Tag Archives: Italy

Good Roma Food Coma

We knew Italy would have amazing food and we found tasty pasta, pizza and focaccia everywhere, everyday (often followed by a nap). Sometimes that’s practically all we’d eat all day.

Vegan options abound, with cheeseless “marinara pizza” and veggie focaccia as regular menu items. Yup, we were immersed in carbohydrate overload but too much of a good thing was, frankly, too much. Tim and I will probably be craving those foods again in a week or two, but for now we’re officially sick of dishes made with white flour!

To find other types of vegan food, I had to dig deeper, consulting Google restaurant reviews and the veg-friendly Happy Cow app. Those sources revealed humble hidden gems in suburban neighborhoods and fancy restaurants that had separate vegan menus. We treated ourselves to one fancy meal in each main city (prices were on par with high-end restaurants at home). The dishes were so creative and beautifully presented as well as palate-pleasing! Here’s a random selection of meals we enjoyed:

Fine dining in Florence
Stuffed zucchini blossom
Beets encased in phyllo with a mushroom sauce – incredible
Hearty earthy soup
Funky vegan burger chain called
Flower Burger

But the true food star of our Italian travels was a three night stay at I Pini (Italian for “the Pines”), a fully vegan villa in the Tuscan countryside. The property was walking distance to the cute town of San Gimignano (which Tim covered in an earlier post).

Too cool for the pool, but still a lovely setting
Walking through the vineyards; San G with its tower on the hill

The villa, known for its sustainable practices, has 11 rooms, multiple sitting areas, and a salt-water swimming pool. It is surrounded by its vineyards, olive groves and veggie gardens. Magnificent, vegetable-centric meals were included in the price and they were the highlight. Both breakfast and dinner were multi-course events, with dinner lasting up to two hours. We slowed our pace here after days of bustling activity, and the high-end farm stay was so relaxing. We had the chance to mingle with other guests from places as diverse as Salt Lake City, Denmark and Tel Aviv.

Dinner course 1 – carrot soup w miso mousse
Dinner course 2 – tangy eggplant salad
Dinner course 3 – mushroom risotto w tempura
Dinner course 4 – coconut pudding with fruit
Next day’s dinner – cauliflower soup
Next day’s main – veggie dumplings w fava bean sauce
Pizza night – one of 10 different offerings
Full of veggies and capers
Breakfast plate + porridge & yogurt. Savory pancake was amazing!
Quite possibly, this was the single best three days of food I’ve ever eaten – foodie Jenn

These dishes were simply incredible, at least as good as anything that I’ve ever enjoyed, even at top restaurants in the USA. I was actually a little disappointed that our final night was pizza night, baked in a wood-burning outdoor fire pit, because while it was delicious, it wasn’t as unusual or special.

Every dinner was enjoyed with wine pairings from the villa’s own vineyards.

This “orange” was one of the seven wines produced from I Pini’s grapes

Unfortunately, I need to let out my belt (again) because the gelato, something we treated ourselves to frequently, was irresistible. Standard gelato places had vegan fruity flavors, but only a few offered creamy and crave worthy vegan varieties made from nut-milks. I miss them already.

Salted Caramel and Almond Mocha from Grezzo in Rome

This wraps our postings about Italy as we are off to another food haven: the Middle East.

Under the Tuscan Sun

We are not traveling at a blistering, record-setting pace; this is by design. We are on the road for about two months, and know that we can’t maintain a rapid pace for that long. We’ve built in a few extra days to kick back a bit, including a couple in the small town of San Gimignano in Tuscany. We rented a car in Florence, and made the one hour drive out to the countryside to a small vegan agro-tourismo (think high-end farm-oriented B&B; details coming in another post). Jenn’s a champion navigator, btw!

Our little conveyance. Had to remember how to drive a stick.
San G. is visible on the horizon.

We chose to spend one of our days driving to the nearby town of Siena, home to arguably the world’s oldest still-open university (dating to 1240). The medieval town is known for its sizeable cathedral, and is stunningly situated atop a steep hill. We took a short walking tour, including visiting the enormous semi-circular square at the center of town, and peeked inside the cathedral at the incredible marble flooring and stained glass.

Siena’s symbol is a she-wolf
World Famous!

We had a mainly restful day as well, walking the gravel road from our B&B to San G. As it’s October, we’re lucky to have sunny, cool weather so the 3/4 mile wasn’t too bad, despite the hills. The terrain is hilly, and covered with agriculture.

Grape Harvest was in September

While in San G., we walked the narrow city lanes a bit, climbed its bell tower and enjoyed gelato from a well-known vendor, judged the world’s best for several years in the aughts. We’ll need to cover the food in its own separate post, but this place was really popular due to its unusual and creative flavors.

Weird fact: San G. has not one but two torture museums (Siena has at least one too) but we skipped them. We didn’t want to think of more evil ways people could destroy each other.

Loved our couple of restful days in the countryside, as we head back to the beaten path, and on to Rome.

Cinque Terre: Move Napa next to CA Rte 1, and add Miami’s color palette.

Cinque Terre (“Five Lands”), on the northwest coast, is a special part of Italy, and designated as a National Park. When we would tell our guides in Venice or Ferrara that we were heading here, they would gush: “Oh it’s so beautiful”; “Oh I so want to go- I’ve never been”; and so forth. Now we know why.

This chain of five villages (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso) between La Spezia to the south and Levanto to the north are all similar to each other, and a bit different. All are hamlets clinging to the steep slopes that rise 1,000 feet from the Mediterranean. All seem to have the same neighborhood association rules about allowable colors!

It was very easy to get there by train: Ferrara to Florence to La Spezia to Manarola. The train system in Italy is extensive, but not expensive. The route from La Spezia runs right along the coast.

Manarola station
Corniglia station
Jenn trying out her new Italian SIM card

We spent the next three days exploring, walking and hiking, grateful to be in nature. Traveling on foot between the villages, one can go via the coast or up and over the hillside ridges that separate the communities, so there were a few options.

Day 1: we took a short (~15 min) train ride three towns north to Monterosso, and then hiked along the lower path (which still had a lot of elevation gain / loss) toward Corniglia. Monterosso looked lovely, and had a proper beach. The views were stunning as we wound our way south along the hilly, rocky coastal trail.

We had a quick stop for food in Vernazza, and then carried on to Corniglia, where we caught the train back home.

Vernazza
Corniglia station

Day 2: For next segment of the trail, we were forced to take the high road as the coastal path had collapsed into the sea. That first mile from Manarola to Corniglia was rough with an hour of climbing stairs amid ancient vineyards and gorgeous terraced gardens.

Looking back on our starting point, off in the distance
There’s a church everywhere!

Eventually the trail flattened and we had frequent views of the Mediterranean.

Up from Manarola
Amongst the vineyards
Down to Corniglia

Day 3: we moved to a different town, Vernazza, and explored all the side spurs and view points.

We definitely enjoyed all towns, which are just so picturesque, any time of day.

Vernazza harbor
Above Vernazza
Inland of Manarola
Manarola at dusk

All in, we walked and hiked 18 miles over three days, with an elevation gain of 5000 feet — equivalent to about 500 flights of stairs, and we have sore knees to prove it.

We were surprised by how warm and humid the days felt even in mid October, and wouldn’t advise coming here in the summer when it would be even worse. Likewise, the trails were crowded even at this time of year.

Also, compared to Venice, Americans were very over-represented. We heard some English in Venice, but also a lot of French and Spanish. In Cinque Terre, American English was the dominant foreign tongue. My Cardinals shirt got a few comments, including an older man from Edmonton, whose father listened to KMOX in the ’30s as a child; and a couple who just moved to Belleville, IL.

It was not an American who took this, but he was very nice to do so!

We’re halfway through our Italy trip (three of six locations down). Next stop: Florence!

Venice. Not the one in California- the other one.

I took the train from Naples northeast to Venice. Because I’m an idiot, I didn’t know that Venice is actually built on top of a series of islands (I thought it was more like New Orleans, built on the coast. Read a map much?). Luckily I’m joining the better prepared half of the team, as Jenn was waiting for me at our rental flat.

Canals– What I don’t know about Venice would fill volumes, but I knew about the canals. Or at least I thought I did. Turns out there are a bazillion of them running through the city and our rental apartment even looked onto a canal! Many narrow lanes dead-ended onto water. Nearly everyone was trying to navigate by smartphone maps, which were amazingly useful.

Cobblestones– What isn’t water is almost completely cobblestones. We did see a few patches of grass, and perhaps 15-20 trees, in the main center of town during all our walks (I saw more in the east side of the city, but still).

A square with a few trees
Most streets looked like this
Our walking guide Simona was terrific

Cafes- The city’s residential population is down below 50,000, which is a reflection of how hard and how expensive it is to live there. It’s becoming almost completely a tourist attraction. It was difficult to find a grocery store (they exist, but we had to search a bit), but cafes are omnipresent.

Cafe at Piazza de San Marco
We splurged one night for dinner

Tourism/Shopping– As it’s more a tourist town than a place people live, much of the shopping seemed geared to tourists as well.

Holy Cannolis!
Learn where to look grandpa! Distracted at the TIM store.

Photogenic- All that said, I can’t imagine a place that is more photogenic than Venice. It seemed like every turn brought me to something worth taking a picture of. It. Was. Nuts. It helped that we had good light in October, but man is this city pretty.

This is the view from the train station. WOT!!!

Sights– Venice has its share of sights as well. We barely scratched the surface, but took an early-bird tour of the Doge’s Palace, and were mesmerized by its opulence. The city was incredibly wealthy, for a very long time.

The detail was incredible

The church of San Marco (undergoing serious renovations, like a lot of Venice) was also spectacular.

Even some of the everyday stuff was fun, too.

He was pretty good.
Not a distorted view- huge doors.

Other Islands– I took a day trip to see a few other neighboring islands, Murano, Torcello and Burano. I could have skipped Torcello, but I could have spent more time in Murano (for its glass) and Burano (for its color and food).

Glass maestro
Colorful Burano

In sum, Venice is a special place. It’s beautiful, a lovely escape from the real world. I took no fewer than 450 pictures in our three full days there. I wonder how long it will remain so- our tour guide, when asked about the long term plan to keep the city above water, said “You know this is Italy, right? We don’t do long term plans.” I’m very, very glad I came.

Next, we boat and train to the modestly-sized city (250,000) of Ferrara, in between Venice and Bologna. Ferrara is a recommendation from my college friend, Bob D, even though he’s never been there himself! We’ll see!