Italy Travel Tips - Ensuring an Excellent Meal

Italian food.. that is, food in Italy, is generally exceptional. I still can't think of an Italian restaurant at home that compares to the quality of even a basic cafe here in Tuscany. That said, there are a few rules you should follow when dining in Italy. Before I go through the rules, I think I should give a little background.



Most restaurants in Italy are family owned, small, and unique. Big chain restaurants are few and far between. Italian restaurant owners think of their restaurants like their own home kitchens. The goal of a restaurateur/chef is to create memorable food, and that's all. Ambiance and service are secondary if not tertiary to the food quality when it comes to overall experience.



Now, think about how you might treat a friend or family member at their home who has offered to cook dinner for you. Would you berate their food? The service? Would you ask for everything to be cooked in just the way you like it or would you allow your host to cook it in the way they think is good? This is how Italy works -- the chef is your host, and the restaurant their home, which they are sharing with you. If you act accordingly you will do fine.

Okay, the rules....

1.) First, request your courses in the correct order. Vini, Antipasti, Primi, Secondi. Insalata (salad) comes after the main course and is optional. Asking for your Insalata out of order is a surefire way to receiving bad service.

2.) Don't ask for any modifications to the dish you are ordering. The chef has spent time and energy thinking about how to best prepare the dish and any modifications you ask for mess that up. Asking for modifications is the surest way to receiving inferior food.
An example of this occurred next to us at dinner the other night. We had received our bread, wine, and water as desired, while the group from Atlanta, Georgia next to us were waiting for theirs. The women ordered steak, rare, as well as salad to come before the steak. Not only did the waiter "forget" their bread and water, it's clear they received an inferior cut of meat as well. There is only one way to order a meal, the chefs way! Remember this!



3.) Never complain about the food. In the same way that you would not complain to your friend that he/she overcooked the meat, do not tell the chef his/her food needs fixing. Complaining about your food is the next surest way to more inferior food.

4.) Never complain about the service. Italians view service differently from Americans. In the US, we treat quality of service, and quality of the food, as separate things. In Italy, the quality of the food is directly related to service. A chef believes that he/she has provided you with exceptional service if the food was excellently prepared with fresh ingredients. You will also get service, at a pace that works for your restauranteur and his wait staff, but it may not be brisk, and it may not be extremely cordial. An Italian restaurant has succeeded when it has provided good, fresh, well-prepared food. Period!

5.) Service is interesting in Italy. As I mentioned above, the primary definition of good service is good food. The wait staff is available, and you'll get you want you need/want, but they are not falling over you like some would in the US. When it comes to paying the bill, Americans will think about the service they received and decided whether to tip 10%, 15%, or 20%, depending on the level of attentiveness they experienced. The general rule of thumb for tipping in Italy is.. don't. Italians themselves never tip.. And I'm serious. Everyone is paid to do a job, and they do it, and no tip is required nor expected. Tipping by Americans is expected in a way, since we have a habit of it, but no one will feel bad if you don't tip them. As Giovanni put it, no one in Italy pays their bills with tips. 10% is a very large tip!

Okay, to sum up, order what sounds good on the menu, trust the chef, and you will have a great culinary experience in Italy. I hate anchovies, and tripe sounds strange and gross, however both were SO good in the hands of our talented chef at Ristorante Ambrosia in Cortona.

Another thing, reservations are very important in Italy. Normal dinner time starts around 8:30pm and dinner usually lasts 2-3 hours. Also, many restaurants only turn their tables once a night. Ie: if they have 8 tables, they will only serve 8 parties all night. Be sure to make reservations early in the day or the day before or you may not find an open table come dinner time.



Always order the dessert (Dolci) since it is usually fantastic.

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Free Day In Cortona No. 2

Today I did what I normally would never do on a vacation with things to do and places to see: sleep in until 11. (Actually, normally, I wouldn't even have been able to sleep in that late in the midst of exciting adventures.). But, I'm still quite sick, so I think the sleep was much needed.

My goal for today is to shop, buy a few nice things we can remember our trip by. And not the cheap tourist stuff - I have no use for a keychain or a cheap wine opener that will break sooner rather than later.

So, I've discovered that you have to walk off the beaten path a bit to find the nice stuff I'm looking for. But this morning on my way to coffee, I may have found it down a long, narrow alley. A gem of an art shop off the main drag. I'm excited to do some shopping there this afternoon.

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Now we've finally found reliable Internet at the Irish pub in the big square. Unfortunately, we couldn't sit outside because there are at least 120 8-year-olds swarming the gelati shop next door. While this is a great time of year to travel Italy due to good weather with lower tourism, this is also apparently the time that kids take trips with their schools, and you'll run into giant, unruly groups of kids everywhere. But, once the kids leave the immediate vicinity, you almost have the area to yourself again, so it's worth it.

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After shopping this afternoon, we ended up back at the pub. We had eaten a very late lunch and weren't hungry enough for a full four-course dinner, but finding just a light dinner was impossible because the cafes were all closing. Alternatively, we tried to find a place that just served dessert, but that also proved to be impossible. Even the pub didn't have any dessert, so we had to get ice cream from next door and bring it back to the pub for dessert.

Tomorrow is our wine tour. I'm excited! (Don't worry, I'll be strictly moderating!)


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Location:Cortona, Italy

Italy Travel Observations - Driving

You've most likely heard that driving in Italy is dangerous, or crazy, or some variation. After driving our rental car from Sorrento, into Rome, then up to Tuscany, and then between Tuscan and Umbrian towns, I've made a few observations about the driving experience.



First, there are tolls for many of the roads, especially the super-highways (Autostrada). Tolls average about €1 per 20km on the Autostrada, other tolls are usually in the €1-2 range. Make sure to carry cash/coins for the tolls, although the Autostrada toll machines seem to accept credit cards.
Example: The tolls for driving from Sorrento to Cortona added up to about €25

Driving in town is a lesson in being an alert driver. Stop signs are treated as optional by Italian drivers, speed limits are almost completely ignored, and you will be passed by motorcycles and scooters constantly. Intersections are hazardous. I general you should follow the signs/rules and pay active attention to the cars around you. The general philosophy it seems is to make sure you don't hit anyone, and they will make sure they don't hit you.

In town driving is hit and miss actually. For example, if you are going to an old hill town like Cortona, Assisi, Perugia, etc, there are massive restrictions on driving inside the city walls. In Cortona you can only drive inside the city walls with permission, for example. Most of the towns have parking lots just outside the walls and many have escalators from the parking areas up to the city. Parking comes in four flavors..

1.) Street parking with white lines - Free parking
2.) Street parking with blue lines - Pay Parking, there will be a pay station nearby
3.) Street parking with yellow lines - restricted in some way, handicapped, residents only, etc.
4.) Gated parking lots - usually you get a ticket on the way in, pay a cashier later and use the paid ticket to get out.

One thing you may notice as you navigate around the country is that street signs are more geared toward destinations than routes. So instead of following signs in Seattle for I-5, to get to the highway, here you will follow signs for Roma or Firenze, or Cortona. Those signs will lead you to the most direct path, Autostrada or otherwise.

Do not attempt to drive inside any walled towns, and don't even think about driving inside Rome or Florence or other large cities.

Once you've left town and got yourself out on the Autostrada you will experience a different kind of highway. As our guide Giovanni put it, know the rules, but do what you want. First problem with the Autostrada is that the speed limit is unclear. Basically, wherever a speed is NOT posted, the limit is 130kmh, about equivalent to 80mph. Drivers in Italy keep to the right as they should unless they are passing which is very nice. We found it easiest to stay in the right lane on 2 lane roads and middle lane on 3 lane roads.

In Italy, the left-most lane is universally dubbed the Mercedes Lane. As you cruise along at 140kph in the middle lane, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and BMW's will pass you at an average of 160kph all day. If you are in the left lane for any reason (passing is the only good excuse) and a car comes up behind you, it is expected that you will move to the right as soon as humanely possible. Oh, and there is really no concept of cutting someone off. Assuming you are going to the same or higher speed, it is normal to move over in front of someone else with very little distance. The first warning for you to move to the right is that there is someone behind you. The second warning is when that someone flashes their high beams (flash-to-pass). If you still aren't moving over, you are now a jerk.


Motorcycles will do pretty much everything that would be illegal in the US. Passing between lanes is extremely common. Even mopeds do it. Driving on the shoulder is also very common for bikes. Just ignore the bikes and pay attention to where you are going.

Italians, especially the Mercedes/Audi/Porsche/BMW drivers employ a little seen technique called the Italian Straddle. They will cruise along over the lane marker, consuming space in the left and middle lane simultaneously. This allows them to move left to pass quicker, while simultaneously being able to quickly move right if someone is attempting to pass them.

Signaling is nearly non-existent. It's the law, but no one does it. Just watch where you are going and everyone else will watch where they are going.

Be decisive when you drive. Don't start a lane change and then give up, don't start to enter an intersection, then stop. Once you start, just go. (obviously within reason)



Nearly every car in Italy has a diesel powered engine. This means that most do not accelerate quickly, but all seem to cruise at high speed just fine, and get good mileage. So far our Renault has gone over 600km on 5/8 of a tank of diesel. There is a surprising lack of diesel exhaust smell around here though. Pretty much every car in Italy has a manual transmission also, in fact you will pay double the daily rental rate for a car with an automatic. Learn to drive a manual, or pay more, those are your options.

All this said, while city driving is a bit hair-raising, highway and country driving is relatively sane and I actually enjoyed cruising up the highway at average speeds that would net a reckless driving ticket in the US.

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Cortona On Our Own

Today started off with a marching band and a man with a podium and a microphone preaching politics in the main square outside our apartment. We couldn't figure out the message, but there were several flags that read "CIGL Toscana," and several other flags and t-shirts for the European Communist Party. I'm not sure if CIGL was related to the communists, or if the communists were there in counter-protest. Either way, I love that these towns have a public square where those kinds of gatherings can happen and attract attention. It's a much better way to get attention than the US's Occupy Random Places And Get In The Way Of Everybody Else Because Otherwise Our Society Is Too Separate To Get Attention And Come Together movement.

Today, I'm sick. My throat and sinuses are swollen and raw and stuffy. I don't think it's a virus. There was a peculiar old person like smell our apartment when we first arrived, and we discovered a blanket in the closet that the damp moldy scent seemed to be radiating from. Because we're apparently not that smart, we just left it there. I've been waking up more and more irritated and stuffy each morning, until this morning was very bad. The blanket has now been exiled to the laundry drying line outside (because it's too big to fit in the washer - otherwise, I would have bleached it), so I'm hoping my impaired condition will improve. That, and I'm sure the ubiquitous second-hand smoke isn't helping one bit.
I'm writing this post as we get ready to head out on our adventures for the day. We made reservations at Ristorante Ambrosia, which was highly recommended by the waiter at Cafe Tuscher. The staff at Ambrosia does not speak English as well as the staff at the restaurants on the main piazzas, and so tonight we'll be dining as the Hendersons. Should be fun.
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After lunch we took a hike up the mountain to another church. On our way up the hillside, we stopped and watched a thunderstorm roll in from Umbria. The thunder resonated for miles throughout the valley as it approached. Just as we reached the top of the hill, it was right on top of us and the downpour began.
When we finally reached the top after some serious hiking, Rich pointed out the parking lot: "Hey look, you can drive here!" Then we saw the church; it was the first one Giovanni took us to (by car) on the first day. So, our long hike uphill in the rain to reach this new church was anti-climactic, and we headed back down through the town in the rain, meandering among the maze of streets to arrive back at the main square.
Now we're in our Internet cafe (because we've only found one cafe where the Internet sort of works) taking refuge from the rain. Not that refuge is required; it's quite warm out, even in the constant drizzle. But, every time I suggest possibly moving on, Rich points out it's still raining and we have Thursday free as well, so I suppose we'll remain here for a bit.
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After the cafe, we headed back to our apartment and I took a short nap while Rich relaxed. Then we got ready for dinner at Ristoranre Ambrosia, which was so fabulous it got its own blog post, so I'll end mine here.
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Location:Cortona, Italy

Assisi and Perugia

This morning (Wednesday) we woke up around 8am, got ready quickly, got some cash, a cappuccino to go, and attempted to find our rental car. Since we parked it on Saturday in the lot outside the city wall we couldn't actually remember which wall gate it was near. After a little extra walking around the city wall we found it and set out on the one hour drive to Assisi to meet our guide, Marco.

Assisi is a small hill town east of Perugia that is classically Medieval. In fact, Assisi has annual medieval games and each of the three districts inside the city wall compete for awards on which can recreated the most accurate medieval displays.

We saw them building temporary structures and even adding fake sections of stone carvings into existing walls and covering modern metal signs with burlap and other materials. Assisi is a beautiful place, high on the hill with great views of the valley and a large fortress on the peak of the hill looking down on the city. It is here in Assisi where S. Francesco is remembered. Francesco was essentially responsible for bringing Christianity back to the people in the 13th century. The frescos that still remain in the cathedrals of Assisi are nothing short of amazing.

I absolutely love the bright, welcoming feel of Assisi. The feeling is reinforced with the colorful, medieval, flags hanging from the buildings as part of the annual contest.


Fun fact, only 2000 people live inside the city walls, 1400 of which are nuns and friars, only 600 are lay people. Another interesting fact... Assisi is known as The City of Peace. During the Second World War, the German commander Muller, a Catholic, who was responsible for organizing invasions in Italy, shelter hundreds of Jews and declared Assisi as a general hospital which saved the city from bombings.
After Assisi, we followed our guide to Perugia, the city where Amanda Knox was living for those interested. Perugia has a unique history in Italy. Like many of these hill towns, it has Umbrian roots, Etruscan embellishments, Roman add ons, and medieval overtones, but Perugia has one unique feature. The original city was "buried" by building a roof over the streets, sending the common population underground for years with a
Palace built on top.

Later when the rulers were toppled, the palace was destroyed and a new mayors palace was built. Today, the underground is preserved as a public museum, and also used as part of a public walkway from the parking garage to the city center. The underground spaces are perfectly preserved and spotlessly clean, despite being the main thoroughfare for every single person entering and leaving the city. Security cameras are abundant!
Perugia is also known as the city with the "Endless Views" according to Marco, our guide. Certainly from the Mayors Palace, the views are fantastic.

Interestingly you can see Assisi across the valley and it turns out that the two cities were constantly at odds with each other. For background, catholic churches need a relic (typically the body, or part of a body, of a saint entombed in the church somewhere) in order to be considered a fully consecrated church. Back in the day, Assisi had true relics due in a large part to S. Francesco's ties to the city, while Perugia had none. Perugia repeatedly attempted to steal relics for themselves from other cities (including Assisi) but it seems they were only successful in obtaining the wedding ring of the Virgin Mary (of her marriage to Joseph). Today, the "real" wedding ring is only shown a few days each year, while a fake one is normally displayed in a protected area of the cathedral.
After our tour of Perugia, we drove back to Cortona, dropped our things in the apartment, then went out in search of dinner. The sunset was really nice.

This is the first night we hadn't made dinner reservations so we wandered around looking for some place new to try. We walked into a very small place off a side street and had what most Americans would consider an excellent meal.
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Dinner at Ristorante Ambrosia in Cortona

Yes, an entire blog post about one dinner...

Today we had coffee at our favorite place, Tuscher Caffe, which is on Via Nazionale. While there I asked the owner for a restaurant recommendation for dinner and he described a place called Ambrosia. It's owned by a young chef, originally from Cortona, who has travelled and cooked in Japan, London, France, and Italy, finally opening his restaurant back in Cortona about 8 months ago. He said it was more traditional, small, just a few tables, and not designed for tourists like other trattoria's. Sounded like a good place to try.

So after our cappuccino, we walked over to Ambrosia and made 7pm reservations, then we headed out for a hike to a Santuario on the hill behind the town. The hike was described as difficult, up a steep hill, and about an hour long. The rain came in about that time as well which was concerning, but Devon was determined to deal with it. So we hoofed it up the hill, getting wetter as we went, with thunder clapping above. It was actually pretty cool.



When we reached the top, we discovered it was the same S. Margherita Basilica that we saw on Sunday with our guide in the car. It took about 30 minutes to hike there, and the rain was getting harder, but we decided to follow an unmarked path down a different part of the hill, weaving through private residences, city walls, and their structures until we found ourselves on the opposite side of the town. A good hike.

Later, after our nightly video chat with Morgan from the wine bar that has wifi (wifi that incidentally sucks), we changed clothes in our apartment, and headed to Ambrosia for dinner.



Upon arrival, we were greeted by the owner, chef, and essentially only person there. The restaurant is partially buried in the hill and in the back there is an old stone arch. It turns out that the arch is original Etruscan architecture (from before Christ, thats over 2000 years ago) and was part of a healing bath. Rain water still seeps through the wall, (and was wet tonight since it had rained earlier) and is collected in a pool which is under the floor. The pool is visible through a glass section in the floor illuminated in blue light (because anything halfway cool is obligated to have a blue light). The rest of the room had more Etruscan stone walls and a brick/stone archway which was built during medieval times. The chef later described that there were 4 total eras, depending on which part of the restaurant you were in. All original except for some paint and a wall added around the kitchen. Amazing!



We ordered our Wine (fabulous local Cortona Syrah) after the complimentary starter of sparkling wine. The we received a small plate with anchovies on buttered crostini. Very good despite my loath of anchovies.



The antipasti was Veal Tripe which sounds strange, but was very tasty, followed by a first course of ravioli with shrimp, extremely tasty. Devon and I both ordered the thinly sliced steak filet as our main course. For the first time on this trip the chef (who was also acting as our waiter) asked us how we would like it cooked. I asked what he considered normal and he replied "rare!", "we don't understand medium and well done in Italy". I told him to cook it the way he way he believes it should be and he was happy!



The steak was somewhere between what we Americans consider rare and medium-rare. It was fabulous!

I asked the chef if he owned the space or rented, and he explained that his great-grandfather purchased it in 1910 and ran a butcher shop. He had enclosed all of the stone walls and wood beams in plaster to keep the humidity out. In 2008, when he (Mattio) decided to open the restaurant they began renovations and found the walls and pools hidden behind false walls. They rightfully decided to make them a key feature of the restaurant atmosphere. So neat!



After the main course we ordered desserts. I had a special Creme Brûlée and Devon had some sort of fruit bread cake thing that was like an extraordinarily good pop-tart. My Creme Brûlée was not as solidified as I'm used to, was topped with hardened chocolate sauce, and further topped with shaved ice of coffee. SO GOOD!



After dessert the other waiter brought some biscotti and gingersnap-like cookies along-side two shots of "Ambrosia" which was a cold, super-sweet, ginger flavored tea. Great finish to an exceptional meal.

Aside from the ambience and food, what I really liked was chatting with the chef about his food, his restaurant, and his life. It's obvious in his demeanor that he loves making exceptional food and wants everyone to enjoy the experience. He even found us on our way out and asked us about our stay in Cortona and how we found the food. Truly exceptional experience!



If we do not find a better restaurant Wednesday or Thursday, we will likely go back to Ambrosia for our last night in Cortona on Friday.

Tomorrow we head to Assisi and Perugia for our next guided tour.

Siena

This morning began late, when the next door iPhone alarm went off at 9:30am again. We took our time getting ready and headed out for our morning coffee around 11. We sat at Cafe Turcher on the main drag blogging and playing with photos, and generally watching the people go by.

Speaking of people, there are always very young children out and about (and often cranky or acting very silly) here. I think that here, unlike at home, naps and bedtimes are at the parents' convenience. Some lucky children get their naps in strollers. However, many very young kids can be found out and about during naptimes and at 9 and 10 at night (and not always happy about it). Which I find interesting, because even if I didn't worry about Mo's naps for her own welfare, I'd certainly worry about it for my own sanity's sake.



Yesterday we finally found some real gelato on the main drag here in town. There was another gelati place in the piazza next to our piazza, (there is no shortage of piazzas here), and although I wanted to try a new place, it wasnt open. So, we went back to our other gelati place, Dolci Vita, and we weren't disappointed. Then we took a stroll through the large public park on the hillside just outside the city walls. There were sculptures, a fountain, a spectacular view, and an ancient amphitheater (well, ancient by our standards, probably several hundred years old) where they now show outdoor movies in the summer.

We then met Giovanni at the Piazza Garibaldi (which is yet another piazza completely different from the two aforementioned piazzas), where we jumped in his car and he drove us to Siena. The drive over was fun, with some history sprinkled in about how the wealthy medieval and renaissance landowners built fortified summer villas in the valley to tend to their crops out of the ruins of still older castles. There used to be small castles sprinkled throughout the valleys back in The Day, but after the castles were destroyed in times of war, the locals out the ruins to their own purposes in times of peace that followed. Sometimes that would be followed by war, and then peace, and the cycle went on. Sometimes times of religion were mixed in, and castles would be built on monasteries, with the later farming villa built on top of it all and with the leftover pieces.




Then we reached Siena. Remember how I mentioned that there are no ghosts in Cortona because it is too alive? Well, I'm certain Siena is packed with poor, miserable, lonely, and tortured ghost souls. Siena feels dead. Even though it was packed full of people. Oppressive. Oppressed. Whereas Cortona was built to serve the people, and the city and the people - even visitors - somehow become part of each other, Siena is the opposite. You feel like in Siena, the people are only there to serve the city, because the city wishes it, and anyone's presence there is only because the city allows it. The city dominates the people. There is no synthesis of people and city. There is only a city. Dominating, dark, and feeling completely abandoned (even though it's inhabited and crowded). I was glad to have seen it, but even more glad to leave it and return to the welcoming comfort of Cortona.




After seeing Siena, we barely made it back for our 9pm dinner reservations. Tonight we ate at Osteria del Teatro. The first two courses (a truffle fondue and a veggie ravioli) were wonderful. For a main course, I had the local pork (cinta seneza), and Rich had the local steak. His was good (but I wouldn't say great). I didn't think mine was very impressive at all - dry and bland. rich tried it, though, and liked it, and accused me of having pregnancy taste buds.

And he may be right, because pregnancy brain has definitely been prevalent on this trip. Here is a list of Important things that I have left in semi-public places so far:

- iPad on the plane in Rome;
- Phone in the hotel restaurant bathroom; and
- Purse in the restaurant tonight.

There was one more, but of course I forget now. Somehow I've managed to get all of my important forgotten things back.

By the way, speaking of kids out late, on our way home from dinner at 11pm, we passed a dad with a cute little girl about 18 months old out and about. He was trying to get her to hold his hand and walk, but her only plan was to sit herself right down. Not sure why he wasn't just carrying her, instead insisting she walk. Oh well.

Tomorrow we have our first completely free day, so we'll see how we manage!

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Location:Siena, Italy