Agriturismo Mammarella 09/07/2010

Waking up in the country today was lovely. The sounds of birds and farm animals drifting through the shuttered windows. Agriturismo Mammarella has an orchard and looking up at the magnificent mountains through the olive, oranges, pears and peach trees was refreshing. A family run affair, the service was very friendly and homely. Signor Vitto, the grandfather grew up here. He was very hospitable and after our long day at the Greek ruins of Paestum he took us over to his house 2km away to give the kids a swim in his pool. Talk about ideal rural farm settings!

I was interested in the olive oil and wine they were selling at the accommodation. He makes it. He insisted we have some wine by the pool and when we left the next day he gave me a bottle of his red wine and one of olive oil free of charge. Apparently down here like around celano, if you have some land then you probably make your own wine. It isn't bad either! After the pool he took us for a walk through the orchard to see the buffalo’s that the mozzarella de buffalo is made from, a speciality of the area. If you like bocincini you haven’t tasted anything until you have tasted mozzarella de buffalo. The buffalo’s made an impression with the kids especially their smell! Our idea to travel by car in Italy and find these sort of experiences was proving a success, apart from the little episode of getting lost. I highly recommend agriturismo’s if you are independently mobile.

Genevieve Word: After being in the car for ten hours, Lorenz (my cousin) said "That he would never forget this mistake and that he hoped there wasn't mistake getting back to Celano!". The owner let us go to his house and have a swim in his swimming pool. After this we went and saw the stinky buffallo's. I patted one. They make one of my favourite foods, boconcini from the buffalo's.

Kailin's Word: After the drama of getting lost yesterday, waking up with the country sunlight slitting through the curtains was great. We had a wonderful breakfast of Nuttela on toast and some sort of tart, and looked around the farm. All the food was superb, all home-made, and lunch and dinner both had about six courses. In the afternoon, the father of the owner of the hotel (the owner was away for a wedding in Milano) offered to let us swim in his pool. His pool was huge, and the perfect temperature. Once we were out, he took us to see some buffalo, which he used to make mozzarella. On the way, he took us through the garden. Dad loved all the pear, peach and apricot trees that grew there, which to this Lorenz, very well put, said, "It's a farm, Zio Fred," which cracked everyone up. The buffalos were pretty impressive, aside from the smell, which wasn't so. We got to pat a few, and they had a kind of fuzzy coat that felt a bit like the bristle on our doormat at home.