1. Maria Grammatico’s Bitter Almonds cookbook We visited Erice in Sicilia this year after being told by many Sicilians that one of their best pastry chefs lived there and was named Maria Grammatico. Eastern Sicilia is the most famous for the pastries as it the Arabs, who introduced their art of pastry to Sicilia, had…
The Disneyland Small World of Food: Salone del Gusto
Arriving at Slow Food’s Salone del Gusto (a 4 day food fair in Turin) on Thursday was essentially my idea of what arriving in heaven would be like; a combination of travel adventure and food voyage- a Disney’s Small World of food. Although I thought I knew most foods in the world as I am fairly well travelled, I…
The Valley of Many Cellars
In a lovely little valley studded with villas and vast estates, some of the best wine in Italy is produced. Valpolicella is a mixture of Greek and Latin and means valley (val) of many (poli) cellars (cella). It sits in an enviable position in Veneto to the east of Lago di Garda, protected from the worst…
The Italian Lake District: Lago di Garda
We visited the picturesque town of Sirmione, which is located on a peninsula jutting 4 km into the southern part of Lago di Garda and is complete with a lakeside 13th century castle entrance to the old town. The town was called “heaven on earth” by Maria Callas and is famous for its thermal springs. Today there are…
Why do people from 180 countries come to a village in Lombardia on the same day every year?
Every year around the 24th of June, people from 180 countries around the world convene at Solferino, a tiny town of 2,000 inhabitants south of Lake Garda in Lombardia. Solferino is surrounded by farmland and has a beautiful Mantuan square, Piazza Castello (so named because there used to be an 11th century castle here). The…
Franciacorta: Champagne’s younger sister
Franciacorta, located to the west and south of Lago d’Iseo in Lombardia, is a sea of neatly arranged rows of green covering 6,000 hectares. It is a peaceful oasis in which grows Italy’s answer to Champagne. Great wine is often grown in areas of great beauty and Franciacorta is no exception. There are 80…
The Italian Lake District: Lago di Como
We spent a few weeks wandering along Lago di Como, Lago d’Iseo and Lago di Garda. We drove through fields of corn and rice, forests and vineyard after vineyard. Throughout we found a patchwork of wineries and farms. We started from Milano stopping off at Tarantola restaurant hidden in the woods. The woods themselves…
Taste the real Sardegna: Gastronomic adventures
Many people flock to Sardegna for the perfect blue skies and spectacular coastline, opting for seafood in the Mediterranean heat but I think this is a mistake. They are overlooking the tradition of this pastoral island and the unique culture of the Sardinians. We stayed at a farm hotel (agriturismo) near Alghero called Sa Mandra,…
Happiest sheep in the world?
Sardegna may be home to some of the happiest sheep in the world, thoughtfully grazing overlooking some of the most spectacular coastline in the world. This is reflected in the cheese. The morning we went to the farm of Sa Mandra in Alghero, they were churning the ewe’s milk to make ricotta. First they put…
Scotland’s more exotic cousin?
Before coming to Sardegna, I had always heard of the pastoral heritage of the island influencing the meat-laden cuisine, leading to a vision of a tropical Scotland in my mind. I had not expected the raw beauty of the arid vegetation, called the macchia mediterranea, contrasted against some of the most striking coastline in the…