Extra Italy Stuff
Every time I go to Italia, I learn more rules. If you’re gonna go – and I naturally recommend you do – keep some things in mind…
Rule #1: Bring a Swim Suit
After the long flight I find it important to rest and recharge on the first day in Italia. Especially in the south the weather is often still warm enough for swimming. Last October we swam every day in Sicilia.
Rule #2: Revel in the Local Food
Immerse yourself in the food where you are. The 20 regions of Italia boast very different food. When in Sicilia we eat a lot of fish. When in Bologna we eat a lot of salumi and stuffed fresh pasta. Venture beyond the easy tourist spots and challenge yourself. It will pay off.
Rule #3: Talk with the Locals
I am not fluent in Italian but I always try to develop a relationship with food people. Pick a local caffe and become a regular. Shop in the local mercato and get to know your vendors. Use the same shops and stalls every day to deepen your brief relations. You will expand your understanding of their culinary ingredients and preparations. Listen when folks talk about their culture, and do all you can to experience it for yourself.
Rule #4: Beware of Posted Signs
A good highway map is essential when driving in Italia. I’ve learned not to depend on signs, they are often confusing or wrong. Check out your route on your map. Ask for directions. Be aware. We often can see the duomo from a good distance and use that as a beacon to guide us to the center of the town. Don’t give up and you’ll reach your destination. If you’re off course, go with the flow and you’ll discover amazing things.
Rule #5: Prepare to Lose Weight
I eat everything and I eat a lot, yet I always return home hitching my belt one more notch! If you don’t have mobility issues, plan your day so that you get in a lot of walking and stair climbing as you tour. It’s an easier routine in a town or city but it’s harder if you do a lot of driving. I try to ensure at least as much time on foot as in the car.
After espresso on the terrace we swam every morning here in Balestrate. A perfect starting place to unwind at the start of 3 weeks in Italia that started in Sicily, wound through Emilia-Romagna and ended in Venice. Balestrate was our base to explore the Tyrrhenian and northeastern Mediterranean coast.
We conjured up menus for our home-cooked meal during our tourist adventures each day and picked up all the ingredients on our way home. Enjoy living as your neighbors do. Shop for food daily, fresh and local is available everywhere. Here are some pictures that remind me of this culinary trip. As one of my friend’s often says “It’s all about the food.”
Sicilia
From this beach you can see Tunisia. We missed the couscous festival this year. A marvelous swimming beach, sand that feels like talcum powder and great outdoor seafood restaurants.
In Castellammare we fell into a small outdoor osteria with no menu. Actually the young woman who owned the place and did the cooking alone was our menu. After her recitation of the food she had prepared, she became our Signora il Menu. The meal was superb!
Palermo is a big, beautiful, and bustling city. It’s exciting in a NYC way. Luckily, we had our beach to help us unwind afterwards.
Segesta with its Greek Doric temple and an amphitheater dating to 3 BC sits on the slopes of a mountain overlooking the wide valley.
Damn flies! We ate a lot of fish in Sicily. One night swordfish and tuna on the grill with EVOO, lemon and oregano. Another day fritti misti, shrimp, calamari and sole floured and fried with sea salt and lemon and sauteed peperoncini scattered on top.
Took a while to find this spot on the coast between Trapani and Marsala. The salt pans were fascinating. The windmills are used to grind the salt in those big mounds. This is the Sicilian sea salt that I use for its trace-elements created by the unique blend of water, sun and wind here.
We had the top two floors with an al fresco dining area and a roof top terrazzo with views of the Ionian Sea. As we were moving in the elderly women who lived in the apartment below asked that we not be too noisy. We explored Ortigia, a small island off Siracusa and used this as our base to visit Noto, Ragusa in the hillsides, and other adjacent towns on the Ionian coast.
The Teatro dei Pupi (puppet theater) was just around the corner. We caught a traditional Roger II legend about his liberation of Sicily from Moorish control. These stories are very old and a part of a Sicilian’s soul.
The hillside towns in southeastern Sicily are a must. Noto is known for its street “painting” festival using only flower petals to create the images.
A wrong turn added 2 hours to our 30-minute return trip to Ortigia one day. We were pissed but we got to go over the mountain and saw incredible scenery and an eerie line of huge wind turbines.
Bologna, Emilia-Romagna
Our barista at the caffe down the street from our central Bologna apartment always drew a picture on top of your cappuccino no matter how crowded the caffe. We frequented the same two caffees near our apartment, one in the morning because they baked everything themselves and if we were spending the day in Bologna, the same one in the afternoon (the one where you get a drawing on top) when we were only looking for a caffeine boost.
Bologna La Grassa, the Fat because of the incredible food and local products. Bologna La Rossa, the Red for its politics. Bologna La Dotta, the Learned One for its university. A truly heady mix.
Bologna is a great central location to tour Emilia-Romagna. Some say that this province is the culinary heart of Italia. Prosciutto di Parma, parmigiano reggiano from Parma and Reggio Emilia, balsamic vinegar from Modena and marvelous pasta. Try to cook in the style of where you are using their local product stars. Be inspired by what you eat out and talk with merchants in the market. They’ll help you get what you need to cook a great local dish.
Our apartment was on the piano nobile (the grandest floor where the owners lived) of an old palazzo and filled with Nonna’s ’30s furniture and antiques. We enjoyed some great meals together. The homemade tortelloni in a capon brodo that we ate on an old walnut table in the dining room rivaled our best meal in Bologna.
We ate in many restaurants and then replicated some of the dishes in our kitchen, picking up the ingredients on our way home after a full day of tourist adventure.
I promised I’d send the picture. I did about 9 months later. When I asked for something not on display she called to her husband who would bring it up from the basement.
All the walking and climbing usually means that I will lose weight in Italia. Two of us were brave enough to pay 2 euro and climb the 403 gnarled wooden steps to the top of the tower. We stopped to chat with those descending on the narrow landings. Our question was always is it worth it?
The climb is exhausting but the 360 degree views are spectacular.
Mortadella, salumi, prosciutto di parma, cheeses galore. Around the corner from our apartment folks gathered after work at an enoteca (wine bar) where they stood while snacking on salumi and cheeses and sampled local wines. Eataly/NYC offers the same sampling experience. This salumeria dining environment seems to be sweeping Manhattan at present. Another just opened on E. 72nd St., Salumeria Rosi.
So it’s about 4 in the afternoon. We’ve been touring all day. “Sono stanco” one of the group would say. “I’m tired” was our code that at least one of us needed a caffeine boost. Settle into a caffe for a macchiato and a piece of your favorite sweet. In 30 minutes we’re amply fueled to finish our shopping and make our way home to think about dinner. Take time to savor each opportunity.
Beautiful Ravenna is on the Adriatic south of Venice and has world-class mosaics everywhere. There’s a great indoor mercato where the butcher told us that we couldn’t buy chicken for our brodo we must have an old capon. He was right.
Fresh pasta shops dot the central market. The stuffed pastas are incredible. The day of the brodo, my friends decided on the pasta. In typical fashion, the clerk carefully wrapped our pasta like una regalla, a gift. I told her what I was making and in Italian she scolded me. No you can’t have this pasta for a brodo. This is quick cooked for a simple sauce. Take a stuffed pasta take i tortelloni. She was right.
We drove from the flat plains of Emilia-Romagna slowly climbing the Dolomite foothills following the Brenta River until we reached Asolo high atop a hill. The feel of this place is totally different than what we experienced during our first two weeks. There is a stronger influence of northern and eastern European cultures here. It is an absolutely beautiful spot and there was a medieval festival in full swing.
We burned our fingers eating a bag of hot roasted chestnuts on our walk back to the car.
Venezia
We drove to Venice and dropped off the car. We went by vaporetto to our apartment in Sestiere Castello. (Venice is divided into 6 sections, sestiere.) This is still a blue collar neighborhood and I loved to be in the middle of it all. Venice can be tough to navigate. Up and over all those little bridges can tire you quickly. But I love La Serenissima, the Serene One, decaying and mysterious.
We were close enough to Piazza San Marco and the vaporetto stop to make our Castello apartment a convenient yet out of the way location. The vinerio was 2 blocks away. Bring your empty liter bottle and walk out with great local barrel wines for about 3 euro. I was always out early and found a great caffe that baked their own cornetti, brioche and other breakfast treats. The Biennale, the bi-annual international art show was in full swing. This would be my third. Aqua alta, high water that sometimes covers the marble floors of Duomo San Marco, is caused by the winds and lagoon tides not downpours. You traverse on raised boardwalks that are set up temporarily until the water subsides and hope you won’t fall off.
We dined at a friend’s new osteria in Sestiere Dorsoduro, the hip area behind L’Accademia. Venetian friends invited us to dinner at their beautiful apartment in an old palazzo down a maze of ancient alleys near the university. San Francisco friends recently bought an apartment in the Giudecca across a wide canal from the backside of Dorsodoro and we went to see it. After a wonderful dinner with them I walked outside to the grassy lawn along the canal and was hit with a spectacular misty view of San Marco as gondolas drifted before me their lights bobbing. My eyes misted up too it was so beautiful and peaceful. Might have been the grappa.
Ayyyy! It’s hard to get around. The boats bring everything to you.
I love this market. I pass it on the way back from the Jewish Ghetto that I always visit at least once. Cannarregio is a great section to amble. Less crowded broad canals great churches and architecture.
I had been searching for vongole verace for days stopping in at our neighborhood fish market daily. Not today the fish monger would say before I could utter a word. Then on our last day in Venice my ship came in. The fishmonger had set aside a net bag full of vongole for me. It was more than I needed but I had to buy it all. Three of us ate a kilo of these sweet clams the size of your thumbnail over linguine with EVOO, garlic and crushed red pepper. I thought I was going to die. Just needed a walk and a caffe.
Until the next time sweet Italia. Interested in joining Gianni’s next adventure in Italia?
