The Lost Southern Italy Files Volume 3, 8 giugno

The word of the day is...organic!
We are spending a few days in the Campagna region, and continuing off of our local produce theme yesterday, we had dinner last night at a unique pizzaria that takes their ingredients very seriously. The tomatoes must be whole san marzano, the mozzarella must be unrefrigerated buffalo milk, the basil fresh picked. Literally in the middle of nowhere, a few kilometers outside of Eboli, the place filled to capacity at about 9-9:30, families with children, laughing and eating pizza with a gusto I haven't seen in a long time. The whole area smells of wood, burning and crackling in the old brick oven, and the pizza, perfectly thin, was charred to perfection. Top five pizzas in my lifetime, though I would love to do an impossible side by side tasting with Keste on Bleeker Street.
The Hotel was actually much better, but the "wifi" was useless. Not having access to internet is more disconcerting then I would have thought. It's funny how used to technology even someone as unadapted as I am can become.
Today we visited Italy's premier organic water buffalo farm where they produce mozzarella, ricotta, buffalo milk yogurt and gelato. Tangy, rich and sweet, the yogurt was a decadent way to start the day, and the cheese we sampled was just oozing with fresh milk, satisfyingly warm and fresh - only made a half hour before we ate it.
We then went onto Campagnia's live agriculture museum farm of sorts. For free, but publicly and EU funded, they educate and give produce and seeds to farmers and individuals to promote organic and sustainable farming practices. We plowed through the loose soil through lanes of cherry trees, told to pick what we liked. Hands stained red with the sweet juice, and five varieties of cherry later, we tried apricots, succulent and huge, and ate until we were stuffed. There is truly nothing in the world like reaching up and plucking a tender fruit from the tree, warm from the sun, and biting into the flesh standing in the middle of a Southern Italian farm with a gentle sea breeze rustling over the neat rows of trees. Amazing.
Ansel Keyes museum, and lunch on the beach, splashing in bathwater warm water, crystal blue and green. Sitting on the rocks, overlooking the vast sea, drinking prosecco and eating panzanella - it simply cannot be better then this.
It's so good to be back down south. Not that there is anything wrong with the North, it's just different. Like chocolate and vanilla, we have our own preferences that do not require explanation. Driving on roads that overlook sharp rocky cliffs that drop into a still topaz sea speckled with seaweed, our bus looks like it might just tilt over and fall. Bright orange tiled houses, clotheslines drying a "football" uniform, and old man smoking a cigarette and smiling makes me smile, all that brighter. I just feel better being down here.