Italy – Riveted

Pappa al Pomodoro

Laura Domela — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 11:34:43 +0000

We had this Italian tomato and bread soup twice while we were in Florence. The first time was by far the best (at All'Antico Ristoro di'Cambi). Theirs was spicier than the other version we had and we both loved it, so I set out to recreate it on our first day back from Italy. I found a few recipes online to look at, and then made up my own. Here's a quick iPhone snap of the finished product:

Pappa al Pomodoro

Ingredients:

3 cups heirloom tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb stale bread cut or torn into small pieces (I didn't have stale yesterday, since it was our first day home, and the fresh loaf of peasant como bread I bought worked fine)
About 4 cups vegetable broth, warmed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
basil, torn coarsely with your fingers, not chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I used a combination of about 2Tbsp EVOO and 1+ Tbsp of spicy EVOO that I've got in a bottle with a bunch of peppers)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Put the bread in a large bowl and add the warm broth. Set aside for about an hour
In a wide pot, sauté the garlic in the olive oil. Add tomatoes and a little salt and pepper. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
Add the broth-soaked bread to the pot, squeezing the excess broth out with your hands before you add each handful to the pot. Simmer another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Serve warm, with fresh cut basil and a swirl of olive oil (or spicy oil) on top.

Also, I had the best Spaghetti alla Carbonara in Ravenna at the Ristorante Bella Venezia just a couple doors down from our hotel. I plan to try to recreate that one, too! This looks like a decent place to start.

Aperol Spritz

Laura Domela — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 21:44:06 +0000

We stopped at the store yesteday to pick up ingredients for making Aperol Spritzes at home (awwww, a little reminder of Italy): Aperol (an Italian liqueur), Prosecco, San Pellegrino, and an orange. The Aperol Spritz is a refreshing summer cocktail (with a very fun bright orange color)!

Aperol Spritz

Ice cubes
Slice of orange

3 parts Prosecco
2 parts Aperol
1 splash sparkling water/soda

Serve in a wine glass

Last night I made us a little fresh bufala and heirhoom tomato salad, and some fresh figs with prosciutto and balsamic vinegar to to along with our spritzes. Yum!

Note: Some people prefer the more bitter Campari (red) instead of Aperol, and there's something in between in Italy called "Select" that's half bitter half sweet (I liked the spritzes made with Select and Aperol, but the Campari is too bitter for my taste…feel free to experiment!)

Last Days in Florence

Laura Domela — Thu, 29 May 2014 15:34:00 +0000

Our last few days in Florence were wonderful. We packed things up, continued to explore the city as much as we could, and met up with our friends (who were getting married) for several activities: a walking tour led by a very knowledgable art historian Cindy Nesti, a cocktail party at the Palazzo Ricasoli Firidolfi, which was built in the XVth century and has a tiny secret chapel entirely painted in oils by Giorgio Vasari. Seriously. The interior of this place is insane. I can't find THAT much information online about this Palazzo (nothing to link to that's all in one place), but here are a couple of examples:

The ceiling of one of the bedrooms:

The wedding of our friends on our last day in Florence was spectacular. Everyone met outside the Palazzo Vecchio in front of the Neptune Fountain and then entered the courtyard and headed upstairs to the Sala Rossa (red room) of the Palazzo Vecchio. This will give you a pretty good idea what this room looks like.

Chandelier inside the Sala Rossa:

After the beautiful ceremony (in Italian, translated into English after each part), the wedding party walked through town (a walk complete with a large group of school children clapping for the couple as they passed, and quite a few random tourists taking not-so-discreet photos WITH the bride) over to the Antico Torre and up to the rooftop where we gathered for cocktails, celebration, and incredible views of Florence. (Oh, and some suprise opera: Nessun Dorma and Funiculì, Funiculà by a tenor and a violinist!!)

Here from the rooftop of the Antico Torre you can see the Duomo on the left, and the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio (where the wedding was) on the right:

Just a few steps below was a beautiful U-shaped dining table where we all had a wonderful Florentine dinner, a song for the groom sung by the bride (adorable!), many toasts and tears and stories of love and life. It was one of the most romantic and memorable weddings I've ever been to and we feel so fortunate to have been included in this day.

After dinner a group of us went back onto the roof to watch the sunset over the Arno.

In the morning, we fly home (Florence–Paris–Los Angeles–Portland).

Best trip ever!

Venice to Florence Video Tour

Laura Domela — Thu, 29 May 2014 03:05:00 +0000

Kevin made us a cool YouTube channel playlist that has all the videos he put together of our bike tour from Venice to Florence (including the first couple days in Venice mostly on boats, but it sets a nice mood for the rest of the bike tour and it's one of my favorite, actually, even though there are no bikes). I thought I'd put a link to it here in case you wanted a convenient place to get to the videos (and also so I can find it later, because this blog is like my own personal notebook sometimes. I forget things and need to look them up. Whatever. Shut up.)

These videos are quite nice (and I plan to watch them all over again from the start the minute we get home, or maybe right now).

Coolest trip I've ever done. Honestly.

Oh yeah, also: All of these were shot on an iPhone, mostly while riding a bike!

Packing up the Bikes

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 May 2014 18:28:51 +0000

So sad, but it had to be done — we packed the bikes into their suitcases today (Wednesday). We have a morning flight out of Florence on Friday, the pre-wedding cocktail party was tonight, the wedding is tomorrow at 12:30pm and the reception and dinner afterwards…so, not a lot of time to deal with packing and stuff.

Here they are pre-disassembly with their accompanying suitcases:

This was only the second time we'd put them into the suitcases (the first time was at home in Portland…they've been in full bike mode ever since we got to Venice) and we rocked it. Smooth, fast, and the lid closed on the first try. Woohoo!

All ready to go!

We took a big bag of clothes and stuff over to the Mailboxes, Etc. in Florence (yep, they have one) and mailed it home. About $100, but an overweight bag (if we could fit everything in it) would be about the same price (with some added stress and hassle), and an additional bag would be more than double that (about $260, plus you'd have to buy an extra bag), so we happily took the ship-it-home route.

We lugged our bag of stuff across the river, only to show up at the front door of the shipping shop during the hours they were closed. (Typical for the area and maybe the whole country, many shops are closed for a few hours in the middle of the day.) They would reopen at 3:30pm (it was 2:30) so we went and had some lunch and coffee down the road a bit to burn an hour. At 3:30 the shop promptly reopened and we were in and out in about 4 minutes.

Once back at the apartment getting ready for the 5pm cocktail party (just a block away), I got an email from the guy at the shop that I'd left my passport there (when he was photocopying it). Oops. We didn't have time to go get it today before the party (plus I didn't want to hightail it across town in 4-inch heels and an ostrich feather skirt!), so we'll pop over there in the morning when they open at 9am to retrieve it (wearing tennies and jeans).

The wedding guests meet tomorrow at 12:30pm in front of Neptune's Fountain outside the Palazzo Vecchio and I'm certain it will be an incredible day. The cocktail party tonight was lovely — great people, incredible location (the Palazzo Ricasoli, I mentioned yesterday where we started our walking tour). After the party, we stopped to see if we could get into one of the restaurants that was full last night and got right in (15 minutes earlier makes a huge difference)– a place just down our street called Olio e Convivium, and it was very nice — good food, cool interior, and fabulous service! So many great places to eat and drink in this neighborhood!

Hey, look at this!!

Mostarda di Pere

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 May 2014 17:43:48 +0000

The first time we had this it was at a restaurant in Italy somewhere as part of an antipasti plate…I don't remember which restaurant though…all I remember is the "wow" from this crazy concoction. At first it was a little hard to figure out what it was…pear, I think. But spicy, from what? I can't place that flavor… It was served with a sheep's milk cheese — a pear mustard sauce with the consistency of raw or slightly cristallized honey. It was delicious. Since that first time we've had it a handful of times at restaurants or wine tastings and I LOVE it. I've been popping my head into shops with little jars of things, looking for it.

The other day we walked past Eataly Florence (there are 10 Eatalys in Italy…I had no idea) so I went to to look around and found this:

It's very close to what we've been having in Florence (the flavor is basically the same), but this version has are thin slices of candied pears in it (like this one…it's a nice texture, actually) and it's got a nice spicy mustard flavor. I can eat this stuff right from the jar (which I'll have to do if we don't finish it by the time we leave on Friday morning.

However, I just found this blog entry by Eugenia Bone on the Denver Post website with a recipe (!!!) so I plan to try making it when we get home.

Pear and Mustard Jam for Cheese
Makes 1 half-pint

1 ½ lbs Anjou pears, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons Coleman’s dry mustard (if you’ve got mild and hot, mix them up)
Zest of ½ lemon
Juice of ½ lemon

Place the chopped pears and the water in a heavy bottomed saucepan and boil over a medium heat until the pears are very tender, about 15 minutes.

Puree the pears. You should have about 1-½ cups.

Return the pear puree to the pot and add the remaining ingredients. Cook over a medium low to low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the puree is thick and mounds on a spoon. You will have a scant cup remaining. Taste the puree — it might need a bit more lemon juice or a bit more mustard powder. Adding or subtracting lemon juice or mustard powder won’t affect the safety of the preserve.

Pour the puree into a sterile half-pint jar (to sterilize, boil the jar and band in water for 10 minutes at sea level and add 1 minute for every 1000 feet above). Simmer a new lid to soften the rubberized flange. Wipe the rim of the jar, place on the lip and screw on the band fingertip tight. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes at sea level (add 1 minute for every 1000 feet above). Remove the jar, allow to cool, and check the seal. Store in a cool, dark place. Refrigerate after opening. The jar will hold for a year. There may be some oxidizing of the puree over time. It’s okay.

Serve the jam as a condiment on a cheese plate.

Oltrarno Antiques at Night

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 May 2014 06:02:26 +0000

I forgot to post this photo from the other night. This is from the door of an antique shop down the street from us on Via di Santo Spirito. There's a portrait in there that's super creepy at night too…I'll try to get a shot of it tonight while it's sleeping.

More Florence!

Laura Domela — Tue, 27 May 2014 19:14:56 +0000

This morning we slept in and it was glorious. Exploring Tuscany can take it outta you and it was a nice recharge this morning. We made breakfast and did some work, then popped down the street to the sandal shop, and then across the river to explore a little and grab a cappuccino.

This afternoon at 2pm we met up with most of the wedding group to do a walking tour of Florence. We all met in front of the palazzo where the bride and groom are staying, just one block over on Via Maggio, the Palazzo Ricasoli.

Palazzo Ridolfi was designed by Italian architect and sculptor Baccio d'Agnolo.

Across the street on Via Maggio, there's a lovely example of one of my favorite styles of architectural decoration: Sgraffito. This building is the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, and has some good Medici dirt history associated with it.

We wandered around listening to our fantastic tour guide, Cindy, as she skillfully gave an art and architecture of Florence tour to a group largely consisting of artists, art historians, and architects. Impressive!

The Palazzo Strozzi courtyard:

Ironwork on the outside, done by Florentine blacksmith Niccolo Grosso. Grosso was referred to as "Il Caparra" (which means "The Deposit" — due to his always asking for an advance before starting any actual work).

Beautiful iron work on this building, inside and out!

We wandered over toward the Duomo and were able to pop into the Cathedral to see the interior from the ground floor (which was cool, because when we visited before we only saw the cathedral from up inside the dome).

Dome from below:

Today we learned about how this dome was engineered (by Filippo Brunelleschi), and it's remarkable, really. More info here if you're into that stuff.

We made a stop at the Palazzo Vecchio — the town hall of Florence and the location for Thursday's wedding. The Palazzo Vecchio is a giant fortress/palace that overlooks the Palazzo della Signoria, has a copy of Michelangelo's David out front (replacing the original which is now inside the Gallerie dell'Accademia but stood here for several hundred years), and is one of Tuscany's most impressive public spaces.

The bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I by Giambologna (1594):

The ceilings/columns/walls inside the entrance:

And…fake David's butt:

A few more modified street signs:

We learned from our fabulous guide that these are the work of a French artist named Clet. Apparently this was not okay at first and the city kept removing the signs, but people complained and now they let them be. They're wonderful and whimsical, and everyone can still read "Do Not Enter" and "Go This Way" … so why not let them be?

We ended the tour at Gilli Cafe on the Piazza Repubblica (one of the oldest cafes in Florence…opened in 1733) for drink and a snack with most of the group…such fun! We left a bit early to meet our new friends Andrea and Beppe (of the 500 Touring Club) over in the Oltrarno for an apertif near Santo Spirito…we love these guys! Great people, running a great company…seriously…their tour in vintage Fiats is highly recommended. I wish we could have done it twice while here! (Mostly just so we could have more time hanging out with them! Hi guys!!)

On our way back toward the apartment as we were passing Santo Spirito, there was a side door opening into a cool courtyard area, and I decided we should go in and check it out. Kevin followed and it was quickly apparent we were crashing some church thing. No one seemed to care, and I took a couple of sneaky photos:

Also, cool shiny red new Vespa by textured really old door:

We headed over to where we thought we'd have dinner tonight: Il Santo Bevitore (where I had octopus a week ago and it was SO GOOD).

Awwww, full up. Second choice: Trattoria Casalinga, back where we started at Santo Spirito: awwwww, full up. (We didn't even ask, the place was tiny and there were about a dozen people standing, waiting.) Third choice: Olio e Convivium back near our apartment. Awwww, three strikes! (It was 8:15pm). Plan D: Osteria Il Cantinone…down a bunch of stairs into a caveish place (and yay, room for us!)…good house wine, stuffed zucchini flowers, ravioli with pesto, pappa al pomodoro, and a grilled chicken dish..all solid and plenty good.

Today was a really nice, chill day in Florence. (Oh yeah, and it was also kinda cool, and windy, and it rained this morning…totally different than every other sunny/warm day we've had since we've been there…the first day I've worn long sleeves!)

Tomorrow we'll pack our bikes into their suitcases and work on figuring out how to bring all the stuff we bought home. Tomorrow evening is the cocktail party over at the wedding party palazzo, which should be a blast, and Thursday at 12:30 the wedding day festivities begin at Palazzo Vecchio and will continue into the evening at the Antica Torre di Via Tornabuoni for reception and dinner with fantastic views of Florence. Friday morning early, we fly home…booooo. I really love Italy and could easily stay WAY longer. Guess we'll need to come back!

Bicycling in the Tuscan Countryside

Laura Domela — Mon, 26 May 2014 18:39:09 +0000

Our last booked tour of the trip was today: a cycling trip from Florence out into the Tuscan countryside. It wasn't a ton of cycling (just over 11 miles total) but it was still fantastic. I booked this through Artviva tours in Florence (this is the tour) and I would book again with them in a heartbeat (as long as we had Stefan as our guide!).

We started in town and met up with Stefan, and two other couples going on the tour/ride. We (as you already know) had our own bikes, and after we were given the "OK" that our bikes were suitable for the ride (specifically: the hills getting out of the city) we headed over to the bike shop to get everyone else's bikes, while getting a bonus walking tour of Florence from Stefan.

Here's the map of our day (click for larger version if you want):

We headed across the Arno and up the hill, stopping first at the Basilica di San Miniato atop a hill at one of the highest points in Florence.

In this shot you can see some of the old city wall that used to surround Florence, running up the hill, toward the right of the photo:

The front of the basilica:

Inside:

Then we rode on up the hill to the top, where we stopped and checked out Galileo's pad. Apparently when Galileo was politely asked to stop talking science to students and other gullible folks in Florence and perhaps even to leave the city, the Medici family gave him this nice hillside villa in which to live.

Next we headed into a beautiful restaurant called Trattoria Omero. Incredible views from this place in the Florentine hills.

We sat and dined on Tuscan meats, cheeses, Chianti, and some incredible pasta (one with a yellow pepper sauce, and another with a spicy tomato sauce) and finished with a nice espresso. Then, back on the bikes we went! (Stefan in front, then Kevin…nice path huh? This is a two-way road!)

Our next stop was Villa Le Piazzole where we'd been before on our 500 Touring Club day, but what was interesting is that this visit was completely different. So different, we weren't even sure we were at the same place until we were in the cellar! We came in through the back, so we saw the olive grove, the garden, and the bunnies!

We met the owner, his wife, one of their dogs, and tasted two wines: a white, the Bianca Toscana (Chardonnay 50% , Pinot 30% , Trebbiano 10% , Grechetto/Malvasia 5%) and the Rosso Toscana (Sangiovese 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%, Merlot 20%). Both were fabulous and we brought home one more (the Rosso) So now we have four bottles (it's Monday, and we leave Friday). Good thing we have friends coming over to our Florence apartment tomorrow night to help us with the wine (and the prosciutto, and salami, and formaggio) that we need to consume before we head home on Friday!

Here is Stefan, teaching us stuff about wine:

The villa, out back:

One of our roads home:

It was a really great day. I was worried after we got to Florence (after riding our bikes through Italy for a week) that I'd overplanned and overbooked us for tours we'd no longer enjoy. I was wrong. We've enjoyed every single tour we've done and neither of us would change a thing about this trip and the schedule. We've learned so much!

We came home, chilled and did some work for a few hours, and decided this was our night to try the traditional Bistecca alla Fiorentina (basically, a very high quality T Bone steak, grilled over a hot fire and served rare/medium rare, seasoned with salt and garnished with extra virgin olive oil at the table).

We showered and got dressed up a little and walked down the street (oh man, high heels on cobblestones) to All'Antico Ristoro di'Cambi.

Traditionally, Bistecca alla Fiorentina is served with white beans, but we ordered a side of sauteed spinach instead because I've been seriously missing my veggies while traveling in Italy. We also tried the pappa al pomodoro (tomato and bread soup) and theirs was a little spicy, and fabulous!

Our waiter was great and gave us spot-on recommendations, including his recommendation for a wine we'd never tried: a Villa Donoratico Bolgheri from an area on the Tuscan coast just south of Livorno (apparently one of the most prestigious vineyard areas). Anyway, it was great and paired perfectly with our Bistecca alla Fiorentina.

Night shot on the walk home along the Arno River:

Tomorrow we'll be sleeping in!! It's the first day in a while that we don't have anything planned that has us getting up at 7:30am. I plan to stop at the shoe shop down the road where Francesco makes custom leather sandals, and we will met our soon-to-be-wedded friends at their palazzo at 2pm for a walking tour around Florence, and then tomorrow night as I said we've got some friends coming by for a visit and a glass of wine. Should be a pretty chill day!

Late Dinner in Florence

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 May 2014 18:32:00 +0000

Tonight for dinner, we went here:

We walked in around 8:45pm (right smack in the middle of Florence dinner time…maybe a little on the early side even) and we made the "tavolo per due" sign with a question mark look on our faces and were told very nicely "within 10 minutes" and directed to a comfy bench next to the wine. In a few minutes, we were handed two small glasses of house wine. Well, we're off to a great start already!

We were seated before we'd finished the tiny glasses of wine, and all the food passing by our table looked great. We ordered an artichoke salad to share, and a papardelle with ragu of cinghiale (wild boar, their speciality), and a cinghale steak with roasted potatoes and sauteed spinach..also to share.

It's cool here in and around Florence (and maybe more of Italy, I don't know) because wild boar is a total nuisance animal. They run around and eat all the crops and people hunt them like crazy as a sort of "pest control" and "game food" combiation, so I don't feel bad eating them, at all. Plus, cinghiale is really good. (Too bad raccoon isn't known as a really yum thing to eat!)

Back at the apartment now, heading to bed, worrying about the big hill outta town in the morning. I'm probably worrying for nothing, but I think some of that is hereditary (hi Mom! love you!)