youthful eating: Italy

Over Thanksgiving, I went to Italy for the first time. This is something I’ve wanted to do for so long I was thrilled beyond belief to do so. Now, all I want to do is plan our next trip to Italy. In fact, I want all my vacations for the rest of my life to be in Italy.

It was better than I could have imagined. We planned only a couple of guided tours in Rome, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, and left the rest of the time for us to wander about on our own in the beautiful city that truly is Eternal. In Florence we visited five museums in two days, but still had time to explore the amazing street life in this magnificent Renaissance city.

Oh, and the food. Obviously, it was something I was really looking forward to. I’ve been cooking most of my life and when I entertain, the only thing I can really cook is Italian. Over the years I’ve made home-made gnocchi and ravioli but upon returning from Italy we dug out the pasta maker and made fettuccine a few times just to bring us back to vacation mode. One of the things that had a huge impact on me was the fresh marinara sauce. Made with just a handful of ingredients and cooked for only 30 – 45 minutes. It tastes so fresh. Of course you need to use quality ingredients for this to happen, but once you do, it will be your go to sauce and you’ll never look back. I will share this recipe in a separate post. Here I want to show some of my favorite foods from our trip because it really is all about the food, right?

This was one of my favorite pastas. It's called cacio e pepe (cheese & pepper) and is a mainstay in Roman restaurants. So simple but delicious. It doesn't usually have the basil on top, but I added it since my son didn't want it on his pizza. I had this at Il Passetto in Rome.

Prosciutteria Coronari - wine bar in Rome

Next on my list of favorites was this homemade pasta with pomodoro fresco - fresh tomato sauce. I had it in a restaurant in Florence near the Duomo. It tastes as good as it looks. So fresh.

While in Florence, we stumbled upon Mercato Centrale - an Italian food court with a cheese monger, craft beer, wine, salumi, pizza, gelato, fresh-made pasta and chocolate. I think this is where we had the best pizza the entire trip which is the reason there is no photo. We were too busy eating it. We did have Florentine steak here.

My absolute favorite meal was on Thanksgiving day. We arrived mid-afternoon in Riomaggiore which is the first of 5 small villages in the Italian Riviera called Cinque Terre. Not only was it a beautiful sunny day, the views from our apartment and restaurant below were breathtaking. The best food we had was here at Dau Cila Ristorante. Fresh-made pasta with pesto, anchovies and fish caught just steps away and the best wine made right in Riomaggiore from a small vineyard.

The gelato was pretty consistent throughout Italy. Our favorite was Vivoli in Florence, but Rome has some great ones too. My favorite was the mocha mousse from Vivoli in Florence.