Tag: italy
A Day in Como, Italy
Day two in Switzerland started with a delicious breakfast filled with lots of cheese, bread, some salami and lots of delicious coffee. One of the advantages of being in Lugano is that we are half an hour away from the Italian border! That makes me happy. I couldn’t wait to make our way there.. even though we were there a month ago- I can’t get enough of the good food, cheap and delicious wine and the sweet life! I feel blessed to be able to enjoy some quality time with my family while eating delicious food.
We made our way there via a speed train. Thirty short minutes later, we were in Como.. and a short ten minutes later we were by the beautiful lake. We decided to take a ferry ride and admire the lovely villas and homes around the beautiful lake. There wasn’t a whole lot of difference between Lugano and Como.. except Como seemed more populated. Also, the prices in Como were much cheaper than Lugano. Switzerland on the whole is quite expensive overall, including food and wine.
We made a couple stops for gelato con panna (whipped cream) and then finally settled down for a yummy lunch break. We ordered a mixed salad, a zucchini lasagna and pasta with salmon. All the pasta was made fresh, of course! We also ordered a carafe of a local Rose. The simplest things taste good in Italy- it is all about the ingredients… fresh and delicious… A couple of hours later we made our way back to Lugano.. can’t wait to explore some more tomorrow!
Pasta with Salmon
Zucchini Lasagna
Tuscany- Day Four- Castiglione della Pescaia
Day four was a lovely visit to a coastal town in Tuscany called Castiglione della Pescaia. We started to research the night before where to go and decided it should be a somewhere near the ocean. I was envisioning a seaside shack serving delicious seafood and wine. We got to this lovely, little coast town with beautiful turquoise water as far as the eye could see. We parked on the outskirts of the town and started to walk by the water. Very quickly we started to pass water side restaurants with beautiful views.
We decided on one, randomly.. well, actually some of us needed to use the facilities and were not willing walk any further. We sat down and were greeted by very friendly restaurant owners- they spent a significant amount of time translating the menu for us. We decided on some fried seafood consisting of shrimp and calamari. We enjoyed a big salad and pappardelle with mixed seafood, grilled vegetables and two whole fishes. The food was delicious and absolutely fresh. We washed it down with the most amazing sparkling white wine. It was a perfect afternoon.
Fried Seafood
Seafood Pappardelle
Grilled Vegetables
Whole Fish
We headed back to the villa- had a few hours to enjoy the pool. Before we knew it, we were headed to a local farm to table restaurant. We started with a local Chianti, a delicious salad. I enjoyed a plate of cinghale (wild boar) cooked for hours in tomato sauce. It was tender and was falling off the bone. The highlight was definitely the desserts- specifically the creme caramel, creme brûlée…
Cinghale (Wild Boar)
Gnocchi Pomodoro
Pineapple Tiramisu
The creme brûlée was very different than what we were used to. It didn’t have the hard crust on the top- there was sugar sprinkled on top with some kind of liquor which was flambéed. It was creamy and absolutely delicious..
Tuscany- Day Three
When you have sixteen people walking around a medieval town, lots of interesting things happen. One thing that doesn’t happen is a lot of sightseeing.
We woke up the third morning to a gorgeous blue sky…. I could hear the roosters in the far distance and birds were chirping quite loud. I am usually a great sleeper but somehow here, I can’t wait to wake up and start the day- I am averaging a few hours a night…
The breakfast consisted of a few kinds of cheeses, prosciutto, crusty bread and the most delicious cherries… oh, and of course, coffee. We lingered over coffee and headed for Siena.
As I have mentioned before- we are a big group. To achieve some order, we divided ourselves into several different committees. Yours truly is in the food division- planning meals, buying ingredients and deciding where to dine. Most kids were in the planning the day committee. They decided we would all go to Siena, which was about an hour away. We arrived there and slowly made our way to the main square. It took a while as we stopped several times for water, pizza, olive bread and gelato. We did look around a bit and took lots of lovely pictures but somehow the focus was on where we were going to sit down and eat….
After lunch, we walked a bit more and ended up in a bar/café that had very interesting looking sandwiches. We had cappuccinos (which I realize is a very touristy thing to do – as most Italians stop drinking cappuccinos after 11 AM) and decided to get our dinner packed from there- including the dessert.
We headed back to our cars and some of us in the food committee headed to the super market to buy some more supplies for dinner- including the most delicious and cheap wines I have ever had the pleasure to taste…
Dinner consisted of a platter of olive bread, raisin bread, cheese, ham, sandwiches and lots of wine. We started with the most delicious sparkling rose wine and finished with a yummy white.
As I anticipated, this trip too is turning into a food and wine fest…
Tuscany- Day Two
I woke up to an amazing morning in Tuscany- it was absolutely beautiful… a blue cloudless sky and birds chirping…
The day started with a delicious breakfast, a visit to the super market and a delicious lunch. We found this hole in the wall restaurant by the high way. We walked straight into the kitchen not realizing where we were and asked them if they could make pasta and salad enough for sixteen people. They were very skeptical and decided to have a conversation amongst themselves before they gave us an answer. I watched the mom make pasta pomodoro and pasta carbonara for us. We brought the pastas and salad home and washed it down with some delicious, very cheap Tuscan wines….
Pasta Pomodoro and Pasta Carbonara
For dinner we went to a neighboring town to a small restaurant that was willing to accommodate sixteen of us. We started off with delicious brushchetta pomodoro 
.
Tuscan Bean Soup
Had some delicious Tuscan bean soup, Zucchini Pasta, Fried Chicken and three different kinds of Panna Cotta- chocolate, caramel and mixed berries. The highlight was the brushchetta, fried chicken and the caramel panna cotta!! The local wine was delicious…
We all went home very happy, relaxed and filled with delicious food and wine!
Tuscany- Day One
So after a lot of planning and anticipating, my Italy trip is here! I am here early in Rome with my daughter waiting for the rest of the family (14 other people) for our first week together in Tuscany.
The trip started off not so auspiciously with a cancelled flight- it turned out for the best as the airline put us on a direct flight to Rome instead of the initial one with a layover in Lisbon. My daughter and I got in quite early and since our hotel room was not ready, we decided to venture into the city. Although we were quite tired, we managed to walk around for a few hours, eating gelato.
Before we got to the city, we ate a delicious snack of salami panini and cappuccino at the airport. My daughter had her first doughnut of the day (she had two altogether) – they were all delicious!! The problem of not sleeping on the plane is that one is completely exhausted! We picked up some pizza, salad and wine to go and headed back to the hotel room. The Sangiovese was delicious and so was the pizza! The highlight was the simple salad made out of some greens, radicchio, a salted ricotta salata, olives and tomatoes. Packets of Modena balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper accompanied the salad. I dressed the salad and began eating. As I bit into a cherry tomato, I was taken aback by the most delicious, juicy and sweet- the most amazing tomato I have ever had! This salad was not from a fancy restaurant… goes to show how ingredient driven this cuisine is…I love it!!
It took us all day but we made it to the villa in Tuscany. Why did it take all day, you ask? Well, long story, but it includes rental car delay and meeting a childhood friend at the car rental office after twenty years. We got their 10 o’clock at night and ended the day with some delicious wine and cheese.
Day Five: Lake Trasimeno and Cortona
Day five began with green figs, purple grapes from the outside of our apartment and some toasted rolls. Of course the coffee aroma was everywhere in the kitchen and it tasted delicious.
We drove for about an hour to get to Lake Trasimeno. It is surrounded by some very picturesque small towns. We stopped in one of them to get lunch/snack. We shared some paninis, Italian ice and gelato. I had the most amazing hazelnut and baci gelati. The baci had milk chocolate with bits of hazelnut- it was so delicious that I had to take a picture and share with everyone- believe me, the lake wasn’t so inviting. The water level seemed quite low, probably because of the heat and the water looked dirty.
From there we drove to Cortona. The town is of ‘Under The Tuscan Sun’ movie fame. Again, this town was very hilly and packed with winding, tiny roads. When we first walked into the town centre, we realized how touristy it was. Staying in Spello, we didn’t heard anyone speak anything but Italian. Here in Cortona all we heard was English and German. It was a very nice town with gorgeous views but we realized how lucky we were to stay in a town like Spello- a small, charming and untouched by outsiders.
We stopped at a winery on our way back to Spello. We had enjoyed a Sportoletti white wine for dinner a few times and wanted to do a tasting. They have 2 whites and 2 reds- they were all delicious. We also found out they export to New Jersey- well, guess what I will be doing when I get home?? They also produce an organic extra virgin olive oil. We may go back to buy some to take home. We bought 3 bottles of wine for dinner and headed back.
Dinner was going to be the leftovers from the big cooking class the day before. We made the panzanella salad again. Placed the lamb and the potatoes in the oven and cooked the fresh pasta Paula left in the freezer. It was all delicious.
Today, we will be visiting Montefulco famous for it’s winery! I can’t wait!