Berlin to Morocco via Poland, Prague, Austria, and Italy

Friday, February 28, 2014

Firenze


Florence is utterly breathtaking. I walked by this church the night I arrived, after which I got lost in the very confusing and often unmarked streets. The next day I saw the Palazzo Vecchio...


...with its frescoed lobby...


...the beautiful river running through the center of the city...


...and the lush, expansive Boboli Gardens.


They reminded me of Minneapolis in the summer. The space under the canopy of the trees was quiet and filled with dappled green light, a oasis in an already sublime place.


Near the back there was a terrace with stunning views of the Tuscan countryside.


Also, this statue.


By late afternoon, it was warm and sunny enough for gelato! In the shops here it is piled up in these giant, swirly heaps.


Now, if you saw "Nutella" as the label on a bin of gelato, you would probably assume it meant nutella-flavored gelato, right? Well, you'd be wrong. Instead, I got a giant scoop of straight nutella next to my pistachio gelato. I never thought I would say this, but it was, perhaps, too much Nutella. Delicious though.



The next day I did a bunch wandering around the city. The Duomo is absolutely incredible!


There are bakeries on every other corner, offering specialties like panforte, a dense, delicious confection made with dried fruit and nuts, and sometimes spices or citrus.


There is also torrone, thick slabs of nuts mixed with sugar and egg whites to form a chewy, meringue-like candy. I have a stash in my bag.


And of course, this being Italy, there was pizza. My good friend Rachel is studying abroad here, and took me to one of her favorite pizza places. We shared one with roasted vegetables and one with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. So good!



My other favorite thing from Italy was the blood oranges. Sweet and juicy, with peels tinged with pink and scarlet flesh, their flavor is more complex than that of regular oranges. They release the most wonderful perfume when peeled - in Rome I walked by the open window of a truck and could smell the scent of a fresh orange wafting from the cab.


Now it's on to Morocco for more delicious food and new things to see!

Traveling Through Tuscany

This week I went on a wonderful day trip through Tuscany, including Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa. After the beautiful drive from Florence, we wandered through the main square of Siena, where the famous Palio horse race is held. The buildings there are a mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles.


They also have an incredible Gothic Cathedral, similar to the one in Florence with the sharp contrast of white and dark green marble.



In the main square there was a small stand selling deep fried rice balls. They came out of the oil in huge, dripping, golden masses, and were sliced into smaller pieces with a large knife. I didn't have a chance to try them (had to run for the bus for the first time that day) but everyone said they were delicious - much like donuts.


For lunch, we stopped at an organic vineyard run by a family. They produce grapes for wine, olive oil, wheat for pasta, a heritage breed of Tuscan cattle, and other fruit and vegetables.


We were treated to fresh mozzarella with roasted potatoes...


...pasta with a light tomato sauce and delicious cheese (with the heirloom beef for meat-eaters)...


...and for dessert, cantucci, which is the actual name for what we usually call biscotti - biscotti just means cookie. (I learned this when I asked for some in a store, and the woman held up another kind of cookie. I said "No, biscotti!"She laughed.)


They were served with a sweet dessert wine called Vin Santo - Holy Wine. People usually eat the cookies dipped in the wine. Kind of unusual, but not bad.


Our next stop was San Gimignano, a tiny walled city on a hill,



 overlooking the Tuscan countryside.

You could walk across it in about five minutes through the narrow, winding streets.


It is also home to the World Gelato Champion, offering flavors like bilberry and saffron.


I tried the saffron and the hazelnut flavors - the saffron flavor was lacking in intensity but deliciously creamy, and the hazelnut - perfect!


The last stop was Pisa, home to the famous Leaning Tower.


It is quite lovely, constructed of pale white stones and almost glowing in the late afternoon sun.


I already can't wait to come back to Italy!

Monday, February 24, 2014

Cranky Nuns and Dangerous Beasties at the Uffizi

I spent this morning at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, one of the best in Italy and probably the world. The building is a museum in itself, with frescoes covering every inch of the hallway ceilings.


They have some particularly famous pieces like the Birth of Venus, which is beautiful in books and stunning in person. Her long, flowing hair glistens like gold thread, and her face is delicate and serene. The gauzy sleeves on the dress of the woman rushing to cloth her are so finely painted that they are transparent.



Fabric was one of the things I noticed most about paintings in the Uffizi, like this veil on the Virgin Mary...


...the robes of the Three Kings in Adoration of the Magi...



...lush velvet capes...




...and the iridescent silk dresses and sleeves on the subjects of paintings in the Dutch collection.



They also boast this little-known masterpiece, titled Cranky Madonna of the Small Beastie.

Someone is not happy.

 
You'd be cranky too if your dog looked like this:


But at least it didn't get totally out of hand.






Saturday, February 22, 2014

Roman Treats

As I perused my way down the bustling Via Nazionale, I spied a gelato shop with a clear plastic cylinder on the counter. A type of paddle wheel lazily stirred the thick, dark liquid inside - cioccolata calda!  I veered into the shop to study it further.

 A rainbow of gelato flavors, piled in swirly heaps, glistened in the case in front of me, and two nuns crunched happily on cones near the doorway, waiting for the light rain to let up. I've learned, after several deeply disappointing episodes in which I received a cup of hot water and a packet of Swiss Miss, to be careful when ordering hot chocolate. This chocolate looked sufficiently dark and viscous, so I ordered some. He held a green paper cup under the spout for a good thirty seconds as it trickled out - good hot chocolate does not go anywhere fast.

"Panna?"

But of course!



The whipped cream melted slowly into the deep brown, almost black liquid, forming a foamy white layer on the top. I dipped the spoon in and brought it to my lips. Steaming hot, sweet, dark, bitter at the end, it coated by mouth in chocolately richness.

Satisfied after half the cup, I stuck it in the fridge for later. When I took it out, it had cooled to the consistency of hot fudge sauce, coating the spoon completely. Cioccolata fredda is rather delicious, too, as it turns out.


Luckily for me, and luckily for the fact that I spend about six hours a day walking, Italians have myriad variations on the theme of flour, sugar, and some type of flavoring, often nuts, spices, chocolate, or citrus.


I tried two kinds of cookies - pignoli, which I had many years ago in Boston's North End (the Italian area), and one made with red wine and hazelnuts. The pignoli were, of course, fabulous. A light, slightly chewy, macaroon-style confection topped with rich pine nuts, they are one of my favorites. I make something similar at home with ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar.

The red wine cookie was tasty as well. The rich, sugar cookie dough had the faintest hint of red wine, and biting into a hazelnut released a delightful crunch and a fruity, nutty flavor.

Lynn, my wonderful host, brought home some of her favorite traditional treats, available only in the weeks before Lent.


I had seen frappe - crispy fried squares of dough dusted with powdered sugar - in every shop and bakery I passed, but I didn't recognize the castagnole. They look like donut holes, but are made with chestnut flour. They are rich and dense, with a crumbly texture - delicious! You have to get them while they last, Lynn explained. They disappear as soon as Lent starts.


I've been amazed at the types of confections I've seen here. The Italians certainly give the French a run for their money in the pastry department, for sheer variety if nothing else. I walked by giant meringues,


this...thing (whatever it is, it's festive)...


...brightly colored marzipan fruit...


...and I stopped into a bakery to get a closer look the sfogliatelle, clam-shaped layers of flaky pastry filled with ricotta. I wandered around the shop, looking at dozens of trays of cookies. A woman appeared, asking if I wanted something for breakfast.


"Very fresh," she said, drawing me over to the clam-shaped pastries again. She poked one to show me. The crackle of the delicate layers was audible. No further convincing was necessary.

"I'll take one."

Such crispiness is not always easy to find. A sfogliatelle in the hand...


I sat in a corner of the bakery, at a high table squeezed between cases of whipped cream-frosted tortes and trays of sprinkle-covered cookies. I broke off a piece and bit into it. The shell was as crispy as promised, and the filling was a lovely mixture of ricotta, sugar, and candied orange peel (my favorite!). I'm sure you could hear the crunch of the dough on the other side of the room.


It pulled apart into spiraled sections, connected by single strands of paper-thin dough. Each piece held a bit of the creamy, citrusy filling and a dusting of powdered sugar.

As fun to eat as it was delicious.