Two Nights in Florence

Leaving Lucca was a drag. We only stayed one night there, and it turned out to be our favorite city in Italy. Florence was next on the itinerary, and we were not quite prepared for the maddening crowds looking for a taste of the Renaissance. We decided to duck down the alley way, away from it all, and enjoy our first dinner at Hosteria il Desco. The place where we stayed offered amazing restaurant recommendations, and Florence became a front runner for the best food we had in Italy. Away from the sea, we were now in the land of grazing cattle, wild boar, and rabbits. There wasn't a shortage of meat on the menu, and if you were hoping for a tofurkey sandwich, you were out of luck. 

We were seated in a little alley, and Regan prepared to translate our Italian language menu. Surprisingly, we were greeted with a complimentary bowl of mushroom soup and a glass of Prosecco -- a nice touch, and a big difference from our first dinner in Rome. Florence was looking pretty good at the end of our forks. Regan ordered some thinly-sliced steak with tomatoes and pecorino cheese. It was a simple and tasty sensation, and we were finally thrilled to be in Florence.

I went straight for the wild boar. Presented in a fancy, ceramic wild boar dish, it was a beautiful stew-like porridge of tender boar in a rich tomato sauce with olives and creamy polenta -- a fantastic way to begin a couple nights and a nice, romantic Firenze experience. We almost went back the next night, but there were other delicious avenues to explore. 

After waiting in line for an hour the next morning to view Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia, we were starving from skipping breakfast and walking all morning. We had a list of recommended lunch places and started our search for a damn good Italian sandwich! Il Cernacchino wasn't too difficult to find, but it seemed far removed from the tourist lines. It was a quiet little sandwich shop that is a local favorite.



Regan had the Salami sandwich with pecorino and fig chutney.  

I had the porchetta with mustard and tomato. 

I loved the porchetta. For four euro, I got an enormous sandwich that was a little heavy on bread but still had great flavor. I could knock down one of these sandwiches daily, if given a chance.

For dinner, we prepared ourselves to undertake the mighty bistecca alla Fiorentina! We walked for seven hours and drank lots of water. It was almost like preparing for a decathlon to take on Florence's most famous cut of beef. Just across the Arno river, Antico Ristoro di Cambi is a solid old-time favorite for best massive steak in Florence.   

Walking in, you see the enormous t-bone steaks that you will be choosing for your night of splendor. Each one is two and a half pounds and four inches thick! They only cook it one way, hot and fast on each side, leaving the middle raw with some salt and olive oil. It was brilliant!

We shared the Flintstone cut, and if this was a drive through restaurant it could have tipped over the car.

I drizzled mine with some olive oil and had a small salad on the side.

It was so good that I became a vulture and picked at the bones until I could use the bone as a toothpick. After dinner, we took a bus to Piazzale Michelangelo high atop Florence and watched the sunset. Bella!

The next morning, we had to pick up our rental car for our journey to the Tuscan countryside and wanted to enjoy one last meal in Florence. We stood outside Trattoria Mario for them to open their doors at noon. It's a good thing we were there when they opened, because this popular lunch spot fills up by 12:10 and then a line begins to form. Regan ordered the Panzanella salad which was a delicious bread salad with a slight vinegar tang -- very refreshing for a hot day in Florence. 

We shared a bowl of the fagioli soup -- quite possibly one of the best soups either of us have ever had. The flavors sent my taste buds to the stratosphere! It was a mostly creamy soup with some whole beans, a brick of garlic bread like an island of yum in the middle, and a drizzle of olive oil to finish it off.

I also ordered the potato ravioli with meat sauce -- a contender for best pasta of the entire trip -- cooked perfectly with a rich and comforting ragu sauce. Everything we ordered came to our table one minute after we ordered it. They are clearly prepared for the massive lunch crowd everyday. We were finished by 12:20, and people eagerly waited their turn at what is simply one of the quickest and tastiest lunches you will find anywhere. So, after a great send-off in Florence, we hopped into our Fiat 500 and followed the road south for a further taste of Tuscany.

Monterosso al Mare

After a four-hour train ride from Rome, we arrived at one one of the most beautiful places imaginable -- a place where lemons grow as big as grapefruit, and the sounds of violins and the smell of the sea greet you. We were to spend four nights in the Cinque Terre area of Liguria, a stretch of coastline famous for its pesto, focaccia, seafood, and trofie pasta. We definitely wanted to make sure we tried as much of it as possible. Our first two nights were in Monterosso al Mare, and not only was it some of the best food of our entire trip, it was also our favorite village in Cinque Terre. 

Our first taste of Liguria was at a small stand right at the exit of the train station, Il Massimo della Focaccia. What appeared to be so simple actually turned out be extraordinary. I have never even liked focaccia bread. This certainly wasn't the focaccia bread I have been fed in the past. It seems odd that the focaccia in the U.S. is nowhere near the same thing as it is in Italy. I had plenty of it in Italy and, while it varied a little, most of of it was incredible and not at all heavy or bread-like. It is light and airy and has a nice bit of olive oil on it to make it moist and crisp at the same time. This version at Il Massimo almost seemed like it was deep fried, but it was the only one that I had like it. There will be many more focaccia photos in future blog posts. I even tried to make a proper one last night, and it turned out close, but I will try again. The pesto on this was also made in Monterosso, and it was seriously amazing. We washed it all down with a can of Italian beer and headed to the beach. 

We were lucky to stay in a great bed and breakfast that not only served up some focaccia and eggs in the morning, but also pointed us in the right direction of good dinners in the area. Our first night in Monterosso, we dined by the sea at Ristorante Belvedere.

I ordered the stuffed mussels, another signature dish of the area -- mussels cooked and chopped with breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley and lovingly put back together in the shell and bathed in a tomato sauce. I was not even quite sure how they did it. It was phenomenal, and my Italian vocabulary couldn't even find the words to express my gratification.  

Regan ordered an octopus salad. We are huge fans of this cephalopod. She usually prefers it grilled and charred, but this was a nice and light boiled version with tomatoes, olives, and potatoes. Not quite as great as the dish we had in Rome, but still worthy of a molto bene.

The next evening, we visited the restaurant that was right up the street from Belvedere, Il Castello, another outdoor seaside space that had practically the same menu.

The special of the day was branzino (sea bass) marinated in lemons. I definitely had to try that. It turned out to be possibly my favorite dish of the entire trip. It is hard to say (there was a lot of great food), but I am partial to fish, and this was about as good as it gets. I even ate the lemon slices and danced with the plate on my head.

Regan had the most popular dish of Liguria, trofie pasta with pesto. It is popular for good reason. This pasta and pesto combination is what makes life worth living. It's a good thing there are so many stairs and hill in Cinque Terre, because otherwise it would be a village of chubby sloths eating spoonfuls of pesto pasta morning, noon, and night.

We finished off the dinner with Regan's most hated dessert -- the absolutetely dreadful tiramisu! How someone hates such a fine treat I will never understand. Since we were in Italy, I thought I could persuade her to enjoy it and maybe she would love it. I am not much of a sweets lover, but when placed in front of me, I have a hard time resisting. This tiramisu did not convert Regan, but I think she enjoyed it, and if she didn't, now I know what to order if I don't feel like sharing!

We returned to Monterosso for lunch the day after we left for another village. The restaurant (Trattoria da Oscar) that supposedly has some of the best pesto and trofie pasta in Monterosso had been closed the night before. I wanted to try the pesto, but it was so hot and we just needed something light in the midday sun. We shared a plate of tuna carpaccio that came with a bag of crusty bread that could have fed a small tribe. This was so delicious and a perfect ending to our days in Monterosso: red onion, tomato, olive oil, and some excellent paper thin tuna, very similar to cold smoked salmon, but without the excessive salt.

The next couple days we stayed in Riomaggiore and had more focaccia, more pasta, and more fish. Don't worry, we also had barrels of gelato on the trip, which we practically indulged in everyday! I will save all of those for its own blog. Ciao for now!

Rome (Part 1)

Arrival: Rome. After an insanely long flight and being force-fed nuked peas in molten plastic at 37,000 feet, we needed some Italian cooking that everyone dreams about. We headed to the Trastevere neighborhood, because we had heard this was a good place to eat in a quaint Roman atmosphere. Obviously, 900 other tourists got the same memo. After wandering the streets and trying not to succumb to a tourist trap restaurant filled with Americans talking about how great the pizza was at the Colosseum, we found a cute little place that seemed to have many Italians sitting, eating, and drinking wine. 

I ordered one of my favorite things, oxtail ragu with rigatoni! I have made this dish once, and it was actually a greater success than the version at all Arco di S. Calisto. While not completely horrible, I still had to wait to use my Italian adjectives. I was so ready to shout a benisssimo or a perfetto, but sadly I had to settle for a soft whisper of discontent. If you braise oxtail in tomatoes for several hours, it will be good -- but this was just a feeble attempt at ragu and pasta.

Regan was so excited to order the saltimbocca alla Romana (one of her favorite dishes) in Rome! However, what appeared on her plate after being thrown at her from a disgruntled Italian was perhaps one of the worst meals of the entire trip: cold carrot slices in a thin off-white sauce with tough veal that did not leap into her mouth. A stray cat would have probably passed on this sad excuse for Rome's signature dish. Oh well... we finished a bottle of wine and knew the food couldn't get much worse. It may have been a good thing to have been let down in the beginning.

I decided to not go at the food thing alone and looked online for more worthy suggestions, which led us the next day to lunch near the Pantheon. We were seated next to a table filled with zucchini flowers and artichokes, which we took as a good sign of things to come.

Regan ordered a tuna salad with tomatoes, onions, beans, olives, and arugula. She enjoyed it, and it was definitely a step in the right direction, but I thought it was still not worthy of a molto bene. It wasn't rocket science, only a rocket salad.

I decided to go with the fried zucchini flowers, because I never see it in Seattle. It was good, but nothing more than tempura-fried zucchini flowers. Not bad, but not that thrilling. They could have left the zucchini flowers on the table for decoration and battered me some fish.

Later in the day there was a light at the end of the tunnel: Il Gabriello, a restaurant near the Spanish Steps that was packed, yet without a reservation we still managed to grab a table in less than 15 minutes.

Because it was 93 degrees, we ordered a cool bottle of white wine and started with an octopus and potato appetizer that was beautifully presented and prepared. Finally, this was what we had been waiting for! 

Next up, I ordered the radicchio and walnut ravioli in a shrimp cream sauce. Simply amazing! We had stumbled upon the right restaurant. Regan loved it and helped me finish off every last morsel on the plate. She thought it was some of the best pasta she had ever had. There were bits of shrimp in the sauce, and the pasta was exquisite -- our first taste of the good life!

Regan ordered a beef salad with arugula and olive oil, a very simple but deliciously executed dish. We thought about returning to this restaurant on our return to Rome at the end of our trip, but we knew there were other roads -- hopefully, roads that would lead us to the Rome of our dreams.

 Rome (Part 2) coming soon...