Locks of Love

I started getting really excited about going to Paris after reading this article on CNN.com. The author had been to Paris before, so used this trip to wander around the city sans the visits to the major monuments and museums that populate the agendas of most tourists. Since I’d also been to Paris before, I thought it was a perfect approach, and, to be honest, I’m kind of on sight seeing overload right now.

Anyway, the article started with a photo of a bridge that was filled with locks inscribed with messages of love. I loved the image and the idea. It seems so wonderfully hopeful and unjaded, in a way that you really don’t imagine for the typical Parisian. Maybe the romantics buying and inscribing the locks are mostly tourists?

Whatever the case, it was so fun to see. The article mentions one bridge in particular – Pont des Arts – but I saw them on several pedestrian bridges.

It reminded me a bit of the end of Love Actually (it’s Christmas time and I’m a girl, so I’m allowed to bring up that movie, ok?) where there are a thousand different scenes of people lovingly greeting each other in the airport, and finally, they reference the title of the movie when the voiceover says that “love, actually is all around us.”

Clearly, I always cry at that part. But to be honest, I hardly ever see anything in real life that makes me feel that way.

Aside from these locks. So that, in (not-so) brief, is why I absolutely loved seeing them.

PS – my internet is back on!

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Venice 101

 

Technically, Venice is a part of Italy. But after having spent a month in Rome, I felt like I was in a different country the second we arrived there. Obviously, the city is completely surrounded by water, so that plays a huge role in differentiating it from the rest of the country, but it also has a very unique, Venice-specific culture.

That culture is worthy of a primer course before your visit. Below are some things you should know before you travel to Venice, or, if you don’t have a trip planned, some (hopefully) fun reading.

Gondolas
In my Venice fantasies, I traveled everywhere on a gondola. In a city with so much water and so many gondolas, they must be a cheap, quick and convenient method of transport, right?

Nope. In reality, they are none of those things. Taking a gondola ride is really expensive (I’m talking 80-100+ Euros for a 2km trip expensive). I found that it’s better to readjust your expectation of what the purpose of the gondola ride is. It’s most certainly not for getting from point A to point B.

The gondola ride is an experience, more comparable to taking a horse & carriage ride through Central Park or riding a rollercoaster at an amusement park than to taking a cab. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime type experience at that, so I highly recommend it, but realistically, if you want to pony up the cash, you’ll take one 20 minute ride and that’s it.

Vaporetto
The more practical method of transport in Venice is via the public transportation system, hopping on and off ferry boats called vaporettos. They’re still not cheap; a single ride ticket is 6.50 Euros. Sidenote: this prompted an American who we were waiting next to on the docks to scream “6.50 to take the bus??!! Are they f***ing kidding me??” Valid point, but it is still a boat, so it’s much cooler than the bus. If you’re going to take the vaporetto a few times, it makes sense to buy a pass. Unlimited use for 24 hrs will run you 18 Euros.

I will say that vaporettos are still not a particularly efficient way of getting around. You’ll generally have to wait between 5 and 10 minutes for one to arrive, and be prepared to stand in tight quarters with other travelers and make frequent stops before arriving at your destination.

Cicchetti
I just loved the idea of cicchetti. They are little hors d’oeuvres or tapas, say bruschetta or fried seafood, that are available during the early evening hours at many wine bars and wine shops around Venice. Each costs about 1-2 Euros, and you take your snack and your glass of wine and enjoy it inside the shop or, better yet, outside on the street. The scene was so lively at each of the little bars we visited – a bunch, including Al Merca, pictured above, were around the Rialto bridge – and you really could make a meal just of bar hopping and eating cicchetti all night. When I open my wine/cheese/soup/book shop back in the US/my fantasies, I’ll definitely incorporate this concept.

And,  finally, a couple of other things to note about the Venetian dialect which are a little different from the rest of Italy:

• A square is referred to as a “campo,” not a “piazza”
• Streets are called “calle” not “via”
• A “sestiere” is a neighborhood
• A wine bar is a “bacaro,” rather than an enoteca

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Disconnected

My apologies, internet friends. I know it’s been a while.

A big part of the reason for my prolonged absence from the web is that the internet connection at our humble abode has been inexplicably broken for two weeks now. Apparently our phone line got crossed with a neighbor’s, disabling the wi-fi and causing us to receive numerous calls from Italians looking for a lady named Gabriella. It’s been fun.

But, more fun than that, we’ve had a bunch of visitors in town, and I’ve been spending my days playing tour guide and pretending I know everything about Rome. I visited all of the city’s major sites again, and eaten a lot. Walking everywhere is no longer preventing my pants from becoming tight.

And, in between those visits, I spent a few days in Berlin and Paris.

Needless to say, there’s lots to share about the past few weeks. Here’s to hoping the internet connection is restored today, so I can leave the coffee shop and do it from the comfort of my couch, in my pajamas, like a real blogger. Fingers crossed!

 

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Venice in November

I have always wanted to visit Venice. Especially after reading The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, who also famously wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

If you haven’t read the book, it brings Venice to life in much the same way as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil does for Savannah. All of the Venetians Berendt features seems completely free-spirited and brilliant and crazy, and he makes Venice seem totally unique and intriguing – which it is.

In the book, the city itself feels so magical and insane and amazingly compelling that by the end, you feel an almost physical need to get there ASAP.

I first read it over 5 years ago, so I definitely didn’t get there quickly, but it was worth the wait.

The city is decaying, maybe sinking, and definitely in the midst of a really, really delicate ecosystem. It all feels so fleeting and precious, and I loved it the second our train pulled into the train station (on tracks surrounded on both sides by water).

Despite the fact that the November weather was mostly rainy and overcast, I was thankful that we visited when we did.

I’ve heard a lot about how crowded with tourists the tiny island becomes, with many cruise ships dropping off day trippers during the high season, which is March – October, so I was really happy to miss the overwhelming tourist rush.

We were able to take in the key sites – including the Basilica di San Marco, which is famous for its long lines – very easily, which freed up time for some important stuff, like getting lost in the windy back streets, taking a gondola ride and enjoying chicchetti.

I felt so lucky to be there.

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Southern Style Pesto

I’m still dreaming of this Southern-style pesto sauce we made in cooking class last week. It was so bright and fresh, and better yet, it’s really, really simple to make. There are only six ingredients, and with the help of an immersion blender or mini food processor, all you have to do is buy the ingredients and blend them together. 

 

It’s great to use as a dipping sauce for any kind of fried starter (which is what we did in class), or as a sauce over your pasta, or even drizzled over some fresh mozzarella.

Basically, an excellent and deceptively simple way to impress guests while doing hardly anything at all. I love deceit! A win-win for everyone!

Southern Style Pesto
(courtesy Chef Andrea Consoli)

Three handfuls, cherry tomatoes
1 T extra virgin olive oil
Handful of almonds
Pinch of salt
2 garlic cloves
A few leaves of fresh basil

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor.
If the sauce is too liquid, add some parmesan cheese and blend again.
Bow. Serve.

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Day Trip to Naples

I’ve decided that I haven’t been traveling around Italy enough. Don’t get me wrong: I love Rome (even though I’m guilty of hating on it sometimes), but there are so many other things to see in the country, and I’m really itching to take advantage of it.

In that spirit, I took a day trip to Naples last week. It’s only a two hour train ride from Rome, so it’s really doable for a day.

I wasn’t sure what to expect; I’ve heard wildly conflicting reports of the city. One one hand, that it’s loud, crowded, graffiti-laden and filled with trash. On the other, that it’s full of energy, has delicious cuisine and a vibrant culture.

Being that I was only there for a day, I’m not ready to weigh in yet, but here are two things I will tell you:

(1) the city has some seriously fantastic water views (check out Mount Vesuvius in the background)

(2) They were right about the graffiti. It was everywhere, including on monuments,

 

and even on the rocks by the sea.

I feel like there’s so much more to explore there, so I’m heading back again tomorrow. If you have any reccommendations for things to check out (especially pizza!), please let me know in the comments.

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The Flower Truck

I know I write a lot about flowers, but they make me happy. I can’t help it.

I’ve been seeing a bunch of flower trucks around Rome recently. They are so adorable! The driver will either drive around making deliveries, or park on a street corner and sell to passersby.

It’s one of those things that’s just so incredibly simple and beautiful and European. It always puts a smile on my face.

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Foodie Heaven in Vienna

I was pleasantly surprised about how good the food was in Vienna. As I mentioned here, the street food was excellent, seriously every restaurant we went to was delicious (post on this to come shortly), and to top it off, it’s home to Naschmarkt.

Naschmarkt is Vienna’s most popular food market. It’s a small strip of food vendors quite close to Museumsquartier, and within it, you’ll find food vendors galore: everything from fresh fruits & vegetables to freshly caught fish, butchers, cheese shops, spice shops and wine and beer stands.

Quite simply, it’s heaven for food lovers. You can find anything your little heart desires.

It’s the kind of place that makes you want to buy whatever produce looks the best and rush home and cook up a feast immediately. Plus, mixed in within its stalls are gourmet restaurants and an antiques market on Saturdays.

We had lunch at a posh restaurant spot called Nemi. Given how much Italian food we’ve been downing, is menu of Israeli and Middle Eastern specialties was super refreshing.

My only regret? That we didn’t have more time to explore. I could have spent weeks here.

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Time Out

Usually, I try to be pretty positive in this little corner of the internets. At the moment, I’m taking a siesta from work, living in Rome and traveling around Europe, eating good food, drinking good wine. I know I’m lucky. Life is very good. So let’s be real: I don’t have that much to complain about. And, really, no one would want to hear about it if I did.

That being said, I hope you’ll offer me this one small minute and allow me a brief venting session. A little time out, if you will.

Sometimes life in Italy is just hard. As I often hear from people here, la dolce vita has two sides.

The food here is, for the most part, excellent. But the service? It generally ranges from indifferent to flat out hostile. Many waiters seem genuinely annoyed that you’re at their place of business, expecting them to take your order and bring you food in exchange for money. Yesterday at lunch, I waited 45 minutes for someone to offer me a menu or a glass of water. Two hours later, when I got my check, it had a “cover charge” on it (aka a charge just for sitting down at a table, in addition to the service charge which is included). That’s been illegal in Rome for years, but no matter, I’m not an Italian, so charge me anyway if you please!

Even worse, over the weekend, we went to a restaurant with a Michelin star, and waited close to an hour for a waiter to come over and take our drink order. When he did approach the table, it was with a fake smile (really, more of a sneer), that he said “I suppose you know everything you want, now?” Yeah. We did. We’d been staring at the menu for an hour. Oh also? When we asked if we could order cocktails, the answer, simply, was “no.” Okay then. Onto wine it was. The food was good, but I was so disappointed. I’d been looking forward to going to the restaurant for so long. I thought surely if this place had a Michelin star, the service would be different than what I’ve become used to in Rome. Nope. The experience had totally been ruined, and I felt totally taken advantage of.

Also grinding my gears is Rome’s residential trash system. It’s insane. Yesterday, I went to take my trash out, and a guy on my street screamed at me in English, “What are you doing? Don’t you know it’s not time?!” Yeah, I did know that it wasn’t technically time to take my trash out (note: the appointed time is between 8:30-9:30am). But there are no trash cans outside for you to put trash in; you’re apparently expected to keep your trash festering inside your tiny apartment aside from the one hour window it’s allowed to be on the street.

And, to make it even more complicated, there are five different categories of trash and a different pick up day and trash bag you need to use for each. So, be sure to keep five separate trash cans inside your small residence. And, if you have organic waste to throw out (aka food), there are only two days a week, for a one hour window, that you can put it outside your apartment for pick up.

Does all this trash stuff sound too annoying for Italians to keep up with/care about? It’s because it is (at least in my neighborhood). My Italian neighbors leave their trash on the street corner whenever. It’s no big deal. But if you’re me, the American? Keep it inside, you idiot!

Lastly (this is it for now, I promise), these pictures I’m posting here? They may look pretty, but in actuality, I was kinda disturbed as I was taking them. Lately, around dusk, there have been massive swarms of birds zooming around the treetops, squawking crazily, and worst of all, pooping everywhere. You’ll see people walking around with umbrellas up. It’s not to keep them dry from rain. It’s for the bird s**t. And it’s black.

I literally got stuck in a sh**storm on Monday night. It seemed the perfect representation of how totally crappy I feel like foreigners are treated here a lot of the time.

But, I spent all day today in cooking class. Tomorrow, I’m going to Naples pretty much just to try the pizza. I’ll be ok. And I hope you’ll forgive me for this bratty tirade. Grazie mille.

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Taco Night in Rome

Ok, maybe it’s kind of embarrassing to host a taco night in Rome. We should be eating all Italian food, all the time while we’re here, right? Before I arrived, if you’d asked me that question, I would 100% answer yes. But the reality is that sometimes I’m hit by some serious cravings for other flavors.

As good as Italians are at making their own cuisine, ethnic food is not their strong suit. We’ve had good Asian food at a couple of places (namely, for sushi, Take on viale di Trastevere and SOMO on via Goffredo Mameli, and for Chinese food, a place I cannot figure out the name of or find online, labeled Ristorante Cinese on via Florida by Largo Argentina), but decent Mexican cuisine is seriously hard to come by.

When we hosted some friends at our Roman apartment last week, the number one request we got was for food other than Italian. No problem. I had brought some Old El Paso taco seasoning packets with me from the states, and I figured it would be relatively easy to find ground beef, tortillas, tortilla chips and the ingredients to make my own salsa and gaucimole. And with all the farmers’ markets nearby, I thought that all the fresh ingredients would go a long way towards boosting flavor.

4 supermarkets, 2 specialty shops, 2 farmers’ markets and approximately 7 miles covered on foot later, I’ll tell you: it was not that easy. I was able to find basics like hard shell tacos, soft shell tacos, salso con queso and tortilla chips, but they were not cheap. The soft tacos alone ran me 4 Euro per package! And cheddar cheese? Finding it in Rome is nearly impossible. Luckily, after googling several word combinations, I ended up at Franchi in Prati, near the Vatican, and bought the biggest chunk of cheddar cheese they had. For 19 Euros. There’s a reason why people eat local, my friends.

Man, I missed cheddar cheese. I had no idea how much until I snuck a bite while I was grating it. Anyway, a couple of big lessons learned from taco night abroad:

1 – Uncle Ben’s makes tortilla chips and salsa. They taste about how you’d expect. Passable, but I just wanted a Tostito.

2 – The imported Old El Paso goods found in specialty stores here is not imported from America. The salsa con queso was basically inedible!

3 – Avocados found in farmers’ markets in Italy are not as flavorful as those in the US (sounds obvious now, right?) I found this out the hard way when the fresh lemon juice called for in Ina Garten’s guacimole recipe completely overpowered the avocado taste, even when I used half the amount.

4 – Taco night abroad still gets weird. I may still be hungover. That is all.

 

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