Exploring

Jake and I splurged on this fancy bottle of wine the other night. Apparently the Taurasi region is famed for its wine production. It was super tasty! Yesterday, we were reunited with my VW Golf after 2 months. Unfortunately, the battery was dead so, after getting a jumpstart from a friend, we set out to explore the area around the base. We got lost. Very lost. Clutching the iPhone, we made it back to the base just as the battery was in its final end of life countdown mode. The adventure was well worth the trouble though because we discovered that there are more shops and restaurants a short drive from the base than we originally thought. We made a great dinner last night- sundried tomato + pesto risotto and baked balsamic chicken. I found the recipe in a cookbook I checked out from the base library. The library was a very pleasant surprise- it has a large fiction section and literature section as well as tons of travel guide books and Italian cookbooks.

Dinner Adventures

The struggle to cook on two small burners continues....Even after drinking large quantities of wine on Sunday, Jake and I were still motivated to grocery shop and cook. Our first plan (red wine risotto) was foiled by the commissary not having any arborio rice. We ended up throwing together a lovely meal- gnocchi with sauteed bell peppers, onion, and broccoli in a light pesto sauce. I faced a similar frustration yesterday when the commissary was out of chicken- all chicken! Chicken Piccata turned into Pork Piccata, served with brown rice and roasted veggies. Tonight, tortellini with breaded chicken and tomato sauce - if all goes well...

Benevento

Molly and I went on our first official tour of Italy on Sunday. We rode a bus about an hour and a half inland to a small medieval city in Benevento and toured the town and sampled a regional winery. We had a great tour guide who would not shut up - obviously a true Italian.

The town featured a collective of over 1,000 farms that combined to form La Guardianese winery. They winery gave us a great four course meal of local cooking and definitely subscribed to the theory that the more wine you feed the people, the more wine they will buy...we bought 15 bottles.

Exploring

We had a busy day exploring downtown Naples today with a bunch of the other new junior officers. Some of the highlights:

-Great tour of the historic district given by a JO who has lived in the area for 2 years and who gave us lots of info and tips.

-Waiting for a seat at a famous pizzeria while drinking red wine (clearly homemade) from a cafe.

-Being seated with an ancient little Italian man who ate his entire pizza while possessing only one tooth.

-Visiting a limoncello shop where the owner showed us the process of making the limoncello and gave us a tasting.

-Viewing the city of Naples, at sunset, from the ramparts of an old castle.

-Buying new cell phones!

Driving

Everyone knows that people drive like maniacs in Naples. Even so, Jake and I were shocked by the ride we were given last night. Our navy sponsors drove us to a Hail+Farewell evening event at the Admiral's house. We were dodging and weaving, speeding and slamming brakes, backing up on exit ramps....at one point the wife of the pair was literally shouting to her husband about a car headed right towards us on the wrong side of the street. We survived, but my hands were shaking for a good half an hour afterwords. Needless to say, Jake will be doing the bulk of the driving when we get our Italian licenses next week!