I apologize in advance for this lengthy post because my second trip to Europe and second time to Italy this year was a remarkable experience that so many memories are flooding my brain at the moment that I don't even know where to start?
Let me begin here. We were headed to Italy for Dave's 40th Birthday Party, which he planned very well with his mother way in advance. However, before getting on an 8-hour flight to
Rome Sunday afternoon, I decided to run a half marathon in Central Park that morning. It was not a PR, but definitely an experience I will not repeat again in the future. Not sure which is harder: to run non-stop on a hilly course for 1:44:55 or sit on a plane for 8 hours without being able to walk around and stretch properly.
Once we landed in Rome, we had to drive 2.5 hours to a tiny village called
Agello where the villa was located. Mark was not looking forward to that drive especially since we didn't get upgraded, but we did sit in economy plus with extra leg room. Before heading out, we stopped by a cute airport cafe
Vacanze Romane with menus laying right on the tables. I thought, OK this is easy. Mark ordered me a donut and an espresso. Apparently, espresso is really big in Italy, so I drank, I ate and basically took the menu (entirely in Italian) and stuck it in my backpack. End of story.
Vacanze Romane: Rome Fiumicino Airport Terminal 3
Rome, Italy
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| Vacanze Romane |
The drive to Agello was very scenic with rolling hills, ancient towns and lots of green space. I was expecting vast lands of vineyards like the wine country in Napa Valley, but it was more farm lands and kind of remote. I kept thinking to myself, I could not live this far out from Rome. What do people do out here?
We arrived at the beautiful villa, settled in and managed to get in a little bit of rest before heading out to dinner that evening. We chose a restaurant in
Perugia, the capital city of the region of Umbria located in central Italy. If you've ever ate or heard of
Perugina chocolates this is where it comes from.
The restaurant was called
Al Battibecco Ristorante, and for a Monday night it was pretty dead at 7PM. So we thought. Apparently, Italians eat later like the French do in Cannes and it was pretty empty until 9PM, but that didn't matter because other folks in our party got majorly lost for almost 40 minutes. What? Yes, and they took forever so we took the liberty of ordering wine and appetizers, while we wait.
This was my first real introduction to authentic Italian food at a restaurant in Italy. Apparently, my dining experience this past summer in San Remo, Italy, doesn't count. A few of the many things I noticed is that the Italians have a passion for food: the cooking, the ingredients and the explanation and presentation of food. I love how they talk about food like they are telling a story.
For our entrees, we decided to get pizzas for the table and taste each others dishes, but Brad, sitting across from me, and on a whim, wanted to be spontaneous and asked the waiter to make him something with meat and pasta. Initially, I was going to go with spaghetti alla matriciana as that is my fav Italian dish, but I thought... you know, I'll have the same thing as Brad. I'm glad we went with it because what we received was a delightful pasta dish with cut up fettuccine noodles (I'm sure that's not what it was, but it reminded me of it) ground beef and a sauce that reminded me of sage butter. I was in heaven.
Unbeknownst to me (and possibly others), there was another birthday in our party, Sandy, and this day was actually her birthday, but she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. We couldn't resist! The dessert was delectable too.
We packed up the leftovers and I placed them on the menu which I didn't give back initially and kept it next to me. Again, with a large group it's always so much easier because the waiter is not going to keep track and we could always have one handy if someone wants to order something else.
Al Battibeco Ristorante: Trasimeno Ovest exit Corciano (PG) towards Magione
Perugia, Italy
Website
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| Al Battibecco Ristorante |
A trip to Italy would not be complete without a winery tour-no siree! I'm glad that we did because we were in wine country and we were drinking wine just about with every meal. Was I sick of it? Hell no!
Dave's mother, Joan, organized a half day winery tour at
Avignonesi. It is located in the
Tuscany region of Italy in
Montepulciano. I'm sure like many of you when I think of Tuscany I think of the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" with Diane Lane. I had envisioned rolling hills of vineyards after vineyards and very old homes and, well, that's pretty much how it is. The winery grounds is relatively small compared to wineries in Napa or Sonoma, but it is beautiful and rich in history.
Upon arrival we were given a glass of rose and waited for other small groups to join us for the tour. I honestly can't remember much of what she was talking about, but she seemed quite informative. We covered the history of the winery, the winemaking process, their philosophy and saw where they kept their wines and toured the entire grounds. After the tour, we were treated to an exquisite lunch (OMG) that was so amazing that I wish I could have it again-right now!
The menu was crafted for the day of and we each selected our own wine pairing with each meal. For my 'Primi' I ordered the sunchoke soup with sunchoke chips and parsley infused oil. Wow! Just wow! For my 'Secondi', I ordered the creamed codfish with yellow potatoes and black olives. How they managed to make this dish not taste like fish was beyond amazing. Lastly, for my 'Dolci', I ordered the ricotta tart with semolina, raisins and pine nuts served with creme anglaise. I was just... taking... it... all... in. The entire amazing meal with the wine pairings, the feeling of being in Tuscany, the beautiful day and the great company made me so thankful and honored to have been invited on this trip.
Since the menus were personalized and created daily, it was as if the menus are souvenirs and meant to be taken home to remember the special meal and day. I didn't even have to be sneaky about this menu, so it worked out in the end.
And off to the town of Montepulciano we went to explore the town and walk off our delicious meal.
Avignonesi: 53045 Valiano di Montepulciano (Siena)
Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy
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| Avignonesi |
The final menu I collected was from
Assisi, Italy, a medieval town in the Umbria region. Assisi is famous because St. Francis was born here and he was most notable for founding the
Order of Friars Minor, a group of religious men highly devoted to living the same religious life as he led.
Before heading into
Basilica of St. Francis, we stopped in
Bar San Francesco, a small cafe right in front of the Basilica to have gelato. I also purchased some candy. Again, the menu was just sitting on the table and it was small and easily fit into the bag I had from purchasing the candy. Prego!
After Assisi, he headed to our final destination and back to where we started: Rome, Italy.
Bar San Francesco: Via S. Francesco 52
Assisi, Italy
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| Bar San Francesco |
Rome, of course, wasn't built in a day, but we managed to see all the major tourist attractions in under 5 hours. Sadly, I wasn't able to collect any menus aside from the airport menu on our first day when we landed, but here are some pictures of our long day of sight-seeing and some random pictures of our Rome visit.
Arrivederci, Roma!
