Back in Canada

After a very long flight, with some very good movies( Invictus, Bend it like Beckham, and Crazy Heart) we arrived back in Canada. We seemed to have eaten nonstop on our Lufthansa flight. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus snacks and wine!

I actually made shake and bake chicken legs for supper last night. I served them with some creamy coleslaw...as a sad little head of cabbage was the only thing edible in my crisper drawer! I also made some mashed potatoes, and some canned niblets corn mixed with some frozen peas! I picked up a blueberry pie from the grocery store, and served it with some vanilla ice cream.

It seemed really strange not to eat a tomato...or any arugula, or a nice piece of crusty bread, or any pasta! I'll buy some real groceries in a day or so...not cooking for 2 weeks has made me lazy...or maybe rusty...like this little Fiat I saw in Raito...

Back to Rome...Our last night in Italy

We had another travel day today. We were booked to take the ferry from Positano to Salerno, then to take the train to Rome. We arrived in Rome slightly before 6pm... just as the sky opened, and the thunder rumbled. We grabbed a cab, and made our way to our hotel.

We were of course, STARVING...so we dropped our bags, and headed down the street to a little restaurant called Teatro Cafe. Our hotel was in a neighbourhood very close to the Colosseum, so this restaurant was a neighbourhood hang out. This meant 2 things...it was very cheap...and it was very good. We sat in a crazy little tent in front of the cafe, practically on the road, and listened to the rain pound on the roof. After the storm had passed, like magic, everyone started coming back into the street, and our little place started to fill up. We ordered some wine...bianco for me, and rosso for the P-Man. This being our last night...we were feeling kind of sad. We decided on some Italian Comfort Food! I had tagliatelle with meat sauce, and the P-Man had lasagna. We sat and talked, and ate some bread, and drank our wine, and watched the people, and ate our pasta. It was delicious, and a real change from the seafood menu on the Amalfi Coast. It felt positively...ROMAN.

On the one hand, I felt almost ready to come home to Canada...on the other hand...I felt soooo comfortable in Italy, we actually spent some time discussing when would be a good time to return!! We had to be up at 3:30 am...for our 6:30 am flight to Frankfurt, so we finished our wine, and took another stroll around the neighbourhood. In the few blocks, we discovered 2 or 3 restaurants we had not seen before, as well as another church, and an ancient Roman wall, next to a women's hospital.

I had deliberately made my way to the Trevi Fountain last week, and thrown in a couple of coins. If fate, and superstition was on my side...it will not be too long, until I return to beautiful Roma!

Full moon dinner in Positano

Tonight was our last night in Positano. When I was still home in Canada, I came across an article on a restaurant that was supposed to be amazing,so with the fabulous power of the Internet...I made a dinner reservation.

We walked out of our hotel, and up another flight of stairs...and there it was...Hotel Le Sirenuse. The restaurant was called La Sponda, and was even more beautiful than the photo. We were seated on a glorious patio,overlooking the harbour, and sat down just as the full moon was beginning to rise.

As we got settled with the menu, a small cart came rumbling up beside our table to offer us some champagne, or prosecco. A good sign, if ever I saw one! The menu was just the right size...edited down to the best of the best. We decided on the lobster stuffed ravioli, the grilled vegetables and the John Dory. The P-Man chose a delicious vino bianco, and the evening progressed at the most civilized pace. The pasta was incredibly tender and rich, with just a small amount of sauce. The fish was poached with lemon leaves,and floated on a delicate broth, accented with olive oil. It was truly exceptional. The vegetables were fresh and a perfect compliment to the fish, and a small pile of delicious mashed potatoes. The P-Man had some cheese for dessert...and we were given a taste of limoncello, to finish off our evening, and our wonderful couple of days in magical Positano

Scalinata...oh my aching feet...

Our second day in Positano...I wanted to have a look at the town. Everywhere we looked up, around us, were stairs. I let the P-Man know that I wanted to go UP! My blisters had finally healed from5 days of walking around Rome, so I strapped on my walking shoes, and we ascended the first set of stairs. Up, and up,and up we climbed. There really wasn't much of a view from the stairs we climbed because they were wedged between many buildings. By the time we could actually see down at the town, or at the sea, we were descending down the stairs past more buildings and hotels, and headed to an unknown beach, at the backside of Positano. We walked for at least an hour, and after climbing back up, and walking on the road back down towards the town...we decided to stop for lunch.

We ate at Caffe Positano. The P-Man and I found a seat in the shade, ordered some wine, and marvelled at the differences between owning a cafe in Canada and in Italy. What do you think the BC health inspector would think about waiters running across a busy street, carrying plates of food and drink, serving people seated practically right on the road? Yikes! We ordered some lunch, as we were starving from the long walk. I decided on the insalata mista, with fried calamari. The P-Man had a cold salad featuring thin slices of local octopus, followed by spaghetti with fresh basil pesto.

My salad was fresh and peppery, and containing the first bit of CARROT I have seen since I arrived in Italy. My calamari was tender with a light breading, and a HUGE chunk of local lemon. The P-Man's octopus salad was tender and flavourful, again brightened and enhanced with some local lemon and olive oil. His pasta was a basil flavoured explosion! I swear that we could smell it from across the busy, scooter filled street! He ate it with a smothering of fresh Parmesan...and made some extremely ' porco type' noises in the process!

We finished our wine, and headed down the road...today was a perfect day for a dip in the beautiful clear sea!

Pretty Positano

Positano is one of the prettiest places I have ever been to in my life. I was starting to get an aching neck from all the gawking around I was doing! We dropped our bags at our hotel, and headed out for lunch. Compared to the quietness of Vietri, Positano was really a bit shocking. Kids and families scattered all over the small rocky beach. People walking around looking at all the quaint little shops, and full restaurants. Kind of a cross between Rome and Vietri...history, beauty, beach, shopping, and restaurants. We took the first little winding staircase down towards the beach, and ended up at a restaurant called Buca di Bacco. It was just perfect. Right on the beach, overlooking the harbour,full of people, nice big menu...One of the first of the great meals we would experience here in Positano.

We started by ordering a bottle of local vino bianco, Falanghina Taburno. It was crisp and cold, and tasted of all kinds of fruit. The menu was quite extensive, with a definite focus on all local fish and seafood. I decided on 3 items: Fusilli with zucchini flower sauce, a skewer of local fishes, with a mixed salad, and green beans with lemon and olive oil.

My fusilli was handmade, and decidedly elongated. Very clever shape, allowing every nook and cranny to be filled up with the delicious, floral and vegetable, saffron coloured sauce. I had never eaten a zucchini blossom before, so even though everything was quite broken down, and reduced, the flavours were so intense, every time I closed my eyes, I could see the pretty blossom. The pasta was rich, and the whole dish was finished with olive oil and a bit of black pepper. It was really exceptional! The skewer of fishes was a revelation. It contained a pearl onion, a cherry tomato, squid, 2 kinds of white fish, a local prawn, and chunks of zucchini and eggplant. The skewer was lightly grilled, and tasted of the sea AND of the grill. The green beans were so tiny and beautiful, that the olive oil and squeeze of lemon, just managed to brighten an already fantastically fresh taste of summer.

The P-Man ordered a cherry tomato and arugula salad, and tagliatelle with wild boar ragu. I am not sure how it was, because he smacked my hand when I attempted to have a taste! The speed and intensity at which he devoured both items was perhaps an indication of his affection for these dishes.

We finished our wine, and watched the owners of the restaurant having lunch in a small room to our left. It was a family style affair of salad, and bread, and wine, and a whole fish, with an espresso and cake for dessert. It was a sight that we got quite used to seeing in Italy. Whole families dining together, chatting and enjoying simple delicious food.