Back From Italy

Jessi and I are back from a wonderful vacation in Italy, which is why you haven't seen any posts from us lately. We had a splendid time in this rich cultural country. In a two-week period, we covered a lot of ground. We traveled from Rome to Florence to Cinque Terre to Lake Como and then flew out of Verona. The pride this country takes in its work is truly remarkable. From art to wine to food—even in graffiti they seem to do it all with a real passion.

If you have a passion for food and drink, Italy is the place to visit. It seems that everywhere you look there is another fantastic eatery, cafe or restaurant just around the corner. The pasta, wine, cheese, cured meats, fresh seafood and pastries are all oh-so delicious. I, Michael, would often eat 4 or five times a day. And had we not been walking immense amounts along ancient cobblestone streets and climbing atop 12th century basilicas we would have probably gained twenty pounds a piece. If you scroll down to the end of this post you can even catch a quick video of me making Gnocchi in our Lake Como cooking class.

Trying to write a post for such a expedition is quite a task. I can't seem to organize our experiences enough to decipher which events out-did the others. The truth is that they were all amazing and there's no way to talk about them all in one post. The best I can do is to share a couple photos and persuade you all to go.

A few notes on our food experiences… We ate a lot of pasta, drank copious amounts of wine, consumed massive amounts of salted meats and cheeses, ate gelato before and after every meal, and learned to drink espresso or cappuccinos with every meal. This pretty much sums up Italian eating.

It was an amazing trip and we look forward to our next visit. But we're happy to be back in the south's sweet spring weather. We have a lot of decadent kitchen concoctions to share with you this summer. We've even started a small box garden to supplement eats. We'll share more about that later. Hope you enjoy the pics!