Roma: Purple Shoes, Purple Cars and a Dessert Gone Wrong

Upon arriving in Rome, you can instantly see the differences between Rome and the other main metropolitan cities in Italy. For starters, Rome has a significantly more diverse population. Now that I have been in Italy for about two months, I've had the opportunity to talk to many different people from different regions and there is a special pride that the Romans have. Their meeting points and everyday life is intertwined with an ancient history that is perhaps one of the most magnificent in the world. Romans are proud people. They are open minded, friendly and happy to share that they are from Rome....maybe this is how many New Yorkers feel about New York. I found it wonderful to be in Rome. Strolling the different neighborhoods and getting lost, multiple times, in the cobblestone streets. There is more history and art in Rome than I knew what to do with so I just explored  by foot and took in as much as possible. Above is a photo of Julietta and I in the people's plaza.  Below is a picture of us at the Trevi Fountain. It was beautiful, romantic, and terribly crowded with tourists taking the same exact picture.

While browsing the streets, Julietta found these amazing leather purple shoes that deserve a picture on this blog. While they have nothing to do with food, they are very cute and could be a wonderful cake topper.

Then we came across this matching purple truck which we unfortunatley could not pack up and ship home.

On our last night in Rome we went to a restaurant near the Trevi Fountain and I had the best seafood linguine yet which was followed by the worst dessert yet. Our waiter was excited to have us at his restaurant and so he had the chef bring out a nicely decorated plate with their house dessert specialty. I rarely meet a dessert I don't like. While we definitely appreciated the thought, this was so bad that we had to sneak it into a napkin and into my purse to throw away later - we didn't want to offend the waiter or chef! So I had to squish this thing in a wetwipe in my purse and then toss before getting gelato. Here is the dessert before we tried it:

Florence: Fantastic Risotto and a Psycho Dinner Party

After an all night long dancing and drama event at a disco in Milan we took a morning train to Florence: the land of baby-lamb skin leather jackets and cute cobblestone streets. Yes, I bought a black baby lamb skin leather jacket for those nights when I have to meet up with James Bond and go to the casinos. Julietta knew of adelicious restaurant in Florence called the Golden View Open Bar and it overlooks the Ponte Vecchio. It is a goregous restaurant perched along the river and it has exquisite food. What stood out most from our meal there was the vegetarian risotto. The carrots and zucchini were lightly cooked so that you could still recognize them and the flavors were rich and healthy. This was definitely my favorite meal in Florence. Here is a picture!

Another night we went took a train outside of Florence to have dinner at the home of someone we met the previous night at the disco....it sounded fun but we quickly learned we were in the home of a psycho person which mediocre cooking skills. The highlight was the home itself. It was his parents home and gorgeous and almost seeming as though it were out of  a magazine. Here is a picture of me in the library/study and this was before realizing we were dining with a complete nuthead. Regardless, his home provided Julietta and I with a lot of great scenery to take model pictures.

And he made us a very large and heavy meat and cheese dish that made me throw up the following day.
Normally I wouldn't put pictures up of bad food and bad people but this story is actually rather funny. We thought we were invited to a dinner party. Turns out our little friend from the Disco was setting us up on a double date that went horribly wrong when he turned nuts. After stomaching the horrible food he served us we quickly had to come up with reasons to leave. Because he lived so far outside the city we needed him to drive us 45 minutes back to Florence and the entire drive he sang opera at the top of his lungs. This is just a small small part of his nuthead-ness. Also, the whole night he kept referring to himself as King. Okay, here is a picture, we have King blurred out on the left, his crappy meal is on the table, and his friend is sitting on the counter:

Another night with Julietta in Florence!

People, Places and Food in Milano

It's been way toooo long since I have properly updated so I have a lot of catching up to do! I am all settled in Puglia, working at the Cefalicchio Country Home and so  when I can, I will update on my adventures in Italy thus far. When I first arrived in Italy, I met my good friend Julietta in Milan and we stayed with her Zia Franca (Aunt Franca). Franca was so sweet and a great cook making us loads of delicious food every night! One of my favorite things that she prepared were these frittatas that she is pictured above holding. One has proscuitto in it and the over had zucchini. They were seasoned perfectly and we had them with grilled meats and pastas for dinner. Here is a picture of a delicious pasta dinner at Zia Franca's apartment in San Donato, Milano. It had pieces of grilled eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. Freshly grated parmesan and a bit of basil.

And here is some of Julietta's family in Milan! From left to right: Julietta, her cousins Mari Angela and Giacomo and Zia Franca is standing up with two pasta utensils.

And this is just the beginning..... :)