Italia 2017 - Second Foodie Extravaganza Post

Damn...I have ever mentioned to you how much I love to eat in Italy? Yes? I have? Like every other day? Well you don't have to get all humphy about it. Daughter #3 and I were commenting about how the quality of what we are buying at our local grocery store just is at a different level from what she finds in the Netherlands or I in the US. Like fruit that are sweet and ripe. Or a piece of pork that I made into a stew with no different flavoring that I do in the US but which had a whole different flavor. I think that is why in my opinion, Italian food really does not export well. Yes, you can find it everywhere in the world, but the flavors of the ingredients are just not the same so the food doesn't taste the same.

Now you might note that we are eating rather well and on a rather consistent basis. Yet as I've mentioned in our past travels, we never gain weight on our trips and often lose weight. The reason is we walk infinitely more when we travel and we only eat on big meal a day in the middle of the day. So here is catching you up on a couple of weeks worth of eating.

Bologna Eats

How appropriate to start here for our 'pyroclastic flow' of food photos😝

This place was just around the corner from our apartment and we ate their twice. Our apartment owner had suggested it for pizza and sea food. We tried both.

An excellent grilled sea bream on top, a pasta with clams, grilled veggies and a mixed salad. I am never ceased to be amazed at how seafood pasta here is so light flavored yet clearly having the flavor of the seafood.

Our pizza meal consisted of a one with sausage and onions and the other with prosciutto. Not quite sure why there was so much more prosciutto than sausage as the former is more expensive.

 Osteria Broccaindossa

Recommended to us by the friend of one of my daughters who had studied in Bologna.

We started with a variety of antipasti from the house. This consisted of a flow of plates that at first stunned us.

Some cured ham and cold greens

 

A fresh ricotta with honey

A flan of winter squash

A bruscetta with a tapenade

Stuffed zucchini

Stewed beans and sausage

And our two pastas, one classic Bolognese, the other a sausage variety

Firenze Eats

After arriving at our apartment, we didn't have much time before our photo tour. Our rental owner suggested an area by the Central Market which was on our way that she said had all kinds of places that were typical and not too touristy. Didn't get the name of this one

Grilled Chicken Breast - surprisingly moist and flavorful

Roasted potatoes

Grilled asparagus (which seemed a bit odd to me as it is definitely NOT in season)

Ossoboco - Braised Veal Shank. The meat had a bit too much gristle but the flavor of the meat and sauce was top notch. I ate every bite of the sauce.

Breakfast

At a coffee and gelato shop, an arancini or deep fried rice ball, in this case filled with ragu (universal name for meat sauce)

Lunch

We were also directed by our rental owner to a piazza across the river from the main tourist area for lunch.

Started with a big mixed salad

Wife had a filled pasta that had the lightest softest pasta over a fluffy burrata cheese filling nicely complimented by crispy bacon

A local pasta Carbonara with Truffle  - I was concerned that the Carbonara would over power the truffles. But the combination worked very well.

Mega Meal in Siena

Like everything else our very short time in Siena was over the top.

I was very impressed by the menus I saw as we looked for where we wanted to eat. It seemed as soon as you got off the main Piazza, you found options that were clearly local in inspiration.

This was a splurge meal in that it was dinner not lunch, we ate a ton of meat which is not usual for us, and we drank a lot of wine, a whole bottle, which is also not typical.

My antipasti, a collection of local salumai/cured meats. This was heaven for me.

Wife and I both had Filet steaks. Mine had a lardo (salt cured pork fat) covering which I thought complimented the lean filet well.

Once again the fried chips though honestly not as good as the ones we had in Bologna

It is porcini mushroom season as well as truffle season in this part of Italy. We had them deep fried. The outside crust was so thin we could not determine what it was. Wife, who is not a porcini fan, scarfed these down.

Wine art shot

 

Lunch

The next day after the OD on meat it was back to pasta.

Wife had one of her favorites, lasagna with ragu

While I had a simple pasta with truffles - perfection

Umbria Eats

The place with the lovely staff that was so attentive to the grandchildren

 

Mixed appetizer at Perugia including a cheese flan, cured meats, a cured meat filled flat bread, melon, cheese, a bean salad, and a salad of herbs

A lovely prepared sea bass

Veal chop with porcini

After all that eating when you get back to the rental and need to clean out the system nothing beats a nice bowl of bran cereal and and glass of cognac

Italia 2017 - Finishing Bologna And Finding 'Experiences'

Wife and I are starting to get into our groove. We're over the double whammy of fatigue from the flight and change from home life to travel life. And as I am getting more and more comfortable with the camera and photography, we are finding a common joy in just wandering about, taking things in, capturing them with our cameras and at the same time finding all those precious 'experiences' that give spice to the whole travel activity. Truly we are blessed in so many ways and thankful to be having this time in our life and having the physical capability and energy to fulfill it. By the way you should be checking out Wife's blog, for her very different take on our experiences and her excellent photography. 

Bologna is for Walking

There are over 60 kilometers of covered walkways along the streets of Bologna which make it a great place to walk around

Street Scenes

I guess this is as good a place as any for your bike

Never met a reflection I didn't love :)

Saint Stefano

I am constantly amazed by finding these places on our travels that are not the 'prime' places to visit that knock our socks off. Our photo teacher here took us to this church as a locale and encouraged us to visit it. Way better than I expected.

First it is seven churches in one

This model shows much better because it is hard to get a good exterior perspective

Some exterior shots

The interior

There were so many hidden gems of art and architecture inside

The look on Mary's face here - so evocative

What is better than my absolutely favorite subject when traveling

Ah Experiences

Outside the Basilica I was just standing and thinking about shots when and Asian woman came and asked if I would take her picture with her camera. The price is always that I get to take their picture. Turned out she was from Japan. Lived in Yokohama so we talked about our experience there and the ramen museum. And her father came from Kagoshima. And we talked about Namba-Nishanbushi in Osaka.

Then we were off to a neighborhood nearby to get lunch at a place a friend of daughter #2 had suggested.

What do you think this is?

A garden right?

But not just any garden

A garden that we were allowed into even though it is a private residence because a local lady, an attorney

Was telling us of this poet

Carducci who wrote about the very pomegranate tree in this garden
Just one of those experiences

And we will finish up Bologna with a vision of the red tile roofs that give it the name of Bologna the Red

And on to our next destination, Firenze - Florence!

Ciao!