Guilty in Bologna I have been feeling a little bit guilty of not updating our blog as often as I would like, just a little. On previous trips, we often stopped to write, in hindsight we feel that it broke up the continuity of our experiences. This time we decided to enjoy every minute and write when we can. […]
We love Orvieto
Amazing beauty We love Orvieto for its amazing beauty and stunning hilltop views overlooking the green heart of Italy, Umbria. Our stay this time was a week, to unwind and prepare for our upcoming schedule. A quick romp A quick romp through Ottawa back home, taking care of business, a lost bag and delay in […]
Visiting the Colosseum & Ancient Rome with LivItaly Tours
LivItaly Tours When I booked a tour with LivItaly Tours, I didn’t realize it was the morning after we would be attending a birthday party for our good friend Linda from the Beehive. We decided we would walk across town to and from the party on a barge on the Tiber. Getting back to our […]
Movember: men’s health month
A lifetime ago It seems like a lifetime ago since I have written something about what we are actually doing with ourselves. The truth is pretty simple and by normal standards quite boring. As we have said before, we travel on our own terms which usually means on our own dime and it takes a […]
i-trak, the one item every traveller should own
Losing your luggage Losing your luggage is not something you think about when you’re organizing a trip. But sometimes things do go wrong, as we found out last week on our way to Europe. After our flight was delayed in Ottawa because of a snowstorm causing us to miss our connection in Toronto, we spent a good […]
Va Bene, capturing the flavours of traveling through Italy
VaBene A Cook Not Mad is heading to Northern Italy on another exciting tour. After logging thousands of miles, pictures and hundreds of recipes on previous trips to Italy the idea for our new book, Va Bene, was born. This trip will find us visiting some of our favourite spots and discovering plenty of new […]
The Extraordinary Italian Taste
The extraordinary Italian taste Have you ever returned home from the grocer only to discovered that the expensive bottle of what you thought was Italian olive oil is actually not Italian at all? The label sure looks Italian and the name sounds Italian, but what’s in the bottle has never set foot in Italy. It’s not […]
Tagliatelle con Zucchine e i Loro Fiori
West End farmers market The farmers market has finally started in the West End of Vancouver and we had our first walk through of the season a few weekends ago. It was a perfect day with the sun shining. A nice spread of veggies (organic and conventional), honey, preserves, farm fresh meat, even some tasty artisanal potato chips were […]