Venice

Venice is well-known for it's seafood, and we certainly took advantage of that! I tried to eat seafood at every meal, if at all possible. 


The photos below are from a lunch at a small, casual restaurant and from a more fancy dinner place, Osteria Oliva Nera. Oliva Nera was recommended to us, but we figured we'd never find it -- as we forgot to look it up before we got to Venice and had no internet service. We were walking around for dinner, turned a corner -- and there it was. We were very fortunate to have stumbled upon it, as it was a great recommendation!

Paul's lunchtime pasta with squid ink. Delicious. 

My lunchtime pasta with mussels and shrimp

Dinner appetizer: fried zucchini flowers with a little cheese on the inside. Paul now loves zucchini flowers.

Homemade olives at Oliva Nera...I don't even like olives that much, and I ate all of them.

Paul's perfectly cooked whitefish.

My rabbit gnocchi. Out of control. 

Semifreddo for dessert, with assorted berries. Absolutely divine. 

There may or may not have been a few free shots of limoncello and orangecello. And we left with a small bottle of their homemade olive oil, which I am saving for some stressful time where I just need to transport myself back to Italy via food. 

Gelato!

Yes, Paul does look like he's giving a new report from Piazza San Stefano using his cone as a microphone. I'll let it slide since he's taking the photo. 

Siena

We spent a day and a half or so in Siena while on our Italy vacation. In addition to strolling around town, we sampled some delicious food -- including a local specialty, panforte. The slice we picked up had nuts and figs. It was sweet, chewy and quite tasty.


We also had started picking up tomatoes, bread, basil and cheese as we traveled around to snack on in between meals. We tried some pecorino fresco early on (I think in Rome? We bought a lot of cheese!), and were hooked. It's a great soft and tangy cheese, aged much less than regular pecorino. I'm on the hunt for it, so if anyone knows where to find it -- please do share!

Risotto with a soft, mild cheese and zucchini

Paul's mushroom gnocchi

The infamous panforte

Some delicious cheese we tasted in a shop, and bought immediately (see below)

Our late afternoon snack!

Florence: Round 2

We spent two days in Florence, then left to go Montalcino and Siena, before returning to Florence for one last night. We stumbled on a cute, small restaurant that evening, and were really impressed with the homey, rustic food we were served. Paul had ordered a ribollita the first night we were in Florence, and I had been itching to get a plate of it myself.  Lucky me -- they had some on the menu. I'm now hooked on ribollita and can't wait to make it again!

Delicious cheese tortelli

Ribollita! Warm, hearty...it was everything I hoped for and more.

Homemade tiramisu