Italy in pictures

We spent a week in Italy last week of July and i absolutely flipping loved it. Last year we joined friends of ours from the Netherlands on a Spain trip and ended up having so much fun, we decided to kind of make it a tradition and do our annual holidays together. Tuscany it was and we went about making our bookings beginning of the year.

 

We are not the big city, touristy traveller but since it was cheaper to travel into Rome, hire a car from there and then drive on to Tuscany, I convinced the husband that it was a MUST to spend 2 days in Rome and then drive on. He wasnt too enthusiastic, but still agreed to it. Booked an AirBnb right off Piazza Navona which was a brilliant location with restaurants, bars, and all major attractions close by and we started our 2 days in sweltering 36 degree Rome.

 

I'd read reviews saying everything was 20 minutes walk from the Piazza Navona area we decided to hire a bicycle and bike around Rome, which i think was one of the best decisions we took. I was a bit worried about riding on main roads, but Rome is like India, no one really obeys traffic rules and people are used to honking and the like. We managed to cover all the main attractions on day one and with a small hiccup (bad planning Ro would insist), I booked The Vatican city tour and The Colosseum tour on the same day. They make a fuss on the website with a given time, but we took our chances and went ahead of time thinking we could try our luck only to realise no one really checks the time or anything on the ticket, you just have to stand in long queues (even after opting for the skip the line queues).

 

Colosseum was a let down for me, and Vatican a let down for Ro. Well he actually didnt want to do the Vatican tour at all but I insisted and we agreed to do it. Not ones for museums, we skipped almost all the rooms at the Vatican Museum and went straight to The Sistine Chapel which i must say was simply amazing. Spent a good 15 minutes taking in all the art and listening to what each of it meant (We did an audio tour). Just that room made my visit to the Vatican worth it. Hung around St Peters Square for a while (it is truly magnificent) and headed back home to get ready for an Italian Opera performance, which was our first, and i ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Off we drove to spend the remaining 5 days in Tuscany, a part of the trip we were both absolutely looking forward to. Radicofani is a small picturesque (well, every little town in the Tuscan region was simply gorgeous) town about 2 1/2 hrs from Rome and we stayed in an Agritourismo called La Selvella run by the exuberant Marina.  

The stay there was lovely and most of the evenings were spent at the farm enjoying the amazing view, some house wine and Pecorino cheese (which Pienza is know for). Dinner on 2 days was at La Selvella, where we got to enjoy some amazing Tuscan food, all sourced from the farm and organic of course. We also checked out some local restaurants and i had the most tastiest lasagna in a small restaurant called La Grotto in Radicofani.

Pienza was a day trip i loved. Small little cobbled streets all pretty with plants and flowers and coloured doors. I went a bit crazy with pictures here and also shopped for some Tuscan favourites like Truffle honey, Truffle salk and Italian seasoning (have been using this for almost every dish i make now).

The highlight of Tuscany was the discovery of the hot springs in Tuscany. Ended up spending two lazy days in the warm springs of Bagni San Filippo, a 10 minute drive from La Selvella. Go in the afternoon if you want the best spots, as the crowd seem to thin out by then. If you get a place in the shade its the best. Use good footwear as you need to trek down a bit to the pools.

Oeufs en cocotte (eggs in pots) and Paris in pictures

When the husband ditched me on my dream trip to the vineyards of Burgundy region, I was really upset. I whined about it to my friends and suddenly a plan materialised. Ananda and Finla decided to join me and emails started flying back and forth with Paris holiday plans. Its high time I accepted the sad fact that the husband and I have completely different ideas of a holiday, which is good, because then you are not forced to do things we don't like. The practical thing to do would be to meet half way and decide on something we both enjoy, but that's lot of work apparently!

I have been in UK for 5 years and have wanted to travel around Europe ever since we came here. I always felt bad for broaching the topic to Ro because I was unemployed and it didn't feel right. Now that I have started working, I think I can start paying for my holidays and it feels great to be able to do that. Thanks to my blog, I have friends who are equally enthusiastic about travelling and food and it makes the holiday even more fun. I spent 3 fabulous days with the girls and we plan on making this an annual ordeal. Greece is up next and I am going to start saving for it right away.

Our plan was to do a bit of sightseeing, but trying out all the French food we whipped up for the blog, and have become so familiar with, was priority. We also wanted to check out some of the famous cook shops in Paris, known for the copper vessels and pastry making utensils and go crazy there. The vineyard trip was on the list, but we couldn't make it because travelling there without a car was slightly difficult (and expensive) and so it was replaced with another day out in Paris. 

Highlight of the trip was the amazing dinner we had at a quaint French restaurant which Finla found after loads of research. Reservations were made and I cant tell you how glorious the food was. I think I'll never forget the food I had there. After a bottle of wine and some cocktails, we stumbled back to the hotel past midnight and yapped away, till we no longer could keep our eyes open. Day 2 was relaxed since the vineyard trip was cancelled and so we took it easy and generally roamed around some markets and streets and also went up the Eiffel tower. Day 3 was spent at the numerous cook shops and we went crazy seeing all the cooking utensils there. They were expensive so we had to choose and select what we really needed. I can still see Finla's excitement at having bought authentic canele moulds- copper ones at that- which would be like a family heirloom :)  We also wanted to check out the famous Sabre Paris store but Monday was their day off (which we painfully found out only after visiting 2 locations) and so that didn't work out, much to Ananda's disappointment as she was planning to go crazy with prop shopping there ;)

In all honesty, Paris failed to amaze me with regard to the city. Its beautiful alright, but when you actually travel around like the locals you'd see that the metros are terribly dirty, smelly and the number of homeless people sleeping in the stations and people begging were scary. Food, I must admit was fabulous- the crepes, the croissants, the pastries and the wines would never be forgotten. I didn't think it was crazy expensive but of course it depends on where you eat. If you stay clear of the touristy areas (which we decided we would) you wont be bankrupt. I found the French people very very helpful, We'd be standing on the pavement with our maps open and there would be passers-by who would tell us how to get to a place. They'd correct the way we were pronouncing names and generally strike up a conversation. This would have usually irritated me (me not being social and all), but when you are in a foreign country, it somehow makes a difference. 

Back to reality after 3 great days, and dreaming of our next trip to Greece. Thanks girls for coming to my rescue when I was down in the dumps and making it a memorable holiday. 

Hotel de Ville (the local administrative office)

Notre-Dame de Paris - perfect example of French Gothic architecture

'Love Lock' Bridge

River Siene

We picked up a few macarons from Laduree, my favourite being the pink peppercorn.

Of course we checked out rival Pierre Herme as well. I must say, I preferred L'aduree better

Jardin du Luxembourg where we enjoyed our macarons. Of course we only saw the main fountain area.

Dinner was at this fabulous restaurant called Chez Toinette where we had the most amazing French food. Started off with snails (which were yum) and Oeufs en cocotte and went on to the famous Boeuf Bourguignon, Steak au poivre with Potato Dauphinoise and Sea bass with olive oil and thyme

Dessert was of course Creme Brulee at another restaurant (which was not really up to mark)

Day 2 started off with a visit to a farmers market

Breakfast was freshly baked croissants and coffee

Fell in love with the balconies

Eiffel..soaring high. I thought it was a bit over rated. In fact when i saw it from afar I thought it was the BT Tower (like we have in London)
My dream of kissing a guy under the Eiffel Tower is yet to come true. ONE DAY!!! :)

Le Louvre, I thought, was another one of those over rated places, but boy was I wrong. The mere magnificence of the exterior had me floored. I'm kicking myself for not having spent a day at the museum. Next time!

The French Onion Soup which was not that fab, but I HAD to give it a go.

Oeufs en cocotte (eggs in pots) (Recipe adapted from Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking). Serves 1

Butter- 1/2 tsp
Double cream- 2 tbsp
Egg- 1 (or 2)
Salt and pepper to taste
A ramekin that is 3 inches in diameter and about 1 1/2 inches high
An pan containing water

Pre heat oven to 187C.
Take a bit of butter and grease the ramekin
Pour in 1 tbsp of double cream into the ramekin and place into the pan containing simmering water over moderate heat.
When the cream is hot, break the egg into it and pour in the remaining tbsp of double cream over the egg.
top with the remaining butter and chuck into the oven along with the pan of water.
Cook for about 7 to 10 minutes..
Its done when the egg is set but still a bit wobbly. Make sure you don't over cook the egg, or else it would turn hard. (which of course I managed to do)
Take it out of the oven but leave he egg in the water bath for about 7 to 8 more minutes after which you can season, add some herbs and enjoy.

BBC Summer Good Food Show

This post comes in really late, merely because of my laziness and also cos I was a tad too busy the past 2 weeks. Anyways, like I'd mentioned before..Reena of Coconut Raita was giving away two tickets to the Good Food Show and I, won it! I was ecstatic because I NEVER win anything. This show was in Birmingham, about 2 hrs north of London and since my good friend and fellow blogger Swar of Swars kitchen was living in Coventry, I decided to drag her as well...some good girly time. I have forever been a fan of BBC Saturday Kitchen Live and so the Chef line up was pretty interesting. I had to catch James Martin, Thomasina Miers and the Hairy Bikers, if not anyone else. So off we went to Birmingham for a day filled with loadsa food, drinks and wait-for-it....shopping!!!!

Got there at around 11 and my first impression was, ' gosh its filled with oldies...is this some sorta boring thing?' And then we realised there was a garden show in the next pavilion and assumed they were here for the flower show instead. Wrong we were! 

The advantage of this show (like the Regents Park Taste of London and the Hampton Court Foodies Fest) is the free tasting sessions each and every supplier provides. I mean you just have to walk through and every stall offers you something to eat, drink, smell etc. We completely took advantage of that and after about 2 hrs we were slightly tipsy from the numerous wines, cider, vodka and fancy liqueurs that were offered to us..needless to say, being asked for the id at a few places made us feel great but annoying after a point of time (its nice to know they still think you are under 21 or so). We picked up some taster pizza slices from Dr Oetker's Ristaurante Pizza, grabbed a sandwich and sat down to watch one of the Chefs from a well known Gastro Pub in London cook Salmon in a mussel sauce with some risotto and the works. 

He asked someone from the audience to cook along with him, but we chickened out, but got to taste what he cooked which was yummeee. 

We walked around again, had some ice cold Pimms, picked up some cupcake liners, Swar bought yummy strawberry and cream liqueur, did some more tasting and conveniently missed the Hairy Bikers' Show.

I bragged about it so much to Ro i had to atleast catch a glimpse of them, but again got side tracked when i saw Toffee vodka...now you very rarely get to taste stuff like that right?

Then I got my priorities right and settled down to see Thomasina Miers, previous MasterChef winner and owner of Wahaca- an up market Mexican restaurant chain in London (I have reviewed it here and I actually didn't have a pleasant experience at her fancy pansy restaurant, but I still had to see some celebrity chef do some cooking). So we sat there and watched some guests from the audience do their bit of cooking and Thomasina give them tips etc etc.

And Andi Peters who was supposedly the runner up of one of the MasterChef sessions was doing give aways and asking us questions and Swar and me were so scared whether we would be pulled up to answer since we were sitting right up front. 

But we left half way through because we were hungry again (its the drinking i tell ya) and so had this amazing crepe with banana, toffee and ice cream and I said I wanted to come back to watch James Martin perform but it wasn't on for another hour or so and so we walked through the Gardeners Live area which seemed to amuse me much better than the food and so I ended up clicking more pics of the Garden and the awesome flowers than the food show itself.  Sorry if you are getting bored!

And then we found out I could catch any train back to London and so off we went to Birmingham city centre and shopped liked mad in the huge mega mall...yes I know what you must be thinking...my priorities are all screwed..well who wants to choose food over shopping with a girl friend? well I did and had the time of my life the 2 hrs we spent at the mall. James Martin and Hairy Bikers, I can still watch on BBC but the girl bonding, which I was so deprived of, that i get once in a while, I was def not gonna miss. 

All in all I had a blast, but if you ask me whether id go for a food show like this again..well unless I get free tickets I don't think id want to because its almost all the same, the tasting sessions, the master class sessions etc..well unless Gordon Ramsey decides to grace the occasion, then I might just drop in to hear him say 'The F Word.' :)