Jump to content

The Italy Thread


sidis

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Staking my opinion that food in Italy, as a whole, is less good than everyone gives it credit for.

But Rome being below "average for any major city", is one of the more inane statements thrown around in this thread.

Biggest thing I learned from eating Italian food in Italy is how much we over-sauce Italian food in the states

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, AustinMT said:

Biggest thing I learned from eating Italian food in Italy is how much we over-sauce Italian food in the states

Italian-Americans have fooled you into thinking they know how to cook Italian food.   Garlic goes in everything!!!!11!!  They don't. It's a kin to saying Panda Express is chinese food or Taco Bell is Mexican.   Their grandparents came over like a 100 years ago and the recipes have been lost or morphed to fit local ingredients.

Just try and find guanciale to make an honest Carbonara.  Turns out you can't. (Amazon has it but it seems like it might be hit or miss)   Nobody carries it and it might not even be legal to import.  

Watch some Italian chefs lose their shit watching Gringos   Turn on CC

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Loco said:

Italian-Americans have fooled you into thinking they know how to cook Italian food.   Garlic goes in everything!!!!11!!  They don't. It's a kin to saying Panda Express is chinese food or Taco Bell is Mexican.   Their grandparents came over like a 100 years ago and the recipes have been lost or morphed to fit local ingredients.

Just try and find guanciale to make an honest Carbonara.  Turns out you can't. (Amazon has it but it seems like it might be hit or miss)   Nobody carries it and it might not even be legal to import.  

Watch some Italian chefs lose their shit watching Gringos   Turn on CC

 

I agree with the Spirit of your post but

 

(1) garlic does go in everything

(2) guanciale was easy to find in cm/wf even a decade ago when I lived in houston

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, we ain't got shit in the quiet backwater of S Florida.  There are few stores here run by honest to god, from Italy, Italians.   They make their own cheeses etc...  I went in and asked them.  They gave me the name of a few smaller specialty markets...  went to those and got shutdown.  Was told just to just use Panchetta or order off Amazon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Loco said:

Well, we ain't got shit in the quiet backwater of S Florida.  There are few stores here run by honest to god, from Italy, Italians.   They make their own cheeses etc...  I went in and asked them.  They gave me the name of a few smaller specialty markets...  went to those and got shutdown.  Was told just to just use Panchetta or order off Amazon.

Yeah usually I just drop to pancetta, and failing that, cubed bacon.

Apparently there's an American company making guanc (it may very well be what i bought), and they distribute across FL particularly whole foods

http://laquercia.us/find_stores

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Yeah usually I just drop to pancetta, and failing that, cubed bacon.

Apparently there's an American company making guanc (it may very well be what i bought), and they distribute across FL particularly whole foods

http://laquercia.us/find_stores

 

 

I checked TJ's, Lucky's, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Publix, Winn Dixie, Doris' Italian Market, Il Paesano ...etc

Was highly motivated this was going to be a Valentine's Day Dinner and pussy was on the line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread has me psyched. The wife and I are heading to a friend's wedding this summer in Tuscany. In all, we'll have three days in Rome, two days in Florence, and two in rural Tuscany with exact locations TBD. Aside from places already mentioned, where are the best places to eat in Rome and Florence, and where else in Tuscany should we visit/stay? Siena is an early contender, but I'm interested to hear what y'all think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Saint Austin said:

This thread has me psyched. The wife and I are heading to a friend's wedding this summer in Tuscany. In all, we'll have three days in Rome, two days in Florence, and two in rural Tuscany with exact locations TBD. Aside from places already mentioned, where are the best places to eat in Rome and Florence, and where else in Tuscany should we visit/stay? Siena is an early contender, but I'm interested to hear what y'all think.

Quattro Leoni in Florence is fucking great.  Specifically the Fiochetti with pears.  Damn.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Saint Austin said:

This thread has me psyched. The wife and I are heading to a friend's wedding this summer in Tuscany. In all, we'll have three days in Rome, two days in Florence, and two in rural Tuscany with exact locations TBD. Aside from places already mentioned, where are the best places to eat in Rome and Florence, and where else in Tuscany should we visit/stay? Siena is an early contender, but I'm interested to hear what y'all think.

You'll have a great time.

My recommendations:  Take them for what they are worth, others on this thread have a lot more experience than I do...

Rome: 

  • Go get some Supli in Trastevere
  • Get a walking food tour on the 1st night  help you get your bearings and try some stuff you'd probably never find.  Then you can re-visit later
  • Wanted to do this Villa D'Este in Trivoli  *there are NO water pumps*   
  • Save this for the plane... The more you know .gif

 

 

Tuscany:

  • Loved Pienza, but it's tiny.
  • Siena One of the best meals I've had in Italy.  ... Osteria Da Divo
  • Quiet afternoon outdoors...  Really enjoyed just relaxing    bring bathing suit   Bagni San Flippo
  • I liked visiting Siena, but I would want to stay in a smaller town or in a villa in the countryside.  You'll need a car in Tuscany anyways.  Avoid ZTLs

Florence:

  • EABOD  don't speed, better yet don't drive in or near Florence
  • Wasn't my cup of tea, when I was there it seemed more crowded and Disney-like
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Loco said:

Just try and find guanciale to make an honest Carbonara.  

This is the bane of my existence. But done with pancetta is totally acceptable. The part most people, as in like 99.9% of people, fuck up is using the pasta heat properly to get the eggs silky enough. If you are good at that then even bacon works pretty well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

spacer.pngRoman food is excellent... Roman food in the touristy places is decidedly meh.  Dishes like Cacio e Pepe, Carbonara, Amatriciana, Abbacchio a Scottadito are exceptional when made properly.  Suppli' are so simple and so divine.  And the cuisine changes from town to town, valley to valley.  Yes, the food in Northern Italy is great but what does that mean?  My hometown of Bologna has drastically different food that Torino or Bolzano.  The lardo you get in Valle d'Aosta is completely different than how they serve it in Modena.  And the south?  Siciliy has completely different food than what you get in Puglia.  The food in Puglia is amazing, fresh, usually healthy and cheap.

 

lmeydYU.jpg 

 

Or passatelli in Le Marche or Romagna... something you will never find in the US but is so good.  (Basically pasta made out of bread crumbs, cheese and eggs and pushed through a strainer to make the shapes)

xpNCxLK.jpg

Edited by texasdago
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Do y'all mind if I dust this thread off?

Taking the family on a COVID tested flight in July for 14-15 nights.  Have pretty much carte blanche as an itinerary so planning to show the kids Rome for a few days (have a killer AirBNB lined up) and then explore the rest of the country in the rest of the allotted time.  Trying to finalize everything in the next week or two so I can stop worrying about it.

I don't think I've ever been more excited to GTFO of the states for a vacation, though part of me really wonders what we're walking into.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Pick a region. Italy is far too big and diverse to explore the rest of the country in two weeks. 

This.  I did parts of Tuscany, Cinque Terre, Florence, Como, and the Dolomites in 17 days and we were going full bore the whole time.  It was great, but no way could we have done Rome and southern Italy also.

Edited by Biff Tannen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Pick a region. Italy is far too big and diverse to explore the rest of the country in two weeks. 

Agree with this and with Biff.

In 2014 we did Milan, Barolo, Cinque Terre, Verona, and Venice over about 14 days.  It was fun, but exhausting. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Pick a region. Italy is far too big and diverse to explore the rest of the country in two weeks. 

Good advice.  First trip to Italy we did Rome and Florence for a week, and there were still things we missed out on.

2nd trip we did Amalfi Coast for 5 days, and could have spent more time.

I want to spend 2 weeks just in Tuscany.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Third or fourth picking a couple of places for 2 weeks. At most, I would do 3 cities given your time line.

Our second trip we did Rome, Siena, Pisa, Bologna, Venice and Florence. It’s doable as the train rides between the cities aren’t more than 3 hours or so, but in hindsight it was a little too much.

Don’t go to Pisa unless you just really want to see the Leaning Tower. There isn’t a whole lot to do there other than the Tower.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/7/2019 at 7:32 AM, South Austin said:

 

Try driving into Cinque Terre.  My wife drove us on narrow roads along a 200-foot sheer drop, and I must have lost two pounds of water weight sweating the whole way. 

And that was stressful? Huh that's weird

Edited by BHMCruiser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pick a region. Italy is far too big and diverse to explore the rest of the country in two weeks. 

Dilly dilly. Our first trip we were in Rome for about a week with a day trip to Florence. The whole-nation highlight reel is always a mistake in Europe.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

part of me really wonders what we're walking into.


I’m not really sure what you mean by this, but given the literal answer is two weeks in Italy in the summer with a huge chunk of the typical summer crowd gone, get excited.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Pick a region. Italy is far too big and diverse to explore the rest of the country in two weeks. 

Agree and that was my bad in fucking up what I said...I didn't mean to suggest we'd see the entire country in two weeks but we do have flexibility to really go anywhere outside of Rome and I figured a couple of stays would be very enjoyable.  Venice is high on my list since I've never been although my wife has and she thinks 2-3 nights will be plenty there, which leaves roughly a week for somewhere else.

Thanks for all the feedback...when y'all are hitting some of these regions like Tuscany...is a car rental an absolute must or can you get around moderately well enough between trains and cabs?    When I looked at a car rental outside of Florence the rates were just absurd.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love driving around Italy when I get to a place that I'll spend a little time in.  Be careful of the signs and speed limits.  They love to send tickets to foreigners.

Trains between metro areas like Florence and Rome and drive in the countryside.  Just know that a LOT of Italians are bicyclists so watch those blind curves in the hills.

ETA: There is no way I'd drive in Rome or Naples.  It's insanity. 

Edited by VABuckeye
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, McCroskey said:

Agree and that was my bad in fucking up what I said...I didn't mean to suggest we'd see the entire country in two weeks but we do have flexibility to really go anywhere outside of Rome and I figured a couple of stays would be very enjoyable.  Venice is high on my list since I've never been although my wife has and she thinks 2-3 nights will be plenty there, which leaves roughly a week for somewhere else.

Thanks for all the feedback...when y'all are hitting some of these regions like Tuscany...is a car rental an absolute must or can you get around moderately well enough between trains and cabs?    When I looked at a car rental outside of Florence the rates were just absurd.

Rental car rates are insane everywhere right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

I love driving around Italy when I get to a place that I'll spend a little time in.  Be careful of the signs and speed limits.  They love to send tickets to foreigners.

Trains between metro areas like Florence and Rome and drive in the countryside.  Just know that a LOT of Italians are bicyclists so watch those blind curves in the hills.

ETA: There is no way I'd drive in Rome or Naples.  It's insanity. 

I rented a convertible BMW and drove all over the country.  It was phenomenal.  Tuscany especially.  Driving in the big cities, especially Florence, not so much.  You're just asking to end up with a ticket for being in a restricted area and it's basically impossible anyway, but you can park outside and walk in.  Same with Siena.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't seen this mentioned but do a search for agriturismo's in the Tuscany region if you are looking for cool places to stay (agriturismo.it) - we did it a few years ago when we lived in Europe and had a blast.  They are basically family farms/vinyards where they have converted part of it to apartments and you usually get meals with the family and other guests if you want... Near Rome, we stayed at a ranch that was inside the caldera of a volcano and had a huge apartment 93 rooms and a kitchen and living room) 20 minutes  south of Florence that was something like $150/night for 4 of us...

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Grimas said:

I haven't seen this mentioned but do a search for agriturismo's in the Tuscany region if you are looking for cool places to stay (agriturismo.it) - we did it a few years ago when we lived in Europe and had a blast.  They are basically family farms/vinyards where they have converted part of it to apartments and you usually get meals with the family and other guests if you want... Near Rome, we stayed at a ranch that was inside the caldera of a volcano and had a huge apartment 93 rooms and a kitchen and living room) 20 minutes  south of Florence that was something like $150/night for 4 of us...

Yes. This man is wise. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

I love Venice but I really want to rent an apartment in Montalcino or Montepulciano or Greve right on the piazza for a while and just live like a local.  The food, the wine, the views.  Amazing.

I love Montalcino.  The fort at the top of the hill is awesome, even if it is a little worrisome climbing up those stairs.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Grimas said:

I haven't seen this mentioned but do a search for agriturismo's in the Tuscany region if you are looking for cool places to stay (agriturismo.it) - we did it a few years ago when we lived in Europe and had a blast.  They are basically family farms/vinyards where they have converted part of it to apartments and you usually get meals with the family and other guests if you want... Near Rome, we stayed at a ranch that was inside the caldera of a volcano and had a huge apartment 93 rooms and a kitchen and living room) 20 minutes  south of Florence that was something like $150/night for 4 of us...

Dug through my emails after I posted and it was closer to $250 a night but here's the place we went to south of Florence:  https://www.letorri.com/ It's been a few years but the site above gives you lots of options...

Details:

I confirm you with this e-mail, availability for 4 nights from 13th of December to 17th , in a three-room 4 people, at the total price of Euro 252,00.

Apartment without extra charge, included final cleaning, taxes, weekly linen (not towels for pool), gas, electricity and heating in the price.

  

DESCRIPTION THREE-ROOM 4 PEOPLE.

In the three  room-apartments there is a living room-kitchen, a master bedroom with double bed and bathroom, and another bedroom with two single beds, and a bathroom, for a total 80mt2.

  

IN THE HEART OF TUSCANY.

Le Torri Villa is about 20 km. from Florence,  30 Km from San Gimignano,  50 km from Siena,  60 km. from Pisa and 230 km from Rome.  The kilometers are more or less equal to the time you'll take to reach each city. Bus service connection with Florence City. At your arrival full information and details maps

 

Oh, typo - not 93 rooms but 3...

Edited by Grimas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

I have three bottles of Brunello aging from there right now. 

The wineries we visited along the way were Abbadia Ardenga and Il Paradiso Di Frassina.  That was now 14 years ago so who knows if they are even still around.  Abbadia Ardenga has the original well that travelers (from the north) would have made their last stop for water before completing the trip to Rome.  Il Paradiso Di Frassina was owned by a lawyer who had moved from Milan.  He loved classical music and would run large speakers into the vineyard so he could listen to the classics while tending to the grapes. He discovered that the fields with the speakers blasting the classical music tended to grow larger grapes.  They attributed it the sound waves in the soil scared off intruders.  They entered into a study with the U of Florence, but I never saw any conclusions they reached.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, McCroskey said:

Agree and that was my bad in fucking up what I said...I didn't mean to suggest we'd see the entire country in two weeks but we do have flexibility to really go anywhere outside of Rome and I figured a couple of stays would be very enjoyable.  Venice is high on my list since I've never been although my wife has and she thinks 2-3 nights will be plenty there, which leaves roughly a week for somewhere else.

Thanks for all the feedback...when y'all are hitting some of these regions like Tuscany...is a car rental an absolute must or can you get around moderately well enough between trains and cabs?    When I looked at a car rental outside of Florence the rates were just absurd.

I'd say one to 2 days max in Venice... Ride a gondola, walk over the bridge and eat some black squid-in pasta and hope it doesn't flood.... We flew in there several times as you could get something like $30/person for flights the airport from where we lived. On the second visit there, we skipped Venice all together and drove up and over the Adriatic and went to Croatia instead...  3rd trip there, we hopped on the train and headed east to Turin with stops in Verona and Milan (with a detour north to stay on Lake Como), 

Florence to Pisa to Lucca is a nice day trip...

That being said, unless it's a beach resort in SE Asia, I'm more like Chevy Chase in Vacation at the Grand Canyon - yea it's nice... Another damn church... Next stop!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Hate said:

I love Montalcino.  The fort at the top of the hill is awesome, even if it is a little worrisome climbing up those stairs.

La Fortezza in the castle alongside with the enoteca in Greve are the two best wine rooms I've ever tasted in.  About 10% of my wine that is aging is Brunello that came from La Fortezza.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/1/2021 at 10:17 PM, VABuckeye said:

Pick a region. Italy is far too big and diverse to explore the rest of the country in two weeks. 

Starting to plan a trip.  We were planning on going last summer.  Is 4 days in Rome, 3 in Cinque Terre, and a week in Florence/Tuscany too much?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, conVINCEd said:

Starting to plan a trip.  We were planning on going last summer.  Is 4 days in Rome, 3 in Cinque Terre, and a week in Florence/Tuscany too much?

That's almost exactly what we have booked. We arrive in Rome on Sunday morning, head to the Cinque Terre on Wednesday, leave for Tuscany on Saturday, head back toward Rome airport the next Friday and fly out Saturday. It's our first time, but everything we read in planning seemed to agree with what we booked. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...