Annamaria making dinner!

My bedroom

Random wedding at the cathedral – there is at least one wedding a day there

Tonight I met Aurora, Annamaria’s niece who is 13 years old and just beautiful. She arrived along with 6 boys all about 15 years old, some whom I’d seen before, and others I hadn’t. It was like cyclone entering the room and leaving again 15 mins later! We all sat up to the table together and ate dinner (actually they more or less inhaled theirs). Unfortunately I understood very little of the conversation (probably a group of six 15 year old boys speaking English would be difficult to understand too) butAuroradid repeat key sentences for me a little slower in Italian so I could understand. And so I was also able to ask her who on earth all these boys were turning up for dinner during the week – “Cugini? (cousins)… amici? (friends)…” … “NO” she replied and giggled. She then explained that the boys live in Capri but go to school inSorrentoduring the week, and live in the building and come to Annamaria for dinner Monday-Thursday.

Normally it’s just Annamaria and I at my dinner time (7pm). The Italians tend to eat much later. My usual routine is to come and sit and watch her prepare dinner from 6:30pm and tell her what I learned at school during the day, before I’m then served up my 2-3 courses!

In Annamaria’s kitchen, there is always something on the stove, no matter what the time of the day. Even in the morning at breakfast there will be some sort of pasta sauce simmering away, filling the house with mouth-watering aromas.

And so, due to popular demand, here are a few pictures of mia casa in Sorrento, as well as my dinner menu – as prepared by Annamaria – during the first week of my stay.

Domenica 6 Maggio: Spaghetti Bolognese followed by deep fried unidentified processed meat served with mashed potato (so much butter it was actually yellow in colour); finally a cup of strawberries soaked in icing sugar to make syrup for dessert.

Lunedi 7 Maggio: Small tube pasta with white bean sauce followed by fried chicken served with fried eggplant, fried zucchini and chips. Dessert: An orange (delicious!).

Martedi 8 Maggio: Long tube pasta with pesto sauce followed by pork sausage, grilled zucchini and cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Dessert: An orange.

Mercoledi 9 Maggio: Spaghetti carbonara followed by minute steak with chips and roasted capsicum with capers and olives. Dessert: An orange.

Giovedi 10 Maggio: Spaghetti Napolitana (my favourite so far!), followed by grilled chicken breast with battered and fried artichokes and a potato gratin with speck.