CAMPANIA

Campania is a generous land that is rich both in history and in its varied historical, archaelogical and landscape patrimony, as well as for agricultural food products, the sun and the warmth of the people who live there.

This has been a favoured destination for art and history enthusiasts for centuries. Just consider the excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum or the archaeological area in Paestum, the monuments in Naples or the palace in Caserta, and don’t forget the natural beauty of the Amalfi coast and the islands. Rural tourism still has a great deal of room for development but there is already a good bit of interest: enchanting masserie farm houses, fabulous regional gastronomic traditions and an undoubtedly beautiful land.

DON’T MISS THE FESTIVAL

The miracles of St. Andrew, processions and pilgrimages in Amalfi

In the city of Amalfi there has always been a great deal of devotion to St. Andrew, whose remains were placed in the Cathedral long ago in 1206. 
The people's faith grew with the event of two great miracles. The first took place on November 29, 1304 when an oily substance, which the people of Amalfi called "manna" from Biblical stories, came out of the saint’s tomb. The second miracle took place on June 27, 1544 when the saint interceded to save Amalfi from the attacking pirate Barbarossa. These two dates became festival days and St. Andrew was proclaimed as the patron saint of Amalfi.

Collecting the "MANNA". Starting November first, each evening prayers are said around the tomb of the Saint. On November 29, the bust is shown to the faithful. In the evening there is a procession with an intense almost unanimous participation by the people, who go to the crypt in the cathedral to assist in the collection of the “manna” which is closed in small bottles to be consigned to the sick. On the morning of the 30^th the religious festival begins. With music, songs and joyous pealing bells, the function culminates in the celebration of the mass followed by a solemn procession to return the sacred image back to the cathedral.

THE PROCESSION OF JUNE 27. June 27 marks the festival of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Amalfi.
The massive statue of the Saint, referred to playfully as “o’ viecchio,” which translates to something like ‘old geezer,’ is carried in a procession accompanied by members of the religious confraternity dressed in white. They go to the edge of the sea where it is taken by the fishermen who run with it down the streets of the city and up the monumental stairway to carry the statue back to the cathedral. There they offer fishes to the Saint in a sign of devotion and thanks. In the evening the party explodes joyously while fireworks light up the night sky.

WINES IN CAMPANIA

The name of this region, which translated to countryside, says a great deal about this land. In fact in Roman times this area was given the name Campania Felix in testimony of the fertile local lands. It is therefore certain that in Campania you can taste great wines, made that way by the nature of the land and the sun that shines almost without stopping for twelve months a year.

Our itinerary begins in the zone of Caserta where there are many cantinas located throughout the countryside. One great wine to try is Falerno white.  It is a dry wine with a high alcohol level (12 – 13%) and a pleasant and rounded taste. Falerno red is a dry wine that improves if it has been aged around 3 or 4 years. After arriving in the part of the city that was built by Charles III of Bourbon, you must not miss out on a visit to the famous Palace, a masterpiece by Luigi Vanvitelli.

After leaving Caserta travel towards the coast on the autostrada motorway heading towards Naples. Three splendid wines are waiting for you and they are Vesuvio Rosso, il Lachrima Christi and Gragnano. Vesuvio is a white or red wine that is pleasant, not very alcoholic and it tends to linger. Lachrima Christi is an intense red wine that has ancient origins and it should be aged around 4 or 5 years. With a soft and pleasant flavour, it makes a magnificent pairing for meat and game. Gragnano is an amazing red wine that varies a good deal depending on the cantina where it is produced. It has a pleasant flavour and it is bubbly.

If you decide to visit Ischia and Capri, the two most famous islands in Campania, you can also taste great local wines while you are there. Ischia produces Ischia white and red, as well as Biancolella, a soft dry wine with a slight almond aftertaste that is perfect for fish and seafood. In Capri you will find Capri red and white. The white is a great wine for fish, one that is extremely pleasant and not very alcoholic. After having seen the Sorrento peninsula, without forgetting any of the best sites, which are all wonderful including Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello, visit the zone of Salerno where the choice of wines is wider and more varied. You can taste them at the local cantinas which are very common in this area. Try Alto Sele  (a red dry wine that has a high alcohol content), Basso Sele (an intense red wine with a low alcohol content), Corbara (a mellow red), Giovi Rosso (a dry wine that improves with aging) and Ravello (in white, rosé or red). Pushing on into the inland areas you will find even more great wines. In Avellino they produce Aglianico, a red wine, which is not very alcoholic that gets better with age. Greco di Tufo is a fruity white wine while Fiano is a bubbly white; however both are great with seafood. Taurasi is a DOCG guaranteed origin red with original reflections that tend towards orange. It goes well with red meat, game and aged cheeses. Continuing further on into the countryside of Benevento offers the possibility of tasting two traditional DOC wines, Solopaca and Taburno.

THE FLAVOURS OF CAMPANIA

Just like Lazio, Campania also had a sort of undoubtedly dominant capital with a long history and a prestigious past. Naples seems to dictate the rules in the field of cuisine even today. It is true; we cannot negate the universal popularity of pizza, spaghetti, meat sauce, pastiera, babà and so on. The basic elements that tie together the cuisine in Campania are the ancient traditional agricultural products, which they are trying to promote anew, especially in the fruit and vegetable sectors. Large production operations aim to safeguard the natural methods and the intense colours and flavours that the fertile land of this volcanic region and the shining sun gives to the vast array of farm products in Campania.

THE TRADITIONAL CLASSICS. Pizzas, calzones, calzoncelli are popular and they are always available in many imaginative variations that are frequently fabulous, though increasingly further from tradition. Another famous dish, the mozzarella in carrozza, which like its name means in Italian, is mozzarella in a carriage of dried bread that has been battered and fried to golden perfection.  The original recipe strictly used mozzarella made from water buffalo milk and not cow milk mozzarella, which should be called fior di latte. Some of the most ancient traditions include the zeppulelle, simple dumplings of leavened dough that have been filled with pieces of anchovy and codfish and fried in boiling oil and casatiello, which is a bread made from a batter of flour, yeast and lard with an egg in its shell placed at the centre before being baked in the oven.

THE FIRST COURSES The first courses constitute a fundamental part of the cuisine in Campania. Let’s begin with minestra maritata, which is a hearty single dish that includes a large amount of vegetables (broccoli, broccoli rabe, chicory, lettuce and escarole) as well as wild herbs and ribs, pork rind, sausage, pork salami, pieces of caciocavallo cheese and hot pepper. Homemade pasta is called both lagane or laganelle, with origins that date back to the Latin word for a simple water and flour dough, which was known in Roman times as langanum, but choices also include cecatielli, scialatielli, cavatielli (the latter are also common in nearby regions). Frequently cooked together with chick peas and beans, it is then topped with tomato or meat sauce. The panzarotti are a kind of dough that is filled and then fried in boiling oil. The version created in Sannio, an inland area, is prepared with a base of puff pastry and sugna (pork fat), filled with salami, caciotta cheese, grated cheese, egg and parsley. The more “metropolitan” Neapolitan version substitutes the pork fat with butter and calls for different fillings including mozzarella and anchovy, mushroom or chicken. It is physically impossible to cite all of the sauces in which the eternal classics spaghetti and maccheroni are served, though there is definitely quite a spotlight on fish and seafood based specialties. A glorious Neapolitan version of rice is the famous sartù (from the French word sur tout, meaning above all) which is a casserole cooked in the oven and combined with egg and flavoured with mozzarella, peas, artichokes, sausage and meat balls.

THE SECOND COURSES.  The fish dishes are all about freshness and the flavour of the Neapolitan catch, which can still be found for sale in the numerous stalls, with a large variety of molluscs and fresh crustaceans available. Octopus vendors also used to be a common sight. It is served in boiling broth and it was a fundamental staple in local cuisine in the past. Among the more elaborate dishes, spigola ripiena is sea bass stuffed with seafood and cooked in the oven, and totani imbottiti or stuffed squid are popular in Capri with a stuffing made from the tentacles cut into pieces and mixed with egg, grated caciotta and parmesan cheese, which are then cooked in oil, garlic and dry white wine. Beef dishes are not as common since the inland areas raise primarily sheep and pigs. One Neapolitan beef specialty is manzo alla pizzaiola, which is dressed in oil, wine, tomato and oregano.

THE DESSERTS.  Among the desserts, we begin with the world famous pastiera di pasta frolla a pie with a filling of grain, ricotta, egg, candied fruits, cinnamon and orange flower aroma. The babà is absolutely Neapolitan, even though history attributes its invention to King Stanislaw of Poland. This cake-like base of flour, water, sugar, butter and egg-white meringue is cooked in individual cylindrical forms and then the cakes are soaked in a syrup made from water, sugar, rum and lemon zest. A unique dessert is melanzane al cioccolato, which is popular in Naples on the festivals of the Madonna del Carmine and Madonna della Neve: eggplant is cut into strips and fried, and then it is flavoured with chocolate syrup thickened with dry bread crumbs. The mixture is layered together with almonds, pine nuts, candied citron and then baked in the oven.