Food!
Spaghetti carbonara, in Rome. There's bacon and egg in there. It's really good and hearty! I recommend this for a first lunch or dinner after make the long flight out to Italy.
Italy used to have really bad pizza, but now every restaurant in Italy sells it. It's actually gotten somewhat close to our New York pizza, except that they sell pizza by weight, and in this case, served it to me like a sandwich. I'll be honest, I'm more of a beer person than a wine person, but I appreciate wine too. Wine doesn't really go with pizza though, and when I'm thirsty, I normally reach for the beer first.
Just outside the Vatican was a nice little restaurant I ordered Ossabuca from, which translates to "Bone marrow". I admittedly didn't know you were supposed to scoop out the marrow, but that was only a tiny part of the dish. Under that sauce was a lot of very tender meat that really hit the spot. I recommend it! In the back, I think there was some lamb on those sticks. I made a habit of ordering two entrees per dinner when the menu looked good. Oh, and that beer in the back is not Italian. This place served my favorite German beer, Paulaner, and after a hard day's touring of the Vatican, it was very needed.
The hostel I stayed at had free internet access. While I typed away, I munched on this panini. I think that's prosciutto in there. I'm not going to remember details on a lot of this food, honestly.
A very hearty baked potato paired with a potatoey soup. I ate what looked interesting. I'm sure my diet, when totaled, would be balanced.
More food.
The grilled squid on the right was something different for me. I normally see it chopped up until rings and tentacles. This was really good though. Also, check out that salad in front. I really like the large parmesan slices, even though they make the salad a bit harder to eat. With the cherry tomato halves, it was a very classy-looking salad, until I ate it.
See? I drank wine. Miller showed up and had to get used to pausing before I took pictures of all our food. He always remembered to order a bottle of water for us, which we were always in the mood for after all the walking in the sun.
In this situation, I was jealous of Miller's meat platter. What did I order again? I think a lemony chicken breast or something. Blah.
Okay, some background here. I came to Italy looking for cannolis and was seriously dismayed to learn that cannolis were a Sicily thing. Italy still had some Sicilian cannolis, but they weren't that good. This one was though. Italy, however, had gelato (ice cream) at every corner, and they excelled at it. I had ricotta-flavored ice cream which was as good as a top-notch cannoli. I'm still dreaming about it. Also, that cup is holding a raspberry granite (pronounced "granita"). Picture a slushie made from raspberry pulp.
In Positano, I had pumpkin gnocchi and Miller had a white pizza with something indiscernible on it. I think I won this one.
Prosciutto and melon. Very good! It was, fortunately, a common appetizer in Italy, but come to think of it, I can make it after a quick trip to the grocery store. Might not be the same, but my prosciutto palate is only so picky.
I think Miller ordered the carbonara this time. Did I order lasagna? I think I did once.
Strawberries with gelato on top.
Miller ordered this soup which he was very fond of.
More food.
We each ordered our own pizza here.
More food.
I think this was some sort of octopus dish.
Ah, the bike tour food. This is bruschetta and chicken liver pate, both absolutely divine.
This fettucine was the star dish of the bike tour.
I saw crepes on the menu once and had been looking for them since. At this restaurant, I found them and ordered them. Very good. Miller enjoyed his ravioli too.
The most infamous food I ate in Italy was this, translated as "raw meat". You can see it peeking out from under the lettuce and parmesan. It wasn't pretty, but if I wonder what something is like, even for a split second, I'm very tempted to try it. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this is what made me queasy the next day, so umm, stay away from the raw meat. Words of wisdom.
In Torcello, I made a point to order the local cheese, seen in the middle. We probably missed out a lot by not sampling the cheeses that much. Make a point to order cheese for appetizers sometimes if you go to Italy yourself. Eventually you start to appreciate the differences in cheeses. Watch the cholesterol though.
Even on the plane, I wouldn't let Miller eat without taking a picture of his food.
It wasn't picture-worthy though. Well, one thing was. That cup of white and orange stuff was interesting. I tasted the white stuff, and it was exactly like Cool Whip, which is that whipped cream you buy that you scoop with a spoon instead of spray. I tried the orange stuff, and that tasted exactly like Cool Whip too. I was expecting something fruity. This concluded my trip to Italy.