Note: This blog post is being written while I am in Italy with a wonderful tour group of seven people. I’m writing behind schedule because I’m having too much fun with my group to stop and write every day. So, here, I play catch up……

What would a journey to Italy be without a few days in Rome? If you've never been to Italy before, then trips to see the top two sights are a must-do. Our group took in two half day walking tours (on two different days) of the Coliseum/Roman Forum and the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel/St. Peter’s with a wonderful licensed guide. Stuart made history come alive for us; telling us stories of the past while pointing out the remains in the present.

Here are a few more miscellaneous shots from our first couple of days spent in Rome:

And we also managed to fit in a trip to a great local food market! This photo (on the right) was taken at a stall where locals can fill up their own containers, or buy empty 1 liter containers for their "house"wine. The group decided to give it a try and bought a liter to take back to their hotel. They loved it!

What better way to end evenings in Rome than to stroll the streets, basking in the golden glow of ancient monuments. Our time in Rome is over, but this is just the beginning really. Tomorrow, we head out into the countryside, going north into lower Tuscany. More adventures, food, and wine await us!

My second day in Rome begins exactly how it should....exactly how I had hoped it would....with a wonderful cappuccino, a beautiful cornetto, and the company of a great friend. Though I had a million things to tick off of my "to-do" list, there is no more civilized way to start the day than to welcome it the Italian way. And so rather than stand at the bar for a knock-it-back espresso, we took to a table to start the day with sips, munches, and conversation. Ahh......

Next stop, the fabulous Trionfale Market. Every time I'm in Rome I love to stop in here, not only to make purchases.....which I did, but just to soak up the local flavor. I mean that quite literally as I had samples of porchetta, olives, wine cookies and mozzarella cheese while shopping! Speaking of mozzarella cheese....the hubster will love these photos. I couldn't bring home these fascinatingly shaped cheeses, so he'll have to settle for the giant package of wine cookies I bought for him instead.

Though my lunch photos didn't turn out, my dinner photos did. This evening Rome was hit with an amazing thunderstorm. The rain was torrential, and lightning strikes and thunder abounded. It was the kind of rainstorm for which waterproof clothing was invented....and for which, it doesn't work. And to top it off, I was hungry. I was hungry at the peak, most rainy, lightning-ish, thunder-y part of the storm. Go figure. I ventured forth, down the slippery Spanish Steps, slogging my way to the pizza-by-the-slice place I meant to go to yesterday. Odd, hardly anyone else in the city was out at all. The shop was nearly empty and they were eager to tell me about all the different kinds of pizza available this evening. I chose two types: one with truffles and porcini mushrooms (so decadent!) and the other with artichokes (love them!). Torrential rain, crackling thunder, lightning spikes, shoes soaked. Worth it!!

I landed in Rome just in time for lunch....because that's the way I roll. I like hitting the ground in Italy in need of food. There's so much to choose from and most of it is pretty darn good. Today's lunch was one of those fantastic bargain treats. I was actually on my way elsewhere to grab a favorite slice of pizza, when I passed a crowd gathered outside a fresh pasta shop. "Hey! I know that place", I thought to myself. Last time I was in town, I specifically sought out this pasta shop for its bargain daily special only to be disappointed to find it closed, and its windows covered with official-looking documents which I was unable to decipher.

Yet, here it was, open again! I decided I better get in line to see what was up. So here's the deal. You belly up to the bar, hand over 4 euros, and get a plastic plate filled with pasta. Today, there was a choice between rigatoni carbonara or linguine with tomato sauce and eggplant. My friend got one, and I got the other, and we traded plates halfway through our meal. There are big bottles of cold water available on the counter along with plastic cups, and they hand you a packet with plastic cutlery and a napkin when you pay for your meal. It's like a picnic....with nowhere to sit.

We did a short trek to a nearby set of stairs so we could sit and enjoy our meal. The rigatoni carbonara pictured above was particularly delicious. At home, I weigh my pasta....56 grams per person. This was decidedly more than 56 grams.....covered in eggs, bacon and cheese. Seriously, does it get any better than that? For 4 euros?!

The rest of the day, I had several appointments and errands to run. As I made my way about the city, I stopped now and then to take a few snapshots of scenes I enjoyed. I hope you enjoy them as well:

The gelato at this place is amazing! On the left is peach with wine, and on the right is fresh mint with chocolate. Yes, you read that correctly....Fresh Mint....chopped Fresh Mint. It is SO GOOD! There's not a better way to end a day in Rome is there? Well....actually, another friend made me a batch of her homemade eggplant Parmesan and we shared a bottle of primitivo with it. So, that was pretty darn good too. Life in Rome.

Ah Rome. I have just returned from a ten day research trip to Rome, the Amalfi Coast and Umbria. As usual, I intended to blog my way through this most recent trip to Italy….but sigh, life got in the way. I was so busy meeting up with old friends, meeting great new friends, eating, drinking wine, driving a stick shift again, strolling, sightseeing…..the list is really endless. Suffice it to say, I was busy. My morning alarm went off at 7a.m. every day, but I wasn’t going to sleep until between midnight and 1 a.m. every night! With all those waking hours, you’d think I would have had more time at the computer. But I did not. Oh well. Here are my “better late than never” blog posts:

 Whenever I arrive to Rome, my routine is basically the same: Drop bags off, shower, and hit the streets on foot. Rome is a wonderfully walkable city, and the best way to get over jetlag is to just get out there in the fresh air. I always arrive hungry (because that's usually the state of my life), and in need of a coffee (which coincidentally, is also the usual state of my life). I had a lot of appointments in Rome during the first three days of my trip. However, I always leave time to just stroll the streets of the city either alone or with friends. Walk along with me, won’t you?

In the top photo, you see a selection of pizza by the slice. It was all so delicious, and look how fresh that basil is!

The luscious whipped cream concoction you see above is one of my very favorite treats in Rome. It is called a caffe granita con panna and it is a surefire jetlag cure. The barista places some unsweetened whipped cream in the bottom of the cup, tops it with two scoops of coffee granita; a sweet, frozen, caffeine-laden concoction then tops the whole thing off with more unsweetened whipped cream. It is so delicious, so refreshing, and so delicious! Did I say that already?

Below, a few street scenes:

Are these not the most adorable dogs? They were all blissfully napping in the sunshine. I was thinking I should join them, but there was so much more to see.





Yard art anyone? I love this outdoor shop. I wish I had bought something from here when I lived in Rome, so I could have had it shipped back to the U.S. with all my other household goods. Instead, I stop in here once in a while to do some wishful shopping.....and leave empty-handed.

Okay, I had to do a double take when I saw this street performer! He appears to be floating in mid-air! Street performers want you to toss a few coins in their bucket to have your picture taken with them. They are in every city, but usually it's the same old tired golden mummy or creepy Statue of Liberty. Kudos to this guy for coming up with something new.

One of the things I love most about Rome are its neighborhood covered markets. The produce and other products available are amazingly fresh and delicious. Here are a few photos compiled from several markets I went to:

And last, but certainly not least, I always try to set aside a day for cooking with my kitchen cohorts. We made an amazing lunch of  a spaghetti carbonara, homemade gnocchi with amatriciana sauce, a spring vegetable dish called vignarola alla romana, carciofi agrodolce and agretti. Delizioso!

Do you see now why I had no time to blog at the computer? 
After Rome, I headed off to Naples.....what fun! I can't wait to tell you all about it. Stay tuned for the next post-trip blog. A presto!

I’m beginning to think about what to pack, which means a trip is fast approaching. I’ll be in Italy April 14-23 researching new itineraries, meeting lots of new connections, and checking in on old haunts to be sure these places are still as wonderful as I initially found them.

I start with a couple of days in Rome. I have a few new faces I’m scheduled to meet there, transportation routes and logistics to check for an upcoming tour, several new restaurants to try and of course, time set aside to visit with old friends. I will have a cooking day with my old kitchen cohorts which will be incredibly fun. Hopefully, by the end of this trip, I’ll finally get a handle on making gnocchi.

After Rome, I head off to Naples for a couple of nights. There, I’m very excited to experience a wine tour and a scenic tour as well as meet new guides, hoping to find new colleagues for future tour groups. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to sample lots of the wines of Campania, and to be able to report back on the best ones.

I end my trip with a day or two in Umbria, meeting with winery folks, ceramics makers, artisanal food producers, drivers and guides; always trying to add new colleagues to my ever-growing list of great people to work with.

Friends think I’m on a boondoggle vacation; flitting around Italy, eating and drinking my way through ten days of pleasure. It’s not exactly like that actually. My days are filled with appointments, and I spend a lot of time rushing from here to there. Yes, I eat well, and I drink well. Please. I’m in Italy and I will take full advantage of great food and wine opportunities. I am not stupid. But foremost on my agenda are connections, people connections.

My clients work hard for their vacation dollars, and then they trust me with their time and money. I do not want to disappoint. I want to have lined up a string of great places to see, restaurants to eat in, food producers to meet and wineries to taste in. Then there are the bits the clients don’t really “see”. I need to be sure the hotels I choose are the right ones; clean and with great service, the drivers safe and courteous, the guides knowledgeable and entertaining. A lot goes into making someone’s dream vacation a dream come true.

So stay tuned for future blog posts from Italy, where yes, I will be eating and drinking my way through ten days of pleasure. But, more importantly, I’ll be hoping to meet a lot of great people along the way.

Italy, here I come!

At this point, I know you think all I do is eat. You would be wrong. I also love to shop for food and take pictures of food.  The most popular food market in Rome is at Campo dei Fiori. It is a lovely market, very centrally located, but quite touristic and on the expensive side. The food market I take you to on my tours, on the other hand, takes a bit of knowledge to get to, but is cheaper, bigger, has much more variety and is shopped mainly by locals. This market is a little bit out of the way, thereby not really making it onto the A-list of tourist activities. However, EVERY time I am in Rome, I am careful to leave enough time for a stop here.  Not only do I have favorite booths to return to for my personal food shopping, but I am also sure to capture some really wonderful food photos.

It is early October after all, so pumpkins and porcini mushrooms are all over the place.  Porcini mushrooms have a relatively short season, so when they’re ready, everyone is mad for them.  They have a rich, deep, earthy flavor and are delicious grilled. At this time of year though, you will find them on everything including pizza, in pasta sauces, and in risottos. Tis the season for mushrooms and they are for sale in every market and along many country roadsides.

I love buying pumpkin or zucca in Italy. What is so wonderful about buying pumpkin you ask? It is the fact you don’t have to buy the whole darn thing! Every veg vendor sells pumpkin by the piece. He proudly displays a beautiful pumpkin and you tell him how much you want by weight, or better yet, with hand gestures to say you want a piece “this big”. Pumpkin here is grilled, or chopped to make risottos and to fill pastas among many other recipes. This way, you can make a pumpkin recipe, but you don’t end up eating pumpkin for every meal for the next two weeks. You buy just the amount you need. Genius. 

Another food item often sold by weight, is salad. Italian food markets are great about doing some of the prep work for you. They sell artichokes already trimmed, green beans already stringed, veg chopped for minestrone soup, etc. But these items are not pre-done and shrink wrapped. There’s someone in each booth doing it as the day goes along. Your purchases are freshly prepared. Such is the case with salad. Mixtures of various greens, and in this case carrots and radishes are prepped just ahead of your purchase. You choose how much you would like to buy. You can ask for a certain euro amount, or you can ask by weight. Genius.

There are lots of items which can be purchased by weight. This particular booth sells all kinds of beans and lentils. In addition, they sell a wide variety of rices.  It’s like shopping the bulk section in a U.S. grocery store. The difference is they can tell you where every grain comes from and if it was grown organically, as well as give you ideas for preparing them. This is the joy of having a real person who is completely knowledgeable about the items they are selling rather than making your bulk purchases from a spigot.

There are so many items at this market that I Love. There is a man who offers tastes of porchetta or pork roast. One of my favorite booths has such a bargain on pecorino cheese.  For me, it’s worth bringing a whole wheel back to the U.S.! On this trip I also bought delicious cookies baked with red wine, yummy slices of candied ginger, and dried chestnuts to add to my soups and stews when I return home.  I could spend a whole day here.

But, I do have other things on my agenda. Like visiting with old friends and meeting for a fabulous lunch. Welcome to my old neighborhood; Monti. It’s such a familiar haunt to me; I love just strolling the streets stopping in at favorites spots and looking for new changes. In fact, I had invited my friends to join me at my favorite pizza spot, only to disappointedly find it closed for the day. No worries. Monti is filled with fantastic eateries. We find another just a very short distance away and have a delicious lunch filled with seasonal favorites.

We all decide to order several appetizers rather than having the usual pasta. My first appetizer is grilled pumpkin topped with a slice of grilled prosciutto which is garnished with a creamy gorgonzola concoction. With each bite of pumpkin and prosciutto, I have a little nibble of gorgonzola. The combination of slightly sweet pumpkin, salty meat and the strong gorgonzola is really delicious. Next up are small local peppers which have been grilled, sliced open, and filled with a creamy mixture of fresh ricotta and pancetta. Smoky, crunchy, creamy, Heavenly. Last of all a deep fried combo of artichoke pieces and calamari. The breading is very light and very crispy. Inside, the artichokes are perfectly cooked and the calamari tender. I will return. Yes, I will.

Once again, I know you must think all I do is eat. But as it happens, after lunch comes dinner. What's a girl to do? This is the cycle of life….thank goodness. There is a restaurant I have been dying to try and somehow when I want to eat out, there is always a good friend willing to accompany me. My friend and I share three dishes: 
1)      An incredible pasta made with pistachios and guanciale. Seriously intense, seriously delicious. I will be trying to recreate this dish once I return home. It will be a matter of rendering the fat from the guanciale which is the cured jowl of a wild boar, and adding ground pistachios and ground pecorino…something to that effect. When I get it right, I’ll write a blog post about it. Until then….it’s a lovely memory.
2)      A lamb stew.  My friend, who is of Italian descent, proclaims the dish just like the one her mother used to make. Hurray for authenticity!
3)      And last, but not least, cicoria ripasatta. Cicoria is simply chicory. And I do mean simply. The beauty of Italian contorni or side dishes lies in their simplicity. The chicory has been boiled to tenderness, then cooked again on the stovetop. It is sautéed with garlic, a fair amount of olive oil and maybe a bit of red pepper flakes. Chicory can be bitter, but cooking it this way mellows it; the olive oil makes it tender; the garlic and red pepper flake give it a little kick. Simple genius.

And so ends Rome, Day 3. I have two weeks to go.  More food, more wine, more beautiful sights on the horizon. Stay tuned......Day four is filled with art.

Day two of my trip to Italy is devoted to old friends who like me, share a passion for food. My dear friend Wendy Holloway runs a bed and breakfast/cooking school called Flavor of Italy. Whenever I’m in town, my friends and I gather in her wonderful kitchen in the countryside of Riano outside Rome for a day of cooking and camaraderie. Holly Magazzino and Thelma Gambino join us for a full day of cooking, laughter, eating, joking, drinking, yakking and more eating and drinking.

But before catching the train to Wendy’s house, I must have the classic Italian breakfast; a cappuccino and a cornetto. When breakfasting at home, most Italians make a stovetop espresso and add hot milk sans foam. But when having breakfast out, a cappuccino is a must.  And if one is indulging in a fancy cappuccino, why not include a lovely cornetto?  These pastries are usually brushed with a light sugar coating, and good ones are crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and served warm and fresh. Sigh.

At Wendy’s, we plan on making three dishes: Ravioli Caprese, Torta Caprese and Cacio è pepe. To start we make the Ravioli Caprese as it is a little time consuming to make the dough and filling. Wendy makes a basic tomato sauce that is so flavorful and simmers atop the stove while we take turns rolling out the dough until it’s so thin we can see the pattern of her marble counters through it. We make a filling of two kinds of cheese combined with lots of fresh marjoram, and make what seems like an overabundance of ravioli (though we manage to consume most of them). 

In addition to the ravioli, we also make Cacio è Pepe. This is one of my favorite classic Roman pastas whose preparation has simply eluded me. Wendy shows us how to “toss” the cheese into the pasta rather than stir it in as I have been doing. Last of all, we create a most delicious and decadent Torta Caprese; a cake made with ground almonds rather than traditional flour, and lots of deep, dark chocolate.  It has crispy edges and a gooey innards. We all moan as we take our first bite.

Eventually, after much chatting and laughter, we decide we can finally indulge in some dinner. But it is going to have to be a light dinner after such a heavy lunch. We head to a nearby restaurant where we order nothing but vegetables cooked expertly over wood-fired coals. We start with tomato bruschetta. The cook creates wood coals on the right side of his grill and shovels them beneath the cooking grate as the evening wears on. He grills our bread, drizzles it with olive oil, and tops it with nice fresh tomato slices and a sprinkle of salt. So simple. So delicious. We also order grilled radicchio and grilled porcini mushrooms. The in-season vegetables are smoky, tender/crispy and oh-so-delicious.  Again….So simple. So delicious.

Day two comes to an end after twelve hours in each other’s company.  We are tired and full, but rejuvenated by our time together. The four of us realize for the first time that we span four decades, and yet somehow, we have so much in common and enjoy each other’s company immensely. Another day in Rome; another day well spent.

Rome was calling me. No, I don’t have the pope on speed dial, but Rome was calling. Once you have lived in Rome, regardless of whether you tossed coins in that beautiful fountain, you will return. Rome gets into your blood, under your skin, into your pores like no other city on earth to me. Yes, it is chaos and noise and bureaucracy, but it is also infinite beauty, and a way of life that is simply so…..simple. And so I find myself back in Rome, ready for a resurrection, eager to return to a city where a new discovery is around every corner. Join me on a little pictorial trip of Rome: Day one.

Lucky me, I have arrived in Rome just in time for lunch. Never one to dilly-dally where food is concerned, I toss my bags in my room, take the quickest of showers to refresh and revive myself, and head out the door to find good food. It’s Rome; I don’t have to go far. Not long into my stroll, I discover a new pizza-by-the-slice place called Grano. I wander in to see if it looks good, and……well, let’s just say it was so hard to decide which kind to have….so I only picked three.  Pizza-by-the-slice is weighed in Italy.  Isn’t that a great concept? You merely point out how much of each kind you would like, they cut off your piece with a big pair of scissors, weigh it, and put it in the big oven to reheat. In the meantime, you get your receipt, take it to the cashier, pay for your pizza, adding a drink if you’d like and by the time you get back to the pizza counter, your hot pizza is ready. This new place had some really interesting and delicious combinations:
1)      Radicchio with gorgonzola and walnuts
2)      Porcini mushrooms (They’re everywhere because they’re in season now!) with truffles
3)      Eggplant with tomato sauce
Not only will I be returning to Rome; I will be returning to this place!

Jet lag is beginning to set in. Time for a pick-me-up, and I know just the thing.  I head over to my favorite building in the whole city, the Pantheon. Nearby is one of my favorite treats in the whole city; a granita di caffe con panna from the coffeehouse Taza D’Oro. They squeeze some unsweetened whipped cream into the bottom of your cup, add in two scoops of sweetened coffee flavored icy granita, and top it off with more whipped cream. The strong coffee is tempered by the sweetness of the granita mixture which is tempered by the unsweetened whipped cream. It is perfection. It is THE cure for jet lag….in my opinion.

With a full belly and a nice jolt of caffeine, it was time to take in a little culture.  And what could be more apropos than a viewing of a fresco by Rafael.  Tucked in a little out of the way corner, not far from Piazza Navona, is the Chiostro del Bramante. The Cloister of Bramante is attached to a church called Santa Maria della Pace.  In this church is a most beautiful fresco by Rafael commissioned in 1500.  And from the upper reaches of the Cloister, if you look out a certain window, you get a bird’s eye view of Rafael’s fantastic work of art.  Looking at it makes me……sigh.

Next stop is one of my favorite markets for some food shopping to bring back to the U.S. This is one of many cases where the internet is simply misinformation. The market is not open late on this day as I had read on-line. Most of it is closed. Most, but not all. The fresh pasta shop is open. No, I will not be bringing fresh pasta back to the States, but the lady who makes the fresh pasta happens to also love making red wine cookies, and she has a fresh plate sitting out! When she sees me eyeing them, she hands me the plate and tells me to have one. Not wanting to offend her in any way, I help myself. They are SO good; better than the ones I've been trying to make at home which need more work. I’ll take a dozen please. For the equivalent of $4.00, I get 12 huge, delicious crispy cookies baked with red wine and glistening with sugar crystals.

With not much of the market open, I realize I will have to return another day to finish my shopping and so I head out. Glancing at my watch, I realize, it’s “wine time”. This is perfect!  Nearby is a wine bar I’ve been wanting to try out. The little bar has a few tables and chairs out on the sidewalk. Securing a spot on this beautiful day, I pop my head indoors to let them know I’m out there and find an adorable basement wine bar filled with music paraphernalia and legs of prosciutto ready to be hand-carved. Passaguai prides itself on its use of local products, and so I order a wine from the Lazio region. Ever in need of a little munchie, I also order a plate of mixed bruschette and a bowl of olives. The olives are incredibly buttery and when the bruschette arrive, they are beautifully plated and delicious. The wine, a blend which includes the cesanese grape, is one I hope to learn more about on this trip. It is wonderful. My bill amazes me when I ask for it. Not by the expense of it, but by the lack of expense. Welcome back to Rome.

As I head back to my dear friend’s apartment, I catch a glimpse of the sunset over St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. What truer sign is there that I am in Rome? I have been resurrected. 

Yes, I mean Valentine’s Day.  Have you thought about it yet?  No?  Then it’s about time you did.  If you don’t know what to get her, lucky for you, I do.  What could be more romantic than a trip to Italy for ten days?  She will never forget her completely stress-free vacation with Bella Giornata Tours.  Oh, the sights, the sounds, the food, the wine…sigh.  She will be eternally grateful. 

A tour with Bella Giornata Tours is the perfect combination of escorted group activities and private down-time.  A portion of every day is spent together exploring all the wonders Italy has to offer, while another portion of the day is set aside for you to explore, stroll, relax, and dine on your own. Our small group tours offer our clients very individualized attention and attention to detail.  No gigantic buses, no long lines, no having to wear a neon colored scarf.  Our privately-chauffeured van takes us directly where we need to go and our small group size along with your tour director (me!) makes sure everything goes smoothly.

Bella Giornata offers several options for your trip-of-a-lifetime.
1)      We offer trip planning for your private unescorted trip. You let us know when you’d like to go, how long you’d like to stay and we help you plan the perfect trip. We write itineraries for sights to see, routes to take, restaurants to dine at, wineries to visit, etc. so you don’t waste a single precious minute. We can also book your hotels, make restaurant reservations and purchase advance sightseeing tickets.

2)      Sign up for one of the current escorted tour offerings. Click on the tabs for Spring and Fall, and see the tours currently booking. These are small group (six person) tours with privately chauffeured vans traveling to fantastic destinations. Read the blog with highlights of last October’s tour!

3)      Don’t see dates that work for you for the escorted tours? That’s okay; we have other dates available. Simply let us know what your plans are, and we’ll work to accommodate them. 

4)      The escorted tours aren’t going where you want to go? Where do you want to go?  Just let us know, and we’ll plan an itinerary and escort your small group on the perfect vacation.

Contact me now at [email protected].  Valentine’s Day is fast approaching.

GREAT NEWS!

I've just published a new tour agenda for May.  It's called "Girlfriends on the Go", and promises to be loads of fun.  Grab five of your best friends, and Let's GO!  You get a $100 discount for being the lead girlfriend and rounding up your best buds.  I take over from there, doing all the work and planning for you, ensuring that you all have a Fabulous trip!

For full details click on the tab for Spring 2013.