Friday 23 August 2013

The Food, The Drink, The Gelato






**Warning, if you are hungry, look away now.**

The Food

As you can imagine the food in Italy was great. Real authentic, delicious food everywhere we went. Some restaurants were better than others and some cities better than others. The group I was with had done a bit of research into the specialties of each city and were determined to try them out. 

Smoked salmon
Fish soup





In Venice we hit the fish market the first night and ordered seafood everywhere we went. It was fresh and รจ delizioso.


tuna salad
Florence was all about the Ribollita and Pappa al Pomodoro (Tuscan bread soup) and the Florentine steak (Bistecca alla fiorentina).

Ribollita
Ravioli 


Our new friends that recommended the Torre Guelfa also recommended a great sandwich shop called 'Ino which just happened to be near our apartment. The sandwiches are made to order on artisan bread with fresh ingredients. Although we didn't have time on our visit the shop offers a tasting of wines and cheeses, which we would have liked to have done.



Every where we went, I couldn't get enough of the caprese insalata. The best one I had was in Florence, but no matter where I was, it was refreshing to have in the 30 degree heat.

Caprese Salad
Gnocchi 

























I know the guide books say it all the time, but it's true. Going off the beaten track to find a restaurant is your best bet. Doing this, we found some charming restaurants frequented by locals and that weren't as pricey. 


The Drink

 Although we drank Prosecco in Venice and made our way through several wine and cheese plates in Florence, we noticed a lot of people before dinner were drinking these reddish coloured drinks that came with snacks! We asked the waiter what it was and figured, 'when in Rome...'

Cheersing our Prosecco



The Spritz is an aperitif which originated in Venice but found all over Northern Italy. I just liked that it came with snacks to tide you over before your 3 course supper at 9pm.


wine for the train journey to Florence


Having wine and cheese has always been my idea of what adults did when I was a kid. But now I get it. It's delicious! There were 2 very charming wine bars on our street that we were so excited to try out, although both were fully booked for dinner, we were able to perch ourselves at small tables and enjoy some tasty wine and beautiful cheeses of the region.




One day we stopped in our local grocer and discovered he had REALLY cheap wine in vats. For 2 euro we got half a liter of red wine and half a liter of white. Since we were nearing the end of our journey some of the wine made it back to England with us and we reminisced 
about our trip while enjoying one last glass.


If I've said it once, I've said it two times now, I enjoy my cocktails to come with food and these fresh fruit cocktails were right up my strasse. I have yet to actually eat any watermelon this summer, but I've drunk it's scrumptious juices a lot.


The Gelato 

You can't go to Italy and not have a gelato. Every day. It's a fact. Go ahead, try not to.




We started off with one in Venice (which I forgot to take photographic evidence of...did it really happen?) and it was good, but not great. Then we went to Florence were it got better and I tried a new flavour; coconut, so good! The best Gelateria is at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio across the river, you can't miss it!



Then we visited the Gelateria Giolitti in Rome, recommended to me by an Italian co-worker and it was a game changer. 
BEST. EVER.

I'd go back to Rome, just for this. No lie.





Fun travels!




All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in anyway at the various restaurants we visited in Italy.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this wonderful article about Gelato its looking very yummy and hoping to post more of this, so i'll put it on my bookmark list of http://www.gsgelato.com .

    ReplyDelete
  2. MY favourite in Italy was coconut too, from a vendor next to the canal in Venice. The gelato in Florence was good, but very expensive we found.
    http://howsoonisnow-tcg.blogspot.co.uk/

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