City of Florence We were looking forward to our extended stay in the wonderful city of Florence. We had visited a few times before and always wanted to sink into local living and get a feel for the place. The timing could not have been better since we had just endured a manic month and […]
The Karst, one of Italy’s best kept secrets
The Karst About an hour outside of Trieste is an incredible stretch of land that saddles both the Italian and Slovenian border. Accessible by city bus from the centre of town it’s a winding and fantastic ride along the steep shores leading out of Trieste as you climb onto a plateau above the city. The […]
Get caffeinated with the Trieste coffee pass
Trieste coffee pass We love coffee, so when we spotted the Trieste coffee pass while visiting the central tourism office we knew it was a must do while we were here. For a very affordable €3.00, we received a booklet with six tickets redeemable for one coffee each. A total of 8 antico cafes to […]
Montasio DOP: a perfect model of Italian industrialization
Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio Montasio Several emails back and forth with the Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio Montasio had us scheduled to visit a cheese factory a couple of hours outside of Trieste in Udine. We arrived in Udine and promptly located our host Isabella in the parking lot and after a […]
Laura and the food tour: a food-centric day in Turin
Food tour with Laura If you’ve never taken a food tour when visiting a new city or country, you are really missing out. Faced with the big city of Turin we had some ideas of the local dishes but wanted to get down to the root of the food scene and history and a tour […]
Gorgonzola, Protected Designation of Origin
Otherwise occupied Getting up early, I check the train schedule, grab some fruit and head to the station by myself. Tim being otherwise occupied with a virus that is draining his body of all fluids. The train to Novara is on time and as it makes its way towards the mountains, I notice the frost […]
Tales from the table: Merenda Reale
Merenda Reale We arrived at Caffè San Carlo for our 3:30 reservation, the place was empty except for a few people enjoying a drink while reading the paper. The first thing I thought was, “I hope you don’t plan on sleeping tonight”. Let me explain, our reservation was for the Merenda Reale (literally meaning royal […]
The straight DOP (& IGP) on balsamic vinegar
Modena If you’ve been following along you know that we had a pretty full dance card in Bologna. This day would be our longest yet but absolutely worth the effort. We woke up before the sun and made our way to the train station in order to make it to Modena to meet our hosts […]