Tag: spello
Day Eight- Part Spello and Part Rome
Day eight was our last in Spello. The day before I was busy shopping for things to take home. While I was at the local supermarket, I found these cookie like confections. We had tried them earlier through the week and I wanted to eat them one last time before we left. I bought them for breakfast on our last day.
I woke up the next day and got ready and did some last minute packing. I was sad to leave Spello but very excited to be in Rome and ultimately home. No matter where we go I am always very happy to be home. Nothing like your own familiar surroundings and your own bed!
I came down to the kitchen and started breakfast. I made coffee in the similar contraption as what I have at home. This was the first time I didn’t travel with mine. I remember walking into the kitchen the first time in the Spello apartment and smiling as I saw the coffee maker.
I had my coffee and the delicious cookie like cakes covered with sugar and stuffed with a chocolate marzipan filling. They look like mini doughnuts but taste a lot better. I wanted to pack some and take home but I settled on two for breakfast.
After breakfast we headed to Rome. It took us a while to drop our luggage off to the hotel and then return our car. As we drove into Rome, I realized it had been almost 10 years since I had been to this lovely old city. It made me nostalgic as I looked around- it reminded me of Delhi.
We finally got everything done and took a bus to the old part of Rome across the Tiber- Trastevere. It is a section that is a mix between Soho and old Barcelona. It has small cobblestone streets full of restaurants and funky, upscale shops. We walked around and settled on a Trattoria with seating outside. Dinner consisted of lasagna, pasta primavera which was unlike the one we get in the US. This was mostly tomato sauce and pasta, topped with fresh arugula and chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese. It was delicious! I had a rigatoni with sausage in a cheese and cream sauce- very yummy!
After dinner we walked some more and took a bus to the colosseum. What a beautiful structure- especially at night.
It was a very brief stay in Rome- I am glad we did it. It reminded me how I really enjoyed visiting this city last time and how I would like to come back very soon.
Day Seven- Without Big Plans….
Day seven began a little different. We decided to go out for breakfast instead of eating in. We went to a local cafe- Tullia. I think we were looking forward to something savory with our tea and cappuccino but we soon found out they only served sweet pastries and croissants. I settled on marmalade croissant and a cappuccino. The croissant was okay but the cappuccino was out of this world.
We then walked around Spello some more and went back to another cafe with great views of the town. There we shared sandwiches and pizza and some white wine.
The plan was to go to Gubbio and possibily Orvieto. Both towns seemed very interesting and lovely from the descriptions. We took small roads there instead of the highway- beautiful hills and valleys. We drove into the outskirts of Gubbio and saw as usualy, no one was there- we always end up visiting these towns between 2 PM and 4 PM- siesta time. Anyway, we walked around a bit and decided to go back.
I wanted to go back to Spello and buy things to take home. I bought white and black truffle paste, honey, pecorino and parmesan cheese and a blasamic glaze. 
We also bought 3 wines from the Sportoletti winery and a bottle of organic extra virgin olive oil.
I am so excited to come home and try some recipes and use these ingredients.
Laziness was the word of the day. We headed back and shared a bottle of white wine and anticipated dinner. The winery owner had recommended a restaurant in another town. We found the place after a lot of driving and searching. We were very excited and hopeful of the food but were quite disappointed. I think this was our first mediocre meal in Italy. We had ravioli, gnocchi and a few meats. It was nothing special at all. We were quite disappointed since all our other meals had been above average.
We drove back determined to make the next day- our last day- a good one. We leave for Rome this morning and stay the night before we head home to Maplewood. I will report on our Rome adventures tomorrow- stay tuned!
Day Four:Cooking Class in Umbria
Paula showed up at Cafe Tullia (a neighborhood joint) about half an hour late. Part of me was expecting her at Italian Standard Time (which means, she took her time to get to me) and I was right.
Paula cooks for a fancy catering place and had agreed to teach me a few local Umbrian dishes. We were going to shop for ingredients and then come back to the apartment to cook dinner. It was all very exciting but there was just one problem- Paula didn’t speak a word of English and I am not conversant in Italian. “How bad could it be, I thought”.
She took me to 5 different stores to shop for two kinds of pasta, salad, a meat dish and dessert. It was great to be able to accompany a local person and watch how things happen in a different country. Everyone had a smile on their faces and were in absolutely no hurry to get anywhere. Living in the Eastcoast, I am so used to rushing everywhere- this was a pleasant change. We went to two different grocery stores to buy flour, vegetables, etc. She also took me to a special cheese shop to buy the milk, cream, mascarpone cheese and parmesan cheese. We then stopped at a huge meat store to purchase a huge leg of lamb. The whole time she was talking to me in Italian and I was nodding pretending to understand her- I probably understood 50% of what she said to me. It was quite an experience for me- she seemed like a very sweet lady who works extremely hard to make a living.
We came home with all the ingredients a few hours later and deposited everything in the fridge. Paula was to come back at 4:30 PM to start cooking. She walked in with her husband carrying a few bags of equipment including her pasta maker. She also brought us a huge tray of green figs from her garden- they were delicious!
We started cooking around 5 and didn’t begin eating till about 9 or 9:30.
We feasted on panzenella salad, tortellini stuffed with a combination of chicken, pork and veal- it was served in a vegetable broth. A tomato pasta came after that topped with parmesan cheese. The last course was the huge tray of the most aromatic lamb and roast potatoes. It was the most delicious lamb preparation I had ever had!
While we were eating, Paula made extra tortellini and pasta for us to eat the next day. We cleaned up, thanked her and proceeded to the garden to enjoy our dessert!
It was a wonderful day full of learning new techniques and enjoying some great local foods. I will give more details on the recipes in the coming weeks including lots of pictures. Stay tuned.
A Visit To Assisi
The second day started kind of late. We assembled out in the garden with a big tray of toasted bread, cheese, jam and of course- coffee. This is the first place in a long time where I have not brought my own coffee contraption- they have it in the apartment, three of them. They also have the yummiest ground coffee. The breakfast was very enjoyable and we lingered for a while.
We then strolled around Spello and landed at a Gelateria for a snack. We had delicious hazelnut and coffee gelato and a few paninis (fish, proscuitto and eggs) and of course a cappucinno- I have to have at least one if not two everyday.
It was quite hot and we decided to get in the car and drive around. We ended up in Assisi– another small old town. It was nice to walk around and have gelato again- it really is all about the food. We also bought delicious marzipan and pistachio cookies- yum!
Dinner was back in Spello at a tiny wine bar. We started with fabulous glasses of red and white wine. We were served a platter of brushchetta- very different than what we know in the US- the toasted pieces of bread had a smear of the different pastes. These were 5 or 6 different kinds- two were doused with different olive oils. The rest were with black truffles, white truffles, sundried tomatoes and my favorite- arugula and capers. It was like a pesto- I asked the lady for thean ingredients and she told me arugula, almonds and capers- I will make this when I get home- it was delicious!
Dinner continued with a plate of ham and salami and a platter of 5 different kinds of pecorino cheese served with honey. I had no idea there were so many different kinds! Well, needless to say- we all had a wonderful time sitting outside in the late evening enjoying the local food and wine and listening to our neighbors speak Italian.
Today – it is Perugia- famous for it’s chocolates. Will report back tomorrow, as, right now I need to go in the kitchen and make my fabulous coffee. Ciao!
Arrived In Spello!
I am up at 8 AM local time- that makes it about 2 AM New Jersey time! I can hear a dog barking and an elderly gentlemen watering the plants outside. Speaking of plants, this little town is full of flowers and planters everywhere. It is gorgeous- a tiny medieval town named Spello. It has tiny, curved, cobblestoned streets.
We drove about 2 hours from Rome airport yesterday morning to get to this charming Umbrian town. It was very difficult to find our destination even with the gps- but eventually we got there.
We are staying in an old buiding that is divided into small apartments. Ours, has a great view of the hills.
We walked around in the evening, completely jet lagged, as no one had slept on the flight over- not even my daughter, Sia. We stopped at a gelato place and satisfied our cravings. We saw many small charming restaurants but at the end decided to do a picnic in our garden instead. We went to a tiny store and bought proscuitto, wild boar salami and a sheep milk cheese. The shopkeeper had some fresh olives marinated in a spicy mixture- delicious! We had red wine in the apartment and all we needed was some bread.
We sat in the garden and ate the yummy cold cuts and drank the delicious wine just in time to enjoy the beautiful sunset- can life get any better than that??
The charming garden is full of rosemary, sage, basil. It also has lots of fruit trees including grapes. We enjoyed lovely green grapes after dinner. When we came inside, while cleaning up, I discovered a jar of homemade apricot jam from the garden- I will be experimenting it for breakfast this morning!
Off To Umbria Next Week
I have been planning our trip to Umbria for 6 months now- it’s coming up- we leave on Friday, August 28th. It took me a while to convince my husband to go back to Italy. He wanted to go somewhere new- but I feel a special connection to Italy. Not sure if it’s the food, wine or the good looking, well dressed people. Oh- yes the gelato helps as well- and the cappuccino- the best I have ever had! We were there almost ten years ago- and I have been wanting to go back for ever. Now that it is almost here, I am excited and sad at the same time. I love booking a vacation months in advance so I can think and anticipate the trip-that is my favorite part. The trip itself goes so fast and the anticipation is much sweeter.
I am very excited about learning how to cook a few local umbrian dishes from an Italian woman who does not speak any English- and I don’t speak any Italian- this should be very interesting. We will go to the market to buy the ingredients and then come back to the apartment and cook a complete dinner. Did I mention we will be staying in an apartment in a small medieval town, Spello. Spello has tiny cobblestone streets and is known for it’s olive oil, truffles and pottery- I am in heaven!
My plan is to blog from Spello documenting my eating and drinking adventures- I will not be emailing my usual recipes next week. I am looking forward to learning lots of new techniques and recipes to share with all of you while I am there and once I get back.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!