Join Chef Maria on the Island of Capri as she leads you through traditional menus of cooking Caprese, with seasonal island ingredients, fresh local fish, the making of an antipasto, pasta, a main dish and dolce, dessert-all in one day. Chef Maria shares her secret recipes of ravioli capresi, pesce al limone, torta di Capri, and limoncello in this special cooking and touring adventure featuring the food and splendor of Capri.

The Island
Capri the magical island located in the Bay of Naples, 20 minutes from Positano and Sorrento, has attracted Italy’s kings and queens over the centuries and the modern jet-set. Tour Tiberius’ villas, the Blue Grotto and Anacapri’s Villa San Michele. This Mediterranean island that has mystified the world’s great artists, writers and poets, continues to attract visitors from around the globe. Its diverse landscape, including jetting cliffs vertically pointing from the sea, to the chic shopping area with international boutiques to the laid back hills of Anacapri, this magical island has a little bit for everyone.

Capri’s famous Blue Grotto is often called the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” The Blue Grotto has a special cavern entrance where the sunlight reflects through the water in the cave, tingeing it a dramatic Mediterranean cerulean shade of blue. Capri is Italy's most popular and glamorous seaside island and is just twenty minutes away from Positano or Sorrento. Upon arriving in the port of Capri, our private driver, will drive you up the winding road to Capri past the famous Piazza Umberto. Piazza Umberto, known as la piazzetta, is perched high above the sea and offers a panoramic view of the Bay of Naples. During the week, you will tour the island visiting hidden treasures, secret addresses and Anacapri-the highest point on the island. Capri, the magical island, named after the wild capre, mountain goats, who perch its jetting cliffs, offers a vast contrast between the jet set and untouched nature at its best.

Caprese Cooking Classes
With Chef Maria Maria’s Mediterranean kitchen is set in her country villa atop Capri. Her class is hands-on, using fresh seasonal vegetables from her garden, local fresh fish and the famous wines of Capri bringing you up close to the specialties of the island. Her unique style of cooking, featuring the healthy Mediterranean diet includes the making of a complete 4 course dinner. Imagine, the blackest of olives drenched in first cold-pressed olive oil topped on toasted farmer’s bread for a melt-in-your-mouth bruschetta; delicate pasta capped with tomatoes, basil and capers; sea bass grilled between lemon leaves, and the famous Caprese, a sweet flourless chocolate cake with almonds.

Accommodations
Antonio is your host at this privatly owned garden B&B property just outside the main piazza in Capri. Whitewashed walls contrast with the azure blue of sea and sky to color this picturesque B&B. Arches, vaulted ceilings and artisan ceramic tiles adorn the rooms and each double bedroom has a private bathroom, terrace with sea view, TV, hairdryer and air conditioning. A sweeping panoramic encompassing of the Bay of Naples, capped with Vesuvius in the background, the Sorrento peninsula, and the Tyrannean Sea put you in dream-like state. You may never want to leave your terraza.

A buffet breakfast is served each morning on the large outdoor terrace overlooking Capri’s Marina Grande, the gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius in the morning mist. Fragrant jasmine and violet bougainvillea line the terrace and frame your panorama.

Antonio and his staff are available to give advice and answer any questions you may have. They are glad to recommend restaurants, walks through the island, and perfect spots for a marvelous evening aperitivo.

Itinerary: 5 days, 4 nights

Day 1:
Benvenuti & Welcome

• Arrival on the Island of Capri and transfer from the Port to the B&B. Check in and relax.
• Welcome Dinner at our favorite local ristorante featuring the Chef’s Tasting Menu of local and seasonal dishes. Sample typical caprese foods such as insalata di mare, grilled octopus and squid served marinated in lemon juice and spices, ravioli capresi, handmade pasta rolled and stuffed with fresh goat’s cheese straight from the rocky hills of the island, pezzogna all’acqua pazza, local white fish in ‘crazy water’ with chilli pepper, wine and a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes. Desserts include the famous Caprese cake, a dense flourless almond-chocolate cake dusted with powdered sugar, pastiera, a spring cake made with fresh ricotta cheese, and torta al limone, a lemon-almond cake perfect with the sweet and strong lemon liquor, limoncello.

Day 2:
Island Tour by land and Cooking Class 1

• Breakfast is served.
• Meet your driver for a full morning Island Tour in one of Capri’s famous canopy-covered convertibles. Your driver and guide will take you to the gems of the Island of Capri along with the secret addresses unknown to tourists. Learn the story of the Madonna in the cliff, peaking out of a cliff-side grotto, she is said to protect the fisherman and bring them safely home to Capri. Peak at the winding Phoenician stairs that lead from the port to the highest parts of the island. Learn the myths and truths of Emperor Tiberius’ lavish parties and his 12 imperial villas that once stood ruling the island.
• You will have time to explore during the tour and lunch is on your own.
• In the afternoon meet Chef Maria for your first Cooking Class. Start by picking the freshest fruits and vegetables from Maria’s garden and begin creating your complete 4 course dinner. Depending on the season, take advantage of the freshest fruits and vegetables and fruits of the sea, perhaps Maria’s son’s catch from the morning. Learn the trick to simple and delicious cooking, focusing on the quality of the ingredients and natural flavors. Start with an appetizer such as the fresh cherry tomato, bruschetta on toasted bread then knead, roll, cut and shape your own fresh pasta. Grill fresh fish such as pezzogna, orata and other local Mediterranean fish to perfection or sauté jumbo shrimp in a pan to bring out their natural sweet flavors for your second course. Melt fondente, dark chocolate and whip up the caprese cake and enjoy your entire meal with full-bodied local Capri wine.
• Dinner follows on the foods prepared on class. Local wine, water, dessert and coffee included.

Day 3:
Explore Anacapri and Cooking Class 2

• Breakfast is served.
• Head out for a self-guided tour of Anacapri, starting in the main Piazza Vittoria Worlds away from Capri, though only 20 minutes, is Anacapri, a town which seems to be frozen in time. It is hard to believe these two towns share the same island. Axel Munthe, whose former home sits atop Anacapri explained, “The place is small, it was built by me on the principle that the soul needs more room than the body.” Villa San Michele, now a museum is guarded by two mystical sphinxes, whom, if you caress them, will bring you the good fortune of returning to the enchanting island.
• Continuing through the alleyways of Anacapri, you will stumble upon Chiesa San Michele. The mosaic floor of this tiny chapel depicts Paradise on Earth: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve, painted by Leonardo Chiaese in 1761. Mythical creatures roam the floor that can be viewed from a boardwalk around the edge of the chapel or from the second level, reachable by a spiral staircase.
• Or, take a self-guided flower walk, to see the island in bloom. Capri’s famous perfumes were made from the many varieties of wild flowers, plants and herbs that perfume the island itself. Start in the square, Piazza Vittorio in Anacapri and head toward the Villa San Michele, turning right up Via Monte Solaro before you reach the villa. Pass the scented pines as you ascend up the path toward Monte Cappello arriving at an iron cross. The flowers along the way include ginestra, a thistle type bright colored bloom called Spanish or Weaver’s Broom. You also see orchids of magenta and wild pinks and yellow, pink and violet daisies sprouting along the way. At the cross, bear left to continue up to Monte Santa Maria A. Cetrella, a small church built in the 14th century was the sanctuary of seamen who visited to pray before setting out for months at sea to fish or collect the red Mediterranean coral. From the church descend again to the iron cross and turn left to follow a different path back to the center of Anacapri. This walk takes about 2 hours, plus time to enjoy the beauty and fragrances of the natural flowers and trees.
• Enjoy lunch on your own in Anacapri. Suggestion: Materita, in the quiet piazza overlooking the church Santa Sofia.
• In the afternoon, meet Chef Maria for your second cooking class atop the island of Capri. Collect what you need from the garden and it’s off to the kitchen for delicious alici marinate, marinated anchovies typical of the island to start. Take out the peperoncino, chilli pepper and make dishes such as linguine con le cozze, linguini with mussels, and save the rest of the mussels for your second course of steamed mussels with lemon and taste the world of difference in the different ways of cooking these mysterious shellfish. Menu subject to seasonal availability and your tastes. Finish your class with a traditional fresh dessert such as fragoline con panna, wild strawberries with fresh whipped cream or a seasonal crostata di frutta, fruit tart.
• Dinner follows and everyone enjoys the foods prepared in class. Wine, water, dessert and coffee included.

Day 4:
Capri by Sea and Cooking Class 3

• Breakfast is served.
• Enjoy a morning boat tour with our certified experienced captain who will take you on a seafaring tour of the island of Capri. Sail slowly around the island admiring the jagged and varied coastline with stops for a dip in the salty sea. Learn the history of the island and the evidence in it’s shores from the Faraglioni to Punta Carena, the Blue Grotto to Marina Piccola. Weather and tides permitting, visit the Grotta Azzurra, the Blue Grotto where you may swim in or slip though the small opening in a rowboat with a singing gondolier. The glistening blue inside the grotto is unparalleled in beauty fit for royalty, hence its nickname as Emperor Tiberius’ swimming pool. Entrance ticket to the Blue Grotto not included.
• Lunch on your own.
• In the afternoon, tie on your aprons and fasten your chef’s hat you’re your third cooking class with Chef Maria. Your third class focuses on pizza-making from start to finish as the Caprese people claim to have pizza that rivals their mainland neighbor in Naples. Mix and knead your dough and top with traditional and toppings of your choosing and fire up the wood-burning brick oven to fire-bake your pizza to perfection. (Minimum of 4 people for Pizza Making, traditional menu can be substituted.)
• After class, dinner is served on the foods prepared in class and everyone enjoys the fruits of their labor with wine, dessert and coffee following.

Day 5:
Arrivederci Capri

• Breakfast is served.
• Check out and transfer included to the port of Capri for departure.
• Arrivederci!

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