Il Caminetto Cookery School

We are met at the ferry dock in Varenno by Chef Moreno and with another taxi driven by Monica to take us all up into the hills above town to the village of Gittana where the Ristorante Il Caminetto and Cookery School is located. Chef Moreno and his wife Rosella operate the restaurant in a building that has been in his family for over a thousand years. He was born in this kitchen by the fire place. Il Caminetto means 'my sweet fireplace'.

We are welcomed with beautifully set tables, cappuccinos and what I thought was cheesecake, but was told it is a Torta Paesana which is a peasant cake made from his mothers recipe of whatever is in the kitchen with bread as a base. A little bit sweet but lovely with coffee.

Everything is set for an eating extravaganza. Bottled water, white and red wine....anything you want. Chef Moreno starts with a description of the meal he will be preparing...fresh chicken...Pollo in Umido alla Contadina, translated, stewed chicken, farmer style. Everything is done with exquisite style and cleanliness. Every ingredient is freshly grown, picked, chopped, grated and mashed.

Memorable quotes: show the garlic whose boss; keep always your kitchen clean and organized; only use aromatic herbs; approach love and cooking with reckless abandon (the Dalai Lama) ....

Chicken heading for the oven.

 

Next we start with the filling for the hand made tortellini. Garlic, zucchini, fresh herbs, ricotta cheese.

It just gets better watching him as he mixes his flour and eggs for the tortellini wraps. The smells in the kitchen are out of this world. I wish I could record the aromas.

 

As we watch, smell, listen, and drink wine we are also sketching our experiences.

 

We all took turns folding tortellini until all the pieces were ready for the pot. Knowing we were going to eat all this food we were starting to get a little bit hungry.

 

The finished product, as in Italy, pasta is the premier course...

Next came the meat dish....stewed chicken with chard risotto and tomatoes. To die for flavours!!

We are slowing down, the food and wine is making us a little too comfortable ...the sketching seems to have stopped also. Next comes dessert in the form of limoncello .....much of that and we wouldn't make it onto the ferry.

 

As we leave the cookery school after seven hours of indulgence the sun is still shining and we all take a breath of fresh air smelling the many herbs growing in front of the restaurant door.

We take away a souvenir apron to wear at home, a reminder of our wonderful experience with a charming chef in his unique kitchen. It has been one of the most entertaining days, and the best meal of our tour so far. It will be hard to top the quality of the food we have consumed today. It was a joy.

 

Arrivaderci Chef Moreno.

 

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Lugano, Switzerland

It's an overcast morning as we cross the lake to Menaggio where we will catch the bus to Lugano. We come over early so everyone could spend an hour looking around the plaza and shops. Lynn and I had been here last week so we each wandered off on our own for a little quiet time before getting on the bus.

Your neighbourhood corner store called a Tabaccheria.....literal translation means a "tobacconist shop" but it is a general merchandise store with a meat and cheese counter, canned and packaged goods, a huge selection of wine, even an old fashioned candy counter.

A pizza delivery car? maybe, it certainly looks like one.

We meet back at the plaza and walk to the main bus stop to ensure we will all get on one bus. Immediately we climb away from the lake with hairpin curves which make the bus have to stop and back up to let the downhill bus get around the corner. More twists and turns and tunnel after tunnel as we cross over to Lake Lugano.

We are waved through the "Dogano" the border, at the end of a long tunnel. We are in Switzerland and even the colours have changed. No more warm Italian colours.

Even with today's technology with cel phones there are still a lot of phone boothes. Saw lots of them but nobody was ever using them. They still looked pristine, no graffiti or signs of destruction at all. This was a city bus that looked more like a fast train.

We found another book shop that had art supplies and a beautiful supply of hand made paper. We didn't find any supplies we needed but I bought a few sheets of paper in what I call my Italian colours.

Another plaza, another cappuccino and some more sketching. "Manor " was a huge department store housed in part in an old building and next door a large modern section. It reminded me of when I was a child and I would go "downtown" Vancouver with my mother on Saturdays. We would go to Woodwards and the food departments were downstairs. We would sit at the counter and have toasted shrimp sandwiches. Very much the same set up in this store.

It was amazing how a one hour bus trip could quickly bring about so many changes. When buses and trains were late in Italy, we were told "this is Italy" with the hand gestures to go with the statement. Now we are in Switzerland and everything runs with the precision of a "Swiss watch".

 

 

We missed catching up with our group who sat and sketched the wrought iron gate looking over the lake. I drew my version from the Facebook picture that was posted. Not truly in the "Jane's World" style but done nevertheless.

We are on the 4:00 bus back to Bellagio. It has been a long day, probably our least exciting experience to date. I am still feeling punky with my cold but am happy to have found my Ricola's. They are my best cough drop when at home. It is funny to buy them in Switzerland and get them in a hinged tin that I have been looking for to make a small palette for my gouache paints.

We do not feel like making the effort to go out for dinner. Our hotel has a little 'hot dog' window on the plaza side so we went down and got cheeseburgers, Italian style, they even had mayo on them, some potato chips and went up to our room. I am a happy camper. In my pyjamas with a glass of wine and an easy, peasy dinner. As we sat on our beds working on our journals another huge thunder and lightning storm lit up the night sky for hours. It was the music I went to sleep with.

 

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The Villa Carlotta

It is Sunday and we are on the ferry to Tremezzo across the lake from Bellagio to visit the 17th century Villa Carlotta.

 

The morning sun lights up the warm colours of the buildings as we pull into the dock. It is a short walk along the lake to the Villa. Jane and Carlo have been here before and lead us through the gardens walking higher and higher up the tiered hillside. We find a huge stone picnic table and settle in to do a drawing of the things we have picked up along the way. Everyone has different items to paint, from pine cones, leaves, flower petals, even some pieces of ceramic tile

 

 

Brilliant Birds of Paradise.

Our musical accompaniment as we sit and sketch in the herb garden.

Orange trees trained to create an arbour over the pathway. The have a curved frame over top of the trees so they can be covered in the winter for protection from the cold.

Another three wheeled Alfa Romeo...this time a gelato truck..so efficiently mobile like our old fashioned ice cream trucks.

 

We have open ferry tickets so end up going back to Bellagio with a few of our group later in the afternoon. There is always something to sketch while we wait. This was a section of the lake wall with steps going down if you wanted to go in the water. A little too much ferry traffic for many bathers here. The Italians say they don't go in the lake til July and if you see anyone in the water at this time of year they will be Germans. A hardier nation I guess:)

Tortellini and white wine for dinner at the top of the cobblestones. We eat, drink, relax and people watch after another busy day. A very happy feeling knowing it is all down hill to our hotel.

 

 

 

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A Day Between Groups

Our Rapallo walking group all left this morning so we have the day on our own until it's time to meet the Art Walk members today at 4:00. It is a beautiful fresh morning after another thunder storm during the night. Coffee, breakfast, lunch packed and we are headed out along the lakefront walk. It is lined with trees, flowers and benches to sit and look out on the lake.

As we sit to sketch this unique three wheeled, Alfa Romeo "Food Wagon", the owner arrives and starts to unravel all the little doors and shelves to begin a day of selling snacks for the strollers of Bellagio.

We bypass the Villa Melci and it's gardens for the fishing village of Loppia. As we move away from the lake we have to walk along a main traffic road, hugging a stone wall as buses and cars speed by. There is a respect shown between walkers, drivers and bikes. We are encouraged regarding our safety by watching a young mother with a stroller coming down the road. At the top of the hill we then turn down a narrow cobbled road towards the village.

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It is so peaceful. We do not pass anyone along the road. It is Saturday morning ...a local woman is hanging out her laundry and sweeping the porch, some older men are puttering on their boats in a small bay. We sit on a step and sketch a couple of ancient gondola barges, circa 1925. Springtime here is a little ahead of home with the blooming of flowers. The rhododendrons are almost finished, but roses are in bloom and lavender grows along almost every stone wall. We pick some and soak in the smell of it as we walk. It is a magical place.

 

 

14th century stairs up to an old church. A worthy sketch to practice perspective.

We are headed to Spiaggia Libera, meaning "free beach" where we find a small lakeside cafe. We sit at a table with a big pot of chives in purple bloom set on a purple table cloth. Cappuccinos are as much about presentation as taste. Everyone has there own swirl and decoration. I love drinking my coffee in a cup with a saucer.

 

Cobblestones and stairs, I am getting a lot of exercise and enjoying "almost" all of it. After a lovely afternoon we start back for the meeting with our new group of Art Walkers. We have a bit larger group this week, 3 Canadians and 11 from the US; New York, Chicago, Wisconsin, Colorado and California.

After a quick get together, meeting Jane Lafazio and each other, we walk up to the Enoteca Cava Turacciolo, the wine cave, where we have the cellar room reserved for a wine history lesson and tasting, along with a light meal of meats, cheeses, crusty bread and pickled vegetables which they call the antipasto meal. Two hundred years ago the cave was a cold storage room for the family that lived along the street. Now for the last 45 years it has been a wine cellar with whole hams hanging from the ceiling and shelf-filled walls of wine. A few bottles of wine later and the group is relaxing and getting to know each other.

A new group has melded. Tomorrow we take a ferry to the Villa Carlotta.

 

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