When in Italy, it's all about the food. Boy, oh boy. Today was a culinary treat. Breakfast was light because we overslept. We first woke up at 7am and decided we could sleep a little longer. The "little" turned into three hours.
After breakfast we sailed down the Amalfi coast which gets more beautiful, the farther south we go:
Lunch today was at Ristorante Maria Grazia, a restaurant that is only accessible by boat. The weather was not great today. It was raining and overcast. Therefore, one of the extremely nice guys that is part of the boat's crew, went in a smaller boat to the restaurant and brought the food back to us. We are definitely getting spoiled.
The food was simply amazing. I know I'm using this word over and over, but there's just no other way to describe it. We enjoyed spaghetti alla nerano (spaghetti with zucchini), polpo alla insalata (octopus salad), stuffed peppers and anchovies. I don't like anchovies, but these were not the usual canned anchovies that we get in Miami. These were fresh and they tasted totally different. Anchovies is the region's specialty so basically they come straight from the sea to your plate. It can't get any fresher than that.
At night we took a car up the mountain to a small town called Sant'Agata. There we found Ristorante Don Alfonso 1890. If yesterday I thought Il Buco was good, I was in for a big surprise. Don Alfonso is in a totally different plateau. It's been owned by the Iaccarino family for over a century. Don Alfonso is the main chef, and he has a staff of about 20 chefs which includes one of his sons. Our table was right in front of a glass panel from which we could see the kitchen. It looked as if I was watching a choreographed performance. Amazing to see these many chefs work in perfect unison.
Livia Iaccarino, the matriarch of the family, was the perfect hostess. She treated us as if she had known us all of her life. And the food!!! Even the word "amazing" is not enough to do justice to the flavor and freshness. Everything was perfection, from the homemade bread to the assortment of desserts they brought us. They grow all the fruits and vegetables in their own organic farm. You could taste how fresh they were on every bite, from the zucchini in tempura they brought us to start to the tasteful tomatoes that accompanied the lamb I ordered as my main course. There was also a soufflé made with melted mozzarella that just dissolved in your mouth. We ordered a dessert to share and I wish I hadn't because in addition they brought us an assortment of mini pastries (cannoli, napoleons, bananas flambé, chocolates...). Each was better than the previous one. And the presentation... It looked like Mt. Vesuvius just exploded on our table. I was totally in awe. I can see why Michelin has given them two stars. In my book, they deserve three. I hope they'll be around for another century so I can return when I come back to this beautiful country.
And as if treating us like royalty was not enough, at the end of our meal, Mrs. Iaccarino gave us a cookbook to take back with us as a souvenir. I will try, but I already know in advance that I will never be able to duplicate what they served us. Even if I was a great cook, which I'm not, the ingredients back in Miami would never do justice to the ones they have available in Italy. But it was a very nice gesture to give us that special gift. I took this picture of Mr. & Mrs. Iaccarino autographing the cookbook:
As I said earlier, today was truly a culinary treat in more ways than one.
Tomorrow, our real adventure begins, when we start driving through the thrilling, scary, zigzagging, narrow, but beautiful Amalfi Coast.
Santa Maria, proteggi conduttore.
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