Our Italy Trip

[little ms foodie]

TallDrinkOfWater and I travelled around northern Italy for a few weeks in Sept. Here is a bit about our trip! Our stops were Cinque Terre, Florence, Emilia Romagna, Venice and a day in London on the way home.

We started off in Milan, mainly because the flights in were well timed for us. Didn't do much as we were just there for the night before heading to Cinque Terre. Our friend from Paris met us and we went out for some nice aperitivos and snacks before dinner. Had dinner at Cantina della Vetra which was very good- gnocco fritto became one of my favorite things!

The next day we were off to Montorosso! These towns are stunning!

Some other friends from Geneva, Oxford and Vancouver met us here so we had a nice little apartment for 5 days. Every morning we would go down the street to the Foccaciaria where you could order multiple slices of different foccacia and pay by the gram. Brilliant!

This is also the region for pesto which we ate daily!! And of course lots of fresh fish.

One restaurant had a house specialty that was basically a seafood risotto with a crust on it

(edited to add restaurant name)

Edited November 6, 2006 by little ms foodie (log)

[Chufi]

Wendy, I've been waiting for this! will there be pictures of your tour of the Parmigiano cheese factory?

[little ms foodie]

Wendy, I've been waiting for this! will there be pictures of your tour of the Parmigiano cheese factory?

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YES!!!! It was my favorite day

[little ms foodie]

After Cinque Terre we headed to Florence. We had a rental car so we stopped in Pisa (and had some pizza!)

Obviously we ate gelato every day, it's was Dayne's personal goal- you gotta have goals!

The first night in Florence we went to a restaurant that was owned by a friend of our hotel manager. Here we found out that wedding anniversary was misunderstood by our hotel as honeymoon! We wondered why we had gotten such a nice room with a balcony! The owner of the restaurant was told it was our honeymoon also so she was very nice is suggesting the best food for our dinner. We started off with a nice mixed antipasta platter- there was fried squash blossoms, frittata, salumi, cous cous salad, etc

Then an amazing steak florentine all nicely carved up for 2

and a nice digestif of limencello (how cute is this glass??) on the house of course!

The next day we found I Fratellini!! This was the best lunch. Literally a hole in the wall down a small street, for a couple of euro you got your pick of panino and a glass of wine

grab a place on the sidewalk and enjoy! I think Dayne enjoyed 2 of these

Then when you're finished you put your glass up on these little shelves!!

dessert was had on Ponte Vecchio

[Franci]

Wendy, it does really look like you are enjoying yourself

[little ms foodie]

thanks Franci!

Dinner that night at Quattro Leoni started with these beautiful figs and salumi plate

TRUFFLES!!!

This lamb "stew" was to die for!

and a little veal scallopine

Edited November 6, 2006 by little ms foodie (log)

[ludja]

...

and a nice digestif of limencello (how cute is this glass??) on the house of course!

....

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We encountered this frequently in Florence as well and were charmed by it--the complimentary limoncello or grappa at the end of the meal.

Please do tell some of your favorite gelato flavors that you found on the trip...

(I sure hope you got to Carabe on Via Ricasoli (north of the Duomo) for gelato. I've mentioned this previously, but we made a daily trip there once we discovered it.)

Also, it would be great to know some of the restaurant names if you can recall or recorded them.

Thank you for sharing your trip with us; exquisite photos so far!

[kiliki]

Beautiful! The picture of the pasta with truffles made me swoon and I love the gelato shot.

[little ms foodie]

Thanks ludja, I found a few restaurant names and added them! I have to find my notes for more.

We spent an entire day driving around Chianti. It was glorious!!! We tasted wines at Fontodi and more at enotecas like this one

The harvest hadn't begun yet so there were vines heavy with grapes! the scenery was so beautiful with all the little towns and castels!

We stopped in Badia Coltibuono for lunch at the thousand year old abbey!

Pork meat cooked as tuna, “zolfini” white beans and

red onion

Ricotta cheese dumplings with pumpkin and rosemary velouté

large noodles with wild boar

Edited November 6, 2006 by little ms foodie (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Obviously we ate gelato every day, it's was Dayne's personal goal- you gotta have goals!

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You've got to have something to strive for in life; otherwise, why bother getting up in the morning? Dayne has his prioties straight.

This is an excellent report, Wendy...cannot wait to see more!

[Ling]

How cute are you and Dayne!

The lamb looks incredible, and that gelato!

[little ms foodie]

Made it to Sienna for an afternoon snack- Campari and gelato!

we tried lots of flavors but I think I am just a sucker for pistacio and Dayne liked the chocolate chip stuff (Stracciatella???) but my second favorite was crema!

drive back to Florence

Dinner that night at Buca Lapi which is one of the oldest restaurants in Florence. After all that driving we needed cocktails!

Cocktails were always a bit of a surprise , you never knew for sure what you would get and Dayne taught many hotel staff how to make martini cocktails (if you just ask for martini you will just vermouth)

Our view of the kitchen from our table- now that is some serious steak! they would chop off large T's and throw them right on the grill. That beef never saw the refrigerator!

we were a little nervous about this place as there were americans sitting all around us but the food ended up being very good!

cannelloni gratinati alla Buca Lapi (pasta canapés stuffed with ricotta and spinach served in a cream sauce of boar and mushrooms)

il cinghiale con polenta

can't remember the name but it was veal with roasted shallots in a kick ass sauce!

Biscotti and vin santo

and then they sent out grappa on the house, I think it was like a prize because we were the last people in the restaurant! But we tend to do that.....

Edited November 7, 2006 by little ms foodie (log)

[Kevin72]

What wonderful pictures. That shot of the fig and salumi platter is amazing.

One question:

Isn't this Vernazza?

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And I love this picture; like even the staff were surprised by it. The guy's hand gesturing in the corner is what makes it. What's the crust made of?

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[Shaya]

Oh my gosh, this is a wonderful way to be transported before I head to bed. You got me with the figs, the truffle pasta, the lamb stew, the wild boar pasta, and you two are such a beautiful couple. That photo from your drive back to Firenze made my heart skip a beat! I can't stop swooning over that romantic landscape. It's been years since I've been, but I think I'd better get me over to Italy soon...

[little ms foodie]

Kevin, great eye- it is Vernazza!! I just picked my favorite picture of the villages, we did stay in Monterosso but hiked all 5 villages. ok, that isn't exactly the truth- Dayne and 3 of our friends hiked all 5. My girlfriend and I stopped after we hit Corniglia and the 330 something steps to get up to it. We took the bus and had lunch with everyone on the top- then took the train back to Montorosso!

Shaya, Megan and Ling those are very kind words - thank you! Shaya I was just thinking what an injustice the photos are to the actualy senery of Tuscany so I'm glad you can see how gorgeous the views are. We wanted to pull over every 5 minutes and take a picture it was just lush and beautiful!

[little ms foodie]

Kevin, the crust was like a pizza crust in a way. And I think they were surprised that I whipped out the camera!!

[Pan]

Wendy, did you get the Campari and gelato in Siena at the Bar Il Palio? I do believe that was my favorite bar during my stays in Siena in 1991 and 1994 as a student (I subsequently returned for a short visit in 1998). I loved their macedonia di frutta con gelato!

What great food and lovely scenery you experienced! But then, I can empathize.

[Chufi]

everything looks gorgeous and you must have been the cutest tourist couple in Italy!

I think this dish:

Pork meat cooked as tuna, “zolfini” white beans and

red onion

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is the pork coddled in olive oil with Tuscan white beans from Paula Wolfert's Slow Meditteranean Cooking.. in case you want to recreate it at home!

[Franci]

is the pork coddled in olive oil with Tuscan white beans from Paula Wolfert's Slow Meditteranean Cooking.. in case you want to recreate it at home!

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I don't know Paula Wolfert recipe. In Italian this dish is called "Tonno del Chianti".

From what I read here

I don't think is impossible but a little impractical dish to make at home. It is prepared in July using suckling pigs. I'm just roughly translating: the pigs are cut spinkled with coarse salt and let to rest in the refrigerator fro 3-4 days. Then after rinsing from salt boiled in white wine for about 8 hours with bay leaves. Let to cool in its own broth and then packed in jars and covered with oil and more bay leaves.

[Catriona]

Loved the photo of Vernazza. I was a fan of that foccaceria too... yum!

[Pontormo]

Wendy, I was hoping you'd report news of your three weeks in Italy. What riches we have this week with your great photographs and Divina's food blog. (I now understand the nickname TallDrinkofWater, too.) I want the figs and the cinghiale with polenta.

If there are any more hole-in-the-wall enoteche or restaurants you really loved for particular reasons, I hope you'll leave a note or two in the pinned threads at the top of this forum since there are so many queries for up-to-date information from eG members planning trips.

[hathor]

Looks like you had an absolutey wonderful time! We've encountered that martini/vermouth thing too...it always catches me by surprise. You'd think I'd have figured it out by now, but I'm not the martini drinker in the family.

The other bad news about the zolfini beans is that there is no other bean like it. Honestly. I'd love to get Rancho Gordo's take on it...he's the bean maestro. It is the tastiest bean I've ever encountered.

Apparently, the only solution is to come back!! (and visit Umbria, of course!)

[little ms foodie]

Chufi and Franci that is fabulous info!!! and I agree Judith that it would be great to get Rancho Gordo's take!!!

[little ms foodie]

I now understand the nickname TallDrinkofWater, too.

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LOL!!

[little ms foodie]

I'm not sure of the name of the place we were at in Sienna, I don't have it written down!

on our way out of Florence we drove up to Fiesole for really beautiful views of the city. We had a casual lunch right in the main plaza

I just remember this cute older french couple sitting next to us and they had no idea what to order or if it was ok to share. I like to eavesdrop in languages that I'm pretty bad at! so using my best bad french I discussed my pizza with them.

Then we were off to Modena, Bologna and Parma!!!