My mum and Lisa were visiting us in the U.K. so we decided to treat them to a week in Italy. Within the seven day trip, we visited Roma, Firenze, Siena, Castiglione del Lago, Perugia and Orvieto. Despite a previous bad experience in Firenze (including a cigarette burn to my eyebrow and staying with a horribly dirty host family for a month), I was able to re-discover this beautiful city.
We had some gorgeous food during the holiday. However, when it comes to choosing a place to eat in Italy, it is not always that easy to tell a ristorante (restaurant) from a trattoria or osteria. A trattoria is normally a cheaper version of a restaurant; there are no menus, the service is casual and the prices low. An osteria is more of a wine bar that offers a small selection of dishes with a verbal menu. A pizzeria serves pizza but usually has a trattoria-style menu. Brad and I had some nice panini from one of the alimentair (grocery stores) for just a few Euros.
Roma
Our first dinner in Roma was at a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet Italy Guide, called La Cicala e La Formica, which is a little restaurant with some delicious simple dishes. My mum and Lisa seemed to enjoy their Carpaccio. I forgot how laid-back Italians are especially when it comes to food - they spend hours in restaurants relaxing and chatting with friends until midnight - not so profitable for the owners I guess, but they didn’t seem to mind.
Firenze
We liked the reasonably-priced fast-food from the covered food market near Piazza San Lorenzo. It is a perfect place for lunch especially after an exhausting shopping trip along the open-air market for leather goods (jackets, leather-bound books and everything you can think of in leather). I managed to find my way back to the famous food stall just outside the covered market - they do the most amazing beef tripe rolls and they were as good as I remembered from my student days in Firenze. I wonder if Ellen can still remember the taste.
Perugia
It was at Osteria II Ghiottone (Via Caporali 12) that we had the best homemade pasta we’d ever tasted. Tagliatelle con funghi mistie e porcini was the starter for the set menu of the day and the texture of the tagliatelle was perfect - chewy but not too soft or too hard. It also went well with the simple mushroom sauce (although I don’t like mushrooms). I also had the best starter here - its Antipasto dela Ghiottone was gorgeous. I loved the Prosciutto and Salami, as well as the many other small dishes. It costed €12 but was big enough for four hungary people like us (three tiny women and a tall person).
On our last night in Perugia (also our last night in Italy), we bough some dried meat and smoked cheese from a supermarket called PAM, took them back to our hotel along with a bottle of €1.99 red wine, and chatted our way until midnight on our balcony. We were all surprised by the quality of such a cheap wine. It was a fun evening - Lisa was definitely merrier than usual.
