Today we split into two groups again. Four of us stayed back at the estate for a cooking lesson while the rest headed off to a local market town. The sensible ones who took the cooking class enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the grounds before a civilized start at 10:30.

The eager students assembled promptly at 10:30 for the lesson.

Today’s lesson was gnocchi. Flour, potato, and an egg were worked into a soft dough by the expert.

Eva provided translation while the cooks demonstrated how to make gnocchi. Just because it was educational didn’t mean we couldn’t laugh too.

Then it was time for the hands on portion. First we rolled the dough into long thin ropes. It was a bit like working with play dough.

Then we cut the dough into small pieces and used a fork to shape the gnocchi. It isn’t as easy as it looks.

Then we learned how to make “vegetarian meatballs” with cheese, stale bread and eggs, formed into balls, rolled in dried breadcrumbs and then deep fried to a golden brown.

We knew we were having pizza tonight so we asked about making pizza dough, and we were treated to an impromptu lesson on making pizza dough, complete with a demonstration of the “proper” technique for adding salt to the pizza dough.

Before cooking the gnocchi we were shown how to make our own fresh pesto. Then the cooked gnocchi was added to the fresh pesto for one of the coursed of our lunch.

And finally, it was time to eat, starting with the vegetarian meatballs marinated in tomato sauce.

The appetizer was followed by the primi course of gnocchi in pesto, then the secondi with chicken breast, puréed broccoli with fennel salad, and finally chocolate hearts for dessert. With wine, of course.

That takes care of the “cooking” group. The “looking” group started with a visit to a local market in Sulmona.

The town of Sulmona is known for its confetti candies, which have almonds or chocolate coated in candy and sugar. In addition to being very tasty, these candies were often thrown at weddings. When this tradition came to the new world, the colorful candy was eventually replaced by colorful paper, but the name “confetti” remained. Here are a few examples of the original Italian confetti. All of these are candies.

Here is a closeup of one of the candies in the previous picture.

Of course the market also had the more typical fruits and vegetables.

And of course, fabric, which was of special interest to several people in our group.

The last stop of the day was a pottery workshop where the potter has been making pottery since the 1950’s.

This next picture shows two pieces to help illustrate the pottery making process. The one on the left is what the pottery looks like before being fired, and the one on the right is after.

But before the pottery studio it was off to a local winery for lunch and more wine tasting.

I especially love the historical anecdotes and the cultural artifacts we get to see on this trip. This next picture is a good example. It looks a bit like a chair, but in fact it is a washing machine … though “machine” probably isn’t the right word. Water is poured in from the taps at the top and collects in the basin at the back. The piece that looks like a chair seat was then used to scrub the clothes until they were clean. It shows you how much things have changed.

At the end of the day we all met back at the Baron’s Estate for pizza night and were treated to half a dozen different gourmet pizzas. Then it was time for after dinner drinks on the patio around the fire.