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Published: September 7th 2011
Italians most definitely know how to live a sweet life. How is it that the entire city of Rome takes off all of August? Or that even major supermarkets shut down for a 2 hour siesta every afternoon? In my opinion, one of the main reasons is food, of course! The god of wine,
Bacchus presides over tables where
vino rosso flows aplenty and multicourse meals linger on for hours. One of tour guides informed us that back in the day, Romans used to start dinner at 2 pm, and would stuff themselves silly with over 20 courses. Decadent. While it isn’t the same as those ancient times, Italians still know how to enjoy food, which I think translates into a love for life.
La Dolce Vita. I can learn from this.
Many people cannot truly start their day without an obligatory cup of Starbucks coffee. But I must admit that I have never been a fan of their coffees (yes, gasp…), and instead, would much rather pay extra and get a delicious, creamy Phil and Sebi’s coffee. A well worth it treat. But in Italy, one does not need to search very far for a wonderful coffee. Every single
place makes lovely, creamy cappuccino. Yes, even the gas stations and corner stores! All have been great. And for only 1 Euro. This has made me question my long-held belief that making a good coffee requires skill. Sidd, for example, has a tendency to make cappuccino that tastes like diesel. But now I am not so convinced that it has not so much to do with skill as it has to do with a good grinder, good quality coffee and an expensive machine. It was hard not to be hooked on cappuccino when a good one was so readily available! Espresso, however, was a more acquired taste. While I do love the taste of coffee, my first taste of espresso in Rome made my face contort into a copy of Asha’s “bad face”. Bitter! But I soon grew used to it and made it a routine to have a cappuccino in the morning and an espresso in the afternoon. Also, on a side-note, I have to brag that I was able to find a café in Rome that makes supposedly the best espresso. It has even been written up in the New York Times! Sidd, although he teases me relentlessly
Award-winning gelato
Supposedly the "best" gelato but to be honest, all of it is good!about my sense of direction, was unable to find it. I, however, used my keen map-reading abilities and quickly found the place. And after fighting through the crush of local Romans to reach the counter and order
due espressos, I must agree that it was definitely the best I have tasted.
Italians love their gelato. Similar to the number of Starbucks on every corner in Seattle, there is a gelato store on every block. In fact, in the 500 m radius of our Rome apartment, I counted at least three! However, more disconcerting was the sight of many tourists chowing down on gelato at 9 am. Now, I can understand a gelato break at 10:30am, but 9am? Regardless, I did share the passion for gelato as it was a burning 30C and I needed to cool down. That, and gelato was plentiful, cheap and varied. I couldn’t always find my new favorite cookie called pinolatte (an almond cookie covered in pine nuts) but I could always find creamy gelato goodness. And in interesting flavours such as rice, saffron, chestnut and fig. However, despite licking my way through numerous flavours, my favorite still remains nocciola, otherwise known as hazelnut. Can’t
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
Described on the menu as "big, boody steak". beat it!
When we arrived in Florence, our checklist of things to do was comprised of: (1) Uffizi gallery; (2) visit Accademia museum to see Michaelangelo’s David; and (3) eat a Florentine steak. While I must confess that we almost gave up our reservations to the Uffizi (gasp!), never did #3 waver off our list. Being from Alberta, we all consider ourselves somewhat connoisseurs of good beef. But I can honestly say that I have never had such a good steak as the Florentine steak. We were a little apprehensive when we ordered it, as it is sold by the kilo and our waiter, after giving us the once over, warned us that the steak was “big”. After trying to communicate in broken English and Italian (always a good time), he finally wrote on our tablecloth that the smallest steak was 1.2kg. We hesitated for only a fraction of a second before confirming our order. Then for the 30 minutes it took for our steak to come out, we discussed what to do with the leftovers as we were fairly certain there would be an abundance of steak to take home. Adding to this was the story from our
Tartufo Tartufo Tartufo...
Truffled grilled cheese and truffled scrambled eggs. Heaven. German neighbours at our farm-stay that the night before in the same restaurant, they had watched two young, fit Italian machismos sweat their way through a
bistecca alla fiorentina. But all this conjecture about leftovers was meaningless as we descended like vultures on the perfectly cooked medium-rare steak and quickly left it a bloody, mangled carcass. As I was gnawing on the bone, I realized just how truly far I have come since meeting Sidd – I was a vegetarian but am now a confirmed carnivore. Yum. And, as another side note, museum and art-lovers do not fear, we did spend the money to see Botticelli’s
Birth of Venus and
Allegory of Spring. They were wonderful.
Time to play the Guessing Game – here are your hints:
• Pigs and dogs hunt for these delicacies.
• The best hunting time is at moonlight, when it is said that the perfume is the strongest.
• There are two types, black and white.
• They are highly prized, garnering exorbitant prices.
• One cannot find them in Calgary.
Have you guessed yet? Yup, that’s right, I’m talking truffles, known as
tartufo in Italian. A very fragrant,
Developing her sense of smell
... but really wanting to taste it... expensive fungus. And oh so delicious. I’m not precisely sure where I picked up my obsession with truffles but it became extreme here in Italy. I have been on the search for anything
tartufo, from pizza, cheese, pasta, oil, balsamic vinegar, pate and salt. Anything and everything can be truffled! I reached the pinnacle of truffle-heaven when each of our courses in a meal had a tartufo component. Bliss. And better yet, I will now be able find them in Calgary… in my pantry!
How is it possible that wine is cheaper than water in Italy? And how is also possible that Italians are able to drink wine at any time of the day, in copious quantities? Could it be the heat that burns off the alcohol? Or that there is no need to pay for water when there are so many free fresh-water fountains around? I was curious. And, let’s be honest, Sidd and I love wine and seem to make it a habit to go wine tasting on each of our vacations. So after spending two full days visiting medieval towns and old churches in Tuscany (there’s only so much cobble-stone walking one can do before it
The Italian Flag
Our deliciuos snack by the pool all looks the same), we set our sights on Chianti country. We didn’t know much about Chianti before arriving in Tuscany, but after visiting 5 wineries, we learnt that it is much lighter than the big Aussie reds and generally has a lower alcohol content. Which in turns makes it much easier to drink… at any time of the day! Aha!
But I must admit that neither Sidd nor I were Chianti-lovers. So we consulted our guide book and decided to visit the area around the city of Montalcino, known for
Brunello di Montalcino, a wine made from the same grape as Chianti, but completely different. And more to our liking. We happily swished, swirled and slurped or way through lots of lovely red wine, and even got Asha involved in the process. No, we didn’t let her drink any wine, but we did stick her nose in the glass to let her smell the wine. One must try to develop all of her senses, and it’s never too early to develop a taste for wine, right? I think she quite liked it as she would always stick her tongue out and try to drink from the glass! Although
she didn’t get to taste any wine, we did buy some for her to drink when she is of legal-drinking in age. We’re bringing back some bottles that will only get better in 20 years, and while she probably won’t appreciate it, we’re looking forward to uncorking it! One of the bottles is from an interesting winery we stumbled upon (no, not literally) where they are conducting an experiment with music by Mozart. Yes, the vines are serenaded by a selection of Mozart symphonies, concertos and chamber music. I’m not sure it was the music, but the wine was great!
After all this talk of food, you must be wondering if we did anything but eat in Italy! Fortunately or unfortunately, most of the calories we consumed were burnt off in our quest for good food. A combination of lots of restaurant closures because it was August, a poor sense of direction (Sidd!) and bad maps in the guide books (then losing the map) forced us to walk for miles to find a good meal. But it was worth it…I have tasted of the sweet life.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Oh my!