Day 6: Tuscan Sponge Cake (Although Today Deserved at least 5 Posts)

Today was filled with lots of walking and amazing food. We had a free hostel breakfast, went for a run in the beautiful local park, spent time souvenir shopping in town, and walked 10k to a nearby monastery. Overall, the walking made us quite hungry!

Our first two great dishes was at lunch. Kim had a penne pasta with sausage and rosemary while I tried the traditional Tuscan soup, a tomato, basil, olive oil, and bread soup. While it was salty, the bread added greet texture and the soup was perfect for a summer day.

Kim also tried her first tiramisu. It was very heavy in the mascarpone, which Kim enjoyed, over a thin layer of Sony cake. While not the best tiramisu I've had, it was definitely nice.

Dinner was even more amazing at Trattoria La Grotta. Kim and I shared two dishes: a spinach and ricotta gnocchi and a homemade spaghetti. I always thought gnocchi referred to potato dumplings, but, apparently it can be dumplings of any kind. These were large clumps of squishy spinach and ricotta topped with smooth tomato sauce. They were soft, cheesy, and delicious. The homemade spaghetti had thick strands of fresh pasta, much larger than the spaghetti commercially available in the US. It was topped with a tomato sauce with spicy red pepper and plenty of parsley along with a side of Parmesan cheese. It was a perfect combination of tomato-y and spicy all at once.

It only gets better from there. After much deliberation about dessert, we threw our options out the window at our waiter's suggestion. We ordered the lemon torte and Tuscan sponge cake. The lemon was like a lemon bar, in torte form, but better: amazingly lemony and perfectly tart, with a sweeter crunch crust. Finally, today winner, the Tuscan sponge cake was filled with a fluffy cream dotted dotted with chocolate an almonds, surrounded with a spongy cake layer, dusted with chocolate powder, with a chocolate sauce drizzled across the plate. It fluffy, sweet, and full of complex flavor, a perfect intersection in creamy desserts (Kim's preference) and chocolate ones (my favorite.)

We ended our evening in a square full of live music and dancers sipping on. a glass of wine, contemplating the amazing food experience here in Cortona. On to Florence tomorrow!

Day 4: The Dark Chocolate Gelato from al Polo Nord

You may have to pass through sketchy parts of town, keep all eyes and ears on the surrounding traffic, and be wary of Vespas trying to park exactly where you are standing whether or not it's on the sidewalk, the trip to al Polo Nord is worth it. Every flavor of gelato we tried was amazing: the incredibly tart lemon, the sweet and light strawberry, the rich banana, and the creamy dark chocolate, which was the overall winner.

Today, we had breakfast at the other Caffe Mexico, part of a franchise that included the one mentioned in yesterday's post. This Caffe Mexico was not quite as good, and while it had a similar physical set up, the food was slightly different. This mornings chocolate croissants were not filled pear and chocolate but rather nutella! Today Kim had chocolate in her cappuccino, and the barista swirled a heart into the cream and laughed when he saw me take a picture.

We hopped on a train full of sweaty stinky tourists and locals alike to Pompeii where we explored the ruins. Rather than paying for a guided tour, Kim and I took turns reading from Rick Steve's guidebook, and as a result found ourselves chatting with every other American tourist who was also reading from their Rick Steve guidebook.

The ruins were incredible--especially the ash preserved bodies-- and we found that Pompeii was a far more organized city than Naples, especially in terms of its cleanliness (the streets were washed daily) and the organization of its streets. I doubt many Pompeiian were nearly run over by chariots as they tried to cross the road.

After grabbing an overpriced caprese salad and salami and cheese sandwich, we set off towards home on that stinky, sweaty train where we bonded with a group of Americans from Virginia over the sweaty train and Rick Steve's guidebook. We chose to go grocery shopping and have a dinner of fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and yogurt. Finally, we took an excursion in the early evening to al Polo Nord, which was not only filled with gelato but also with amazing looking cakes and other treats pictured below. Tomorrow we say goodbye to the Neapolitan ghetto, and hello to the Tuscan countryside.

Day 3: The World's Best Cappuccino and a Chocolate Pear Croissant

If Italy has the best cappuccino in the world, and Italian's swear the best cappuccino can be found in Naples, and the best cappuccino in Naples is found at the hole in wall Caffe Mexico, that makes Kim's cappuccino this morning the best in the world. Along with the world famous cappuccino,we each had a chocolate croissant that, to our surprise, was also filled with pear. It had a fresh-out-of-the-oven warmth, and was made with soft, fluffy dough.

After breakfast we headed down Via Toledo, a street full of shops and free of Vespas. We checked out the shopped, and Kim tried a frozen coffee. We also stopped by a beautiful church, Chiesa Santa Bridiga. We had lunch at a restaurant on a small side alley. Kim tried the Pasta alla Carbonara, a pasta with egg, cheese, and bacon, while I had the Gnocchi alla Sorrenatta, which was covered in mozarella and tomato. Neither was fantastic although it was fun to try these traditional Italian dishes.

From there we took a ferry to the nearby island of Ischia, a common vacation spot of Italians and other Europeans. It is known for its beaches in addition to a beautiful castle sitting on the water and it's interesting variety of plants that grow in the area due to the volcanic dust in the soil. While on the island, we walked on the beach and tried the regional specialty, Sfogliatelle, a pastry filled with ricotta cheese and cream. It was warm, fluffy, and delicious!

Later on, after a day in the hot sun, we tried the island's best gelateria, which had a bin completely filled with Nutella. We were not quite sure if that was an option in addition to the ice cream flavors. Here we tried Bacio (hazelnut-chocolate), Mandarin, and Coffee. Kim liked the coffee best while I enjoyed my long-time favorite Bacio mixed with the zesty mandarin flavor. Additionally, Kim developed her Italian alter-ego, Margarita, after the man serving the gelato asked her multiple times if that was her name.

Finally we returned back to mainland Naples where we searched for a dinner restaurant. We found a place where Kim tried a very cheesy lasagna and I tried the mussels with pepper and lemon. Both were decent but we were too creeped out by the waiter to think too much about our food.

Day 1: Nothing But Airport Food

Today, Kim and I begin our travels through Italy and Spain. We flew from San Francisco Airport, stopped in Boston and Dublin where we currently wait for our connection to Naples, Italy.

So far our food adventures have been quite limited although the ravioli provided by Aer Lingus was actually pretty good. We did also try the local specialty here in Dublin, Ireland, Guinness beer.

Stay tuned for something a something a little more exciting in the remaining
17 Days of Excellent Eats.

Day 2: Authentic Italian Pizza

We landed in Naples around noon and started our day with about 2 hours of sleep and tons of adrenaline. We decided to take a walking tour of the city that passed 2 very authentic pizzerias and the oldest gelateria in the city. (Naples is the hometown
of Italian pizza.) Unfortunately, on a Sunday afternoon during siesta hours, not much was open and the city was dead. We went to one of the famous pizzerias where Kim ordered a pizza with tomato, mozzarella, ham, olives, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. I got the classic margarita pizza. Both our pizzas were delicious, scantly covered with cheese and baked with a crust so thin the pizza could hardly stay together. Our pizzas were also HUGE although the restaurant claimed they were personal sized. Since we couldn't finish even half our pizzas, we took two boxes to go and carried then around the city for the rest of the afternoon.

By the time we had finished eating our pizza the famous Italian gelateria was closed, but we strolled through the city toward the Duomo, or cathedral. Mostly everything was closed and the streets were dead apart from crazy Vespas and the occasional tourist, but we enjoyed nonetheless. We learned quickly that most streets do not have street signs, crosswalks, or sidewalks, and relayed on our skill acquired from 3 years of dodging bikes at Davis to avoid being hit by the wild Vespa drivers.

We found ourselves by the dock in the late afternoon and grabbed a gelato. I had 2 of my favorite flavors, hazelnut and chocolate, while Kim tried the cookies and cream. I didn't find the gelato as good as other gelatos I had tried in Italy, but Kim enjoyed trying it for the first time.

Finally, exhausted from the walk and the lack of sleep, we made our way back to our hostel, just as the rest of Naples was emerging from their siestas. I guess we will have to see what the place is like with people in it tomorrow.

Day 19: Pistachio

Today was our last day in Italy. We woke up early to get to the Vatican before the crowds. We went on a guides tour through the museum and the Sistine Chapel. The museum was mostly interesting because it was so beautifully built. However, the crowds were enormous. The Sistine Chapel was absolutely beautiful. The walls were colorful and vibrant.

After all that walking around, we decided it was gelato time! We went to a mediocre place nearby because it was so hot we didn't want to wait to eat something cold. We tried rum raisin, snickers, and ovetto kinder none of them were that great. We went home for lunch and a nap before heading to Trastevere, a popular neighbor near the river. We had a full Italian dinner, with clams in white wine sauce, spinach and ricotta cannoli, pumpkin gnocchi, and meat dishes for our "secondi." We were so full! Italian portions may be small, but their meals are huge.

Finally, we wandered the area, which was lively until late into the night. The river was lined with shops, restaurants, bars, and live music. We chanced upon a heaters that only served pistachio and tried some out of curiosity. It turned out to be extremely fluffy and well flavored. I even liked it, and I don't really like pistachios.

Day 18: Vanilla Cream

Our second to last day of Italy involved spending a lot of time in one museum, the National Museum of Rome. We've learned throughout our stay here that museums are not what they advertise. For example, we went to this museum to see the Balbi Crypt. Turns out, the crypt was only one body which had been reserved. The museum also had exhibits on old Roman money, tons and tons of marble statues, and some beautiful mosaics. However, he captivating part, for us, was the recreation of one of Hans Christian Anderson's fairytales. After seeing the exhibit on the fairytale, we stayed to watch the movie version on the second floor, which was in Danish with Italian subtitles. Nonetheless, the movie was enjoyable and used the same props that were displayed in the museum. Afterwards, we left to go see the Roman Baths, which turn out to be in the same museum but in a different building.

When we were finally museumed out, we stopped for gelato. I finally tried banana along with a delicious chocolate. Amy had coffee and raspberry yogurt. Sarah, unsuspectingly tried a new flavor by ordering vanilla Creme, which was voted Flavor of the Day, along with tiramisu. Finally we stopped for groceries and sat up on our rooftop patio to watch the sunset and enjoy our second to last evening in Italy. (photos below)