Exploring Irpinia With A Passionate Guide

Forbes

2 days ago

I love the region of Campania in southwestern Italy for many reasons: the beauty of its landscapes, the food, the wine (of course) and the people. It's a region that people know about on several counts; there's Napoli, the capital city; the amazing pizzerie, and of course, the Amalfi Coast, one of God's most inspired creations.
Last year when I was preparing to travel to Campania, I did an internet search on the region, looking for interesting places to eat and visit, as well as wines I needed to try. In the midst of this search, I came across a website The Authentic Irpinia, that is hosted by Sarah Pompei, a Los Angeles native who moved to Irpinia and married a local winemaker. Along with assisting her husband Vincenzo (known to his friends as Pupo), she leads tours in Irpinia, focusing on the area's glorious wines and foods; she also offers cooking classes as well as tours of area towns that are sometimes more than 1000 years old.
Sarah was kind enough to spend three days with me touring wineries; this was associated with a project I am working on to promote this area's wine. Irpinia, by the way is the ancient name for the province of Avellino in Campania; here both world-renowned wines such as Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo (white) and Taurasi (red) are produced.
Meeting Sarah was a great experience, not only because she is extremely knowledgable about her work, but also because she is always upbeat, positive and engaging. In fact, I arranged another visit earlier this year with her, and loved every minute of it.
I asked her a few questions about her work, and why she moved to Irpinia. Her answers are below. After reading her responses and looking at her website, you just may want to book that trip to Irpinia, and experience a few wonderful days in, as she writes, "a land untouched by mass tourism.
When did you first travel to Campania? What were your initial thoughts? What made you fall in love with Irpinia, rather than Bevenento or Salerno?
My first trip to Campania was in 2009 when I came to visit Pompei - a must with my last name - but was back in Rome by the end of the day. It wasn't until I came back to Italy in August of 2016 with my family for a 'find your roots' trip that I realized what I'd been missing. We came to Gesualdo in the Avellino province - the village my great-grandfather immigrated from when he came to the USA in 1904 - and I swear, it was love at first sight with Irpinia. I had goosebumps from head to toe while we were still in the car from the airport when I first saw the castle in Gesualdo. I knew I had to move to Irpinia from that very first moment and I hadn't even stepped foot out of the car!
Once I started exploring the hilltop villages, the history, the wine, the food, and getting to know the people - it was game over. This was the Italy I had been dreaming of but hadn't found until Irpinia.
Vineyards in Irpinia
Photo ©Tom Hyland
Other areas of Italy are terrific of course - don't get me wrong. I enjoy visiting them any chance I get. But Irpinia is just special in a way that's almost hard to put into words. This area embodies what almost everyone conjures up when they think of Italy: sitting around the kitchen tables with the winemakers while you try their wines, learning to make pasta by hand, grabbing coffee at the bar with the village locals, festivals for just about anything you could think of, and just enjoying that slower pace of life that focuses on people, not to-do lists. I just thought it was all magical.
What do you offer people who sign up with you for a visit of one to three days? What do most people request, and what do most people tell you they enjoy the most about their time with you in Irpinia?
Here's the thing - you could come spend a week with me and we wouldn't run out of ways to explore Irpinia. But guests that come for one day usually love to explore the picturesque (but tourist free) hilltop villages and learning to make pasta by hand and other traditional Irpinia dishes with the family at Antica Trattoria Di Pietro, the 90-year-old restaurant where the food pairs perfectly with some of my favorite Irpinia wines.
Another highlight is joining winemakers at their kitchen table for a lunch tasting of their wines with foods freshly prepared from the gardens after exploring the vineyards and tasting directly from the barrels. I mean, where else can you even imagine doing that?
Then of course, there's wandering through some of the region's rich history. This area was on the Appian highway from Rome to Brindisi. There are Roman ruins and crypts with saints and so much more like an underground sulfur volcano, Mefite, that infuses the grasses with a very particular flavor that helps produce a sheep's milk cheese 'carmasciano' that can only be made in 3 villages in all of Italy.
Where have most of your clients come from?
Most of my clients come from the USA and then Australia - I collaborate with like-minded Italy experts who know all the best hidden gems and off the beaten path experiences. Most guests are mostly looking for something real, an escape from the tourists just looking for the next photo of something they read about or saw on social media and before moving on to the next item on a check list. When you come to Irpinia, you know you're experiencing generations of traditions come to life.
Finally, what can you tell people are the best things about Irpinia? Is it the food, the wine, the scenery, all of these or something else?
This is the Italy you've seen in the movies, the one that lingers in your thoughts right before you fall asleep, but that you didn't know actually existed. Here the people are doing things the way they've been done for centuries. It's a living history of the best dishes, wines, and people Italy has to offer. Making tomato sauce by hand, pasta rolled out using rolling pins handed down for generations, and where every meal can be discussed for hours. That's why you come to Irpinia.
It's a reminder and the reality of how people continue to use generations of traditions to influence daily life. They're still doing things the way they always have and I (thankfullly!) don't think that will ever change.