My favorite part about traveling is all of the wonderful food there is to experience. I love to try new things and try to be a bit adventurous with my food. I don't feel that I ate a lot of "out there" foods on this trip, but did enjoy a lot of Italian staples. I do try to eat anything that is a specialty of the region - whether that be wild boar, a certain type of wine, or a nice steak.
My favorite food in all of Italy is the gelato, especially limone (lemon). There is just nothing that I have found that compares in Illinois - I've even tried to make it myself with a moderate degree of success. This page is going to show some of the amazing food that I enjoyed on my trip. They will be broken down into sections: Group meals with the tour, meals on my own, breakfasts, snacks, and gelato. I hope that you enjoy the food pictures and that it makes you want to travel to Italy to experience them for yourself. |
Our first group meal was at Corte dei Leone and boy, was it a Welcome to Italy Feast!
We had a selection of red wine, white wine, and water to drink. Our first course was Eggplant Parmesan - AMAZING! Second course was a crepe filled with bechamel sauce and veggies. Main Course: Pork roast with potatoes and green beans...getting very full at this point Dessert: Tiramisu |
Our second group meal was after our Truffle Hunt, where we were able to enjoy many dishes featuring truffles.
First course: Bread and Truffle cheese with honey Second Course: Fresh tomato sauce with mozzarella di bufala and shaved truffle Third course: Scrambled eggs with shaved truffle Fourth Course: Pasta with Pepper and Pecorino cheese sauce with shaved truffle Fifth Course: Pork Medallion with Truffle topping over mashed potatoes Dessert Course: Tiramisu This meal was quite delicious. I really enjoyed the tomato and cheese dish along with the pasta dish. |
We had a few group meals on the road - our wine tasting with food and our cooking class, which you can find earlier in the scrapbook. Our next group meal was a light dinner at our Tuscan Villa. We had our cooking meal for lunch that day, so this was just a small buffet put together by the staff. Everything was wonderful! Just look how red those tomatoes are!
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The following night, the restaurant staff at the villa prepared us quite a feast. We started with another buffet of food like the one above. This was followed by courses of pasta: Ravioli and Pappardelle with Wild Boar (very good!). We then had some fritters and beans before our dessert of Tiramisu. (At which point Tricia did point out that Italy does have other desserts besides tiramisu.)
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Our next group dinner was our Seafood Feast and Farewell to Ezio dinner in Levanto. You can see more of that night on the Levanto page.
Our final group meal was one of the best. The food had a different flare as we were close to Switzerland. First course: Tomato Gazpacho with fried stuffed zucchini blossoms (one of my favorite courses) Second Course: Beef Ravioli Third Course: Pork Ribs with mustard sauce and potatoes with salad Dessert Course: Strawberry puree with cookies and vanilla gelato and a piece of meringue. All washed down with a bit of lemoncello. |