes in Positano, Italy

Our professional and applauded artist who captures the ever-changing colors of the land, sea and sky, is your instructor. He has a natural talent for instructing, and leads each individual according to his or her level. With an array of accolades and awards, and several international exhibitions on his résumé, he shares technique and sentiments with each participant. Set your easel facing the sea, let the Mediterranean colors be your backdrop, and your creativity will soar. Our artist leads you through your hands-on classes, giving time for questions & answers along the way. Our artist is graduate of the Galileo Galilei College of Naples, and continues to paint, travel and teach students of all levels and ages from around the world.  Pack your brushes for art classes in Italy, Amalfi Coast.

His list of credits includes:

• 1980 2nd Prize Winner ~Premio Casciano Naples. Landscapes dedicated to Cezanne.
• 1983 3rd prize Winner~ CISL & VISL Neapolitan Riviera.
• 1984 1st Prize Winner ~Tourist Board Of Calabria Competition.
• 1985 Worked with painters Anthos Faccincani & Vincenzo Stinga Antonio Asturi (Marinetti Futurist Group), Eddy Witstein, cinematographer
• 1988 Mural Restoration for the Carlmetan Monastery of Santa Maria Del Toro, Sorrento, Naples.
• 1989 Member of Amalfitan Watercolorists

Positano Accommodations

Your accommodation is a privately-owned B&B style property, formerly the family’s villa which now has been refurbished keeping the old-world charm with modern amenities. The property is conveniently located in town, minutes from the piazza and bus stop, and facing the sea. Each bedroom has a private terrace and sea view and is surrounded by a flowered pergola with greenery. Each bedroom has private bathroom and shower with hairdryer, safe, refrigerator, and air conditioning. Breakfast is served each morning, and daily maid service is provided for your convenience.

Property Photos & Pricing

Positano

Positano has forever attracted artists, writers, photographers, moviemakers and musicians; they all came to capture its magic. The architecture is Moresque and Byzantine style with its main Church, the Santa Maria Assunta, built on Roman ruins. Positano was settled by the Romans, invaded by the Arabs, and discovered by American and British soldiers centuries later at the end of World War II. This discovery put Positano on the map and it has remained there ever since.

Small shops still making hand-made goods, sandals, shoes, linen skirts and gold, line the winding streets. Cafés, restaurants & wine bars spill out onto the small streets making it a friendly and lively place to be. Its beaches are most famous and its water transportation system with boats leaving for Capri, Sorrento and Amalfi several times per day, make it a desirable location on the Amalfi Coast. Capri is a 20-minute water jet ride away, while Amalfi & Ravello, by land or sea, are 40 minutes south.

The majolica dome, Positano’s landmark, is the Chiesa Madre or the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta. It has a green and yellow majolica dome, topped by a cupola and has been painted and repainted on canvases around the world. The iconic landmark can be seen from just about every point in Positano. It was built on the site of the former Benedictine Abbey of Saint Vito, a 13th-century Romanesque structure. A marvel of a 13th-century Byzantine painting on wood with the Madonna and Child, known as the Black Virgin, is on the alter-a Masterpiece of Byzantine Art.

Artists Past & Present

Positano’s VIP list of artists range from John Steinbeck, Kurt Craemer, Han Harloff, Carlo Belli, Franco Zeffirelli, Raffaele La Capria, Stefan Anders, Bruno Marquardt, Randy Morgan, Arroyo Schifano, Cremonini, Rudolf Nureyev, Andy Warhol, Coco Chanel, Matisse & Picasso and Peter Ruta. They were drawn in by the Mediterranean light.

Positano has been a haven for artists for decades, with its Art Workshop founded in 1952 by Edna Lewis. Lewis’s school of painting and sculpture hosted artists from around the world until her death in the early 1970s. Former students and teachers of the Positano Art Workshop return to Positano regularly with exhibitions at the local galleries.  Cooking and painting Positano is a favorite for artists of all levels.

Itinerary: 8 days, 7 nights

Saturday: Welcome To Positano & Welcome Dinner With 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.
• Later in the evening, enjoy your Welcome Dinner including a full course Chef’s Tasting menu featuring local fare.  (Wine not included. Wine, drinks, grappa and an assortment of after dinner digestives are available at a surcharge).

Sunday:  Cooking Class  & Olive Oil Tasting

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, tie on your apron for cooking class 1.  Learn to make seasonal specialities – an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, main course and dessert.  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys  the foods made in classes following. Toast with a glass of wine, included. (Extra wine, beverages, after dinner drinks are not included).  Menu samples include:  zucca, pumpkin ravioli, or pesce azzurro, a sweet local blue fish grilled between lemon leaves, and a torta Caprese, traditional Capri cake.
• 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.
• Evening and dinner is on your own with suggestions provided.

Monday: Watercolor Painting Class  & Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Join us “en plein air” for your Watercolor Painting Class 1. He will start the morning with a short introduction, and together you will decide the direction of your classes together.
• Technique, application and conversation blend with informal discussion, questions and answers. Class lasts 2 hours.
• Take time for lunch on your own and absorb the new material you learned in class.
• Later, we step into the kitchen for your Cooking Class 2.
• Learn to make seasonal specialities – an antipasto, fresh pasta and sauce, main course and dessert.  Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys  the foods made in classes following. Toast with a glass of wine, included. (Extra wine, beverages, after dinner drinks are not included).

Tuesday: Watercolor Painting Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Begin your Watercolor Painting Class 2, and continue learning technique, practice, application with questions & answers throughout. Watercolor painting class is 2 hours and may run longer if the student is more interested.
• Take time out for lunch on your own.
• Suggestion:
• Take the afternoon 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.
• If you like the mountains more than the sea, pack a picnic lunch and hike along the Sentiero Degli Dei, Path Of The Gods, that overlooks the whole Amalfi Coast.
• Evening and dinner is on your own with suggestions provided.

Wednesday: Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, tie on your apron for your hands-on cooking class.
• Cooking Class 3: Your third cooking class is hands-on in the kitchen and includes making an antipasto, main course and dessert.  Lunch follows with the foods prepared in class. Toast with a glass of wine and your meal includes the foods that were prepared in class. Always a sweet dessert included.
• Evening and dinner is on your own with suggestions provided.

Thursday: Amalfi Coast & Ravello Excursion

• Breakfast is served.
• Drive along the famed Amalfi Coast to Amalfi and on to Ravello. At the half way, we stop to visit an artisan ceramic maker. A colorful array of the most beautiful Vietri ceramics and hand-painted volcanic tables in a variety of sizes. After a short break, take the Coast to Amalfi.
  

  Amalfi

• The town of Amalfi is rich in culture and history. The small town, which was once a strong hold during the Maritime era sits on the low part of the coastline, is dominated by Amalfi’s Cathedral with its main streets lined with small shops and elegant bars. Artisans sell their herbs and spices, jewelry, shoes, and the beautiful handmade Amalfi paper. Ravello follows.
  

  Ravello

• Ravello is 1,198 feet/365 meters high and is known for its international music festival. Filled with villas & noblemen’s residences, it is a quiet kind of place. High on our list of things to see is the Villa Cimbrone, it was once the residence of Greta Garbo. In its garden is the Terrazza Della Rosa, and the Terrazzo dell’Infinito (Terrace of Infinity). The Terrace’s balcony hangs vertically also 1,198 high and is lined with marble busts that have been weathered away by the elements. You can see forever on a clear day.
• As you stroll along the streets and alleyways of Ravello, see the many churches, chapels, and gardens; and noted places where great Hollywood types filmed. Other important places to see are the Cathedral, Villa Rufolo, San Giovanni del Toro, and Santa Maria
  

  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.
• Return to Positano in the afternoon.
• Evening and dinner is on your own with suggestions provided.

Friday: Watercolor Painting Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• At this time you will be painting like a pro in your 3rd Watercolor Painting Class. Your final class will include a recap of technique, application, with questions & answers.
• Afternoon free and dinner on your own. Pick up some last minute gifts or ship a case of your favorite local wine home, to enjoy flavors of Italy long after you have returned home!
• Evening and dinner is on your own with suggestions provided.

Saturday: Check Out & Departure

• Breakfast is served.
• Departure transfer to airport or train station. Ciao e 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.