So it's been quite the week! As indicated by the title of this post I have hit five different cities throughout the past seven days, and yes I have consumed A LOT of pizza during this time.
While pizza may not seem like the most exciting gastronomical experience when traveling to foreign cities, one would be surprised by the variety I encountered from place to place. From inside out to black crust, these pizza pies were created with diversity in mind, and I can honestly say each one was as intriguing as it was delicious!
Pizza Pizza, definitely not "Lil Caesar's"
Our very first meal in Italy was pretty much as traditional is it gets, margarita pizza with a refreshing spritz. We dined at the chic Pizza Al Trancio, where cocktails come with flamboyant poses from the waitstaff and groups of sharply dressed young people sit back and sip vino al fresco (Sorry no pics! I forgot my camera).
The pizza was served by the slice, but one slice equaled about two and a half U.S. Sicilian slices. The crust was thick and doughy, with a buttery flavor ( imagine melted cheese and tomato sauce on pastry). The spritz was slightly bitter with a blend of orange and grapefruit infusion.
Parma, our next city, may have been the only stop that didn't include pizza.
"Parma ham", more commonly referred to as prosciutto, sufficed as our "Parma Pizza" at
Enoteca Fontana, Parma's highly touted wine bar and bistro.
The absence of Pizza in Parma was more than made up for when we hit Florence, where we had pizza twice in a period of 24 hours, and once as a second dinner following a "concept dining experience" at the eccentric Menagere restaurant.
First Dinner: premier course: The "Caprese" with tomatoe puree and mango gelati at Menagere.
Second dinner: Inside out pizza with baked brie
and ham. To-Die-For.
Our lunch the next day: organic thin crust pizza with spicy salami and flaky crust, yum! Don't forget the bottle of prosecco!
We did take a break from pizza to have dinner at the elegant Il Guscio located on the other side of Ponte Veccio. Famous among locals and tourists alike, Il Guscio combines down home Florencian cooking with sophisticated presentation, no wonder it's been awarded a michelin star! And we were not disappointed, I had the
Pappardelle Al Coniglio In Bianco Con Olive (pasta with rabbit!), and Gurpreet ordered Tagliata Di Manzo Con Pepe Verde, Rosmarino E Patate Arrosto, beef tenderloin with potatos.
The next day we were once again in transit, this time to our final city*, Venice, or as the natives call it, Venezia.
Tired and groggy, but still in good spirits... Looking forward to more Pizza in our next city!
Our first meal in Venice? You guessed it. Pizza. In an effort to save room for our much anticipated dinner at Al Covo (one of the most recognized seafood restaurants in Venice) we opted to share a pie; this time in honour of the floating city we sampled Pizza Pescatore, a delicious pizza topped with tomato sauce, mussels, octopus, clams, and shrimp (no pic, sorry).
Arriving at Al Covo that evening was an adventure in and of itself. taking nearly two hours to navigate the twists and turns of Venice's water labrynth and having only dim street lights to see, we were thankful just to have made it on time for our reservation!
Store window in Venice
Beginning our journey with the setting sun
Time is a' tickin
Yes! We made it to the right island! Now kust to find the restaurant . . .
And we made it! ( though it looks like everyone else left )
We did infact make it for our 9 pm dinner reservation, which we thought was late for dinner, but as we came to realize 9 pm was a perfectly normal and common hour in which to dine. In fact most Italian restaurants don't have their first seating until 8 pm, and usually reserve a minimum of one hour per seating (no rushing folks here!) shortly after we sat the tables began to fill up for their second seating of the evening.
I kid you not when I say the supper we were served here may have been the best overall dining experience we had in Italy. Gurpreet was on the fence when he saw that we were the youngest couple in the place (by like twenty years), but once he had his glass of Bianco Grigio and his fried seafood assortment, he was as happy as a clam, though not the Razor clams on his plate I'm sure. As for me, I had the steamed spider crab to start (a delicacy native to the waters of Venice) and the fresh catch of the day, a seared Tuna. Molto delizioso!
In addition to the excellent food, we were impressed by the exceptional service we received. After our meal we were able to chat with one of the waiters, whose parents were from Newfoundland and Brussels, but met and stayed in Florence where he was raised and still resided. He was studying Anthropology in Venice and planned to travel the world. Despite the language barrier, we managed to share a few laughs over the agrivations of "the industry" (universal to all waitstaff, no matter where you're from) and exchange interesting points of view on food, culture, and language.
To top off the evening we were brought complimentary gelati after declining dessert in favour of stopping off at one of venice's endless gelateries. "Now you can see which is better" he said to us as he dropped the two glasses on our table. We never did stop for gelati so I would go on faith that theirs takes the crown.
Okay, so we did stop off for more gelati, but we waited until the following morning at least ... Don't judge, It was really good!
Quite randomly our evening concluded with a ride on the "water bus", their version of subway, jampacked with all sorts of locals making their way home from work or out to have a drink with friends. I say random because we were not anticipating taking this bus, but ran into the station and a man selling his unlimited pass at discount. The bus happened to stop right where we were headed, and so we hopped aboard. Beats getting lost in Venezia's water labrynth again!
Not our bus, but the view from the side of what appeared to be a lit up pirate ship. We'll never know.
Our tour of Italy, and Pizza, concluded in a small village just outside of Malpensa airport in a suburb called Sempione. There we enjoyed a low key dinner in the hotel restaurant. By this point we were feeling a bit fed up with pizza and ordered pasta instead. Naturally we were surprised when they brought us this:
More pizza! But this time it was black and complimentary :)
It still tasted like pizza, but the crust was richer, imagine the difference between milk and dark chocolate, but with pizza. Well I guess you just have to try it.
And then our pasta arrived!
Oh and that wine you see is 1 liter, 8 euro! Wine is so cheap in Italy, I love it!
So that concludes my tour of Italy. I hope it was tastier than Olive Garden's. We are now ready to eat something other than Pizza, I hear Paris has excellent japonais et falafel, we will see! Until then I hope I sparked your appetite and as always, happy mindful eating!!! See you in Paris!
Peace Out Italy !
* our final city was technically Sempione, but for all intents and purposes, we considered Venice our final destination.
Please forgive errors in spelling, writing very tired!
