There are many tempting things to do if your cruise ship ever lays anchor for a day in the Bay of Naples off Sorrento.
You could happily spend the hours sauntering around Sorrento itself. You could catch a public ferry to Capri. Or explore the twisting Amalfi Coast to postcard-perfect Positano or Ravello.
If you're feeling like a living history lesson, look no further than Pompeii, preserved in pumice stone as it was the day Vesuvius erupted so catastrophically in 79BC?
So what am I doing during my 12-hour stopover?
I'm in a minibus, speeding on a high altitude highway over the mountains to the outskirts of unfashionable Salerno. Once there, I'm going to learn the secrets of ... mozzarella manufacture.
Even I can't believe I've signed up for such a cheesy tourist attraction.
But it's my one chance to sample what Azamara Club Cruises labels "an Insider Access" experience. Most Azamara voyages include at least one – usually visits to private homes, farms, villages or vineyards well off the beaten track where you get to meet locals passionate about where they live and what they produce.
Filippo and Flavia Morese are certainly passionate about mozzarella.
They're both standing to greet us when we arrive at their dairy/cheese emporium. Taverna Penta is a converted coaching inn, dating back to the days when Pontecagnano Faiano was a day's trek south of Salerno rather than the suburb it now is.
Flavia introduces herself as our mozzarella mentor for the day. Though Swedish-born, she's become a cheesemaking expert since marrying Filippo: his family have been involved in buffalo mozzarella for nine generations.
Don't confuse buffalo mozzarella with the stuff you find on most pizzas or on refrigerated supermarket shelves, Flavia explains. Most mozzarella is made from cheaper cow's milk.
Real mozzarella is made from the much richer milk of the water buffalo. It should be eaten, Flavia insists, "fresh, preferably within two days, in a simple salad, on its own with a little bread and olive oil, or as part of an antipasti plate".
How and when Asian water buffalo first arrived in Italy is still a mystery. Was it the Goths, the Vikings or the Arabs who introduced them? Either way, by the 12th century Italians had discovered buffalo produced excellent cheese – and the Salerno region in particular became famous for its mozzarella.
Geronimo Morese acquired the family estate (where Filippo, Flavia and their two children now live) in 1694. Sixty years later his son Gaspare began to breed water buffalo. Then in 1995 Filippo's father, Alberto, decided the future lay in high-quality mozzarella production, converting the old coaching inn to the modern dairy which now serves not just locals walking in off the street but some of Italy's most celebrated restaurants.
Flavia and Filippo took over when Alberto became ill, sacrificing their lucrative careers in Rome to return to the farm and take mozzarella-making to the next level.
Their innovations include foodie tours like this one, plus a popular new "yogurteria" which sells a range of yoghurts, ice-reams and puddings made from buffalo milk and flavoured with fresh fruit or barley malt. La Dolce Vita indeed.
We don plastic overshoes and hairnets before entering the cheesemaking hall. Here Flavia guides us through the production cycle. It's a complicated process, mostly done by hand as the craftsmen and women take the milk and heat, separate, curdle, spin, shape, stretch and soak it until the moist plaits or different-sized balls of mozzarella are perfect. Along the way, ricotta is produced as a delicious byproduct.
Once our dairy tour is over we reboard the minibus and follow Flavia's car to the estate a couple of kilometres away – home to 600 water buffalo. Two North Africans do the milking twice a day ("Italians aren't prepared to work these long hours anymore," Flavia explains).
Finally comes the best part of the tour. The tasting. Flavia's housekeeper has prepared a light lunch that is a cheese lover's dream. Salads, fresh breads, honey, pastries and local wine perfectly compliment the array of ricotta and mozzarella, including the delicious smoked variety known as provola.
We sit on Flavia's terrace, admire the view, and feel we really have experienced an aspect of traditional Italy that our fellow passengers have missed out on.
Blessed are the cheesemakers? Perhaps the crowd listening to the Sermon on the Mount in Monty Python's Life of Brian didn't mishear after all.
tavernapenta.it/
Azamara Journey's 12-night Aegean Sea to Rome voyage leaving Piraeus (Athens) on June 4, 2016, includes the Mozzarella Insider Access Tour as an option. Fares from $4759 per person, twin share in an interior stateroom. Phone phone 1800 754 500, see azamaraclubcruises.com.
