We had our final brunch, and a very impressive one at that. Today the meal included French toast, Italian-style. I didn’t have it but I think it included Nutella! We had a short break and then attended the classes we selected earlier in the week. We had a choice of water color or acrylic painting, weaving, knitting/crocheting, jewelry, or watching a drone fly over the town while wearing VR glasses. I chose the jewelry class and Jim wore the glasses. He said it was fun to see an overview of the area and I enjoyed making a simple necklace out of copper. I may embellish it once I am home, but it was fun to work with the artisan.
In the early afternoon, Chef Luca (so adorable), walked us through making a Casa Gregorio pizza dough. It is easy and makes a delicious base for whatever you want to add. We started at 4:00 PM and by 5:00, we selected our favorite toppings to create a special signature pizza. Many in our group chose to make a white pizza, without tomato sauce. A couple were more traditional, adding tomato sauce as a starter. There were about a dozen or so ingredients to use, including rocket (arugula), various kinds of ham, Bufalo mozzarella, spicy salame, olives, grilled zucchini, peppers or eggplant. Not a pepperoni in sight. It is not used in Italy at all.
Just before making our pizzas, we adjourned to another fabulous kitchen in the Casa, to purchase aprons, fancy Italian oil cans, and many of the tools we used during the week. It was very tempting, but we had limited space and not a great need.
The “famous” Gregory, who started this endeavor fifteen years ago, was in the kitchen with us to cheer us on. He is an Italian-American and spoke Italian from an early age. His dream was to buy a villa and transform it into a cooking destination. He succeeded magnificently.
We tasted everyone’s special pizza, so by the time it was my turn to make a pizza, I declined. I was already toooo full! Jim made an awesome pizza.
We sampled so many that we couldn’t imagine eating one more bite. However, Luca made a dessert pizza that was amazing. It had chocolate, whipped cream, and sliced pears. It was heavenly. I have eaten a fruit tart pizza before and it was exceptional. Fortunately, I can play with all kinds of choices once home.
His partner Massimo, father to Giuseppe (the younger one, as there is an older one who was our driver and guide for most of our excursions), and David, entertained us in the Taverna downstairs. Decked out as a nightclub taverna, Massimo bedazzled in sequins, sang standards from the 50’s to the 80’s in English and Italian. His voice was beautiful and it was evident that he was a born entertainer. For his second set, his son, David, donning a black sequin sports jacket, joined him and they sang in perfect harmony. It was a perfect end to a lovely week.
Tomorrow, we leave for Rome, where we catch an early flight to Brindisi in Puglia (in the heel of Italy). This will start our driving trip to many incredible cities in this area of Southern Italy. The week was fantastic and we would recommend that you consider this on a future trip. You can go to edibledestinations.com for a variety of cooking classes in many countries or directly to Casa Gregorio at italyculinaryholiday.com