Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.
The last week we visited Venice and Milan so restaurant choices were
'hit and miss' but really, we didn't have a bad meal all month.
Brilliant blue skies dogged us all April, turned out to be the warmest
April for 100 years!
Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL: http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

--
Cheers
Bronwyn
Oz

"Bronwyn" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin.
Brilliant blue skies dogged us all April, turned out to be the warmest
April for 100 years!
Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

--
Cheers
Bronwyn
Oz

Very nice. We wee there end of March into April and it happened to be the
coolest time just before your warmest time.

There is, however, no bad food in Italy. We had good food in the
restaurants and were able to find quality ingredients in the markets. Glad
you had such a good time.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

On May 8, 11:31 am, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:
"Bronwyn" wrote in message

ups.com...

Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin.
Brilliant blue skies dogged us all April, turned out to be the warmest
April for 100 years!
Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

--
Cheers
Bronwyn
Oz

Very nice. We wee there end of March into April and it happened to be the
coolest time just before your warmest time.

There is, however, no bad food in Italy. We had good food in the
restaurants and were able to find quality ingredients in the markets. Glad
you had such a good time.
--
Edhttp://pages.cthome.net/edhome/


That's right Ed! Heard about the cold snap just before we arrived! The
Romans were still rugged up in scarves and coats in the sunshine not
quite sure whether the warm weather was staying! Glad you had a good
time, a wonderful country to be sure for foodophiles.

Thx for looking at the pix.
Bron

"Bronwyn" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi folks,

Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier


Just wondrful! The most appealing looking dish to me was yours!
The Veal & Proscuitto 'birds' over Umbrian style green lentil and vegetable
stew.
Have you posted a recipe for this?

On 7 May 2007 17:32:30 -0700, Bronwyn
magnanimously proffered:

Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.

My wife and I planned to take a similar trip (also taking in Venice
and Rome), and renting a villa near enough to Florence that we could
spend a week to ten days enjoying Florence's art & culinary treasures.

Unfortunately, our septic system decided to choose that time to have a
nervous breakdown and we ended up spending our holiday money on
engineer's reports, council permits and the installation of an
expensive, new system that recycles wastewater so we can use it to
irrigate our trees. We called our new system, Florence, and when asked
about our holiday we tell people that we decided to sit in deck chairs
and look at the new septic tank instead.

Our time will come, however. And when it does, I've already told the
travel broker we're using that while my wife travels with all of her
senses, I travel with my appetite. I cannot wait to eat my way around
Italy.



--

una cerveza mas por favor ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: http://www.surfwriter.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~

On May 8, 1:30 pm, "cybercat" wrote:
"Bronwyn" wrote in message

ups.com...

Hi folks,

Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

Just wondrful! The most appealing looking dish to me was yours!
The Veal & Proscuitto 'birds' over Umbrian style green lentil and vegetable
stew.
Have you posted a recipe for this?


Thanks for that! I just made the dish up Italian stye.
Flatten some veal scallopine pieces, season, lay on top of similar
sized proscuitto(s) slices and roll up tightly so the proscuitto is on
the outside. Secure with a toothpick pierced with a fresh sage leaf.
Saute gently until just brown in olive oil. I allow 2 'birds' per
person.
Meanwhile, in an ovenproof shallow pan/dish, saute mire poix of finely
chopped carrot, onion and celery in olive oil. Add crushed garlic and
some finely chopped herbs like parsley, thyme. Cook gently and stir in
a quantity of green puys lentils (can be pre-soaked in water for half
hour). Add quantity of hot chicken or veg. stock to just cover. A
little dry red or white wine can be added too if desired by deglazing
pan in which the meat was sauted. Place the 'birds' snugly on top.
Cover dish with foil tightly and oven bake mod oven for say, 1 hr max.
The aroma will send sane people mad and keen to be your very best
friend!
--
Bron

On 7 May 2007 17:32:30 -0700, Bronwyn wrote:

Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.
The last week we visited Venice and Milan so restaurant choices were
'hit and miss' but really, we didn't have a bad meal all month.
Brilliant blue skies dogged us all April, turned out to be the warmest
April for 100 years!
Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL: http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

Thank you for taking me to Italy with you.
I really enjoyed the photos.
Koko
---
Blog in progress
http://kokoscorner.blogspot.com
updated 4/14 Irish Pub page.

"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw

On May 8, 2:16 pm, Koko wrote:
On 7 May 2007 17:32:30 -0700, Bronwyn wrote:



Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.
The last week we visited Venice and Milan so restaurant choices were
'hit and miss' but really, we didn't have a bad meal all month.
Brilliant blue skies dogged us all April, turned out to be the warmest
April for 100 years!
Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL: http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

Thank you for taking me to Italy with you.
I really enjoyed the photos.
Koko
---
Blog in progresshttp://kokoscorner.blogspot.com
updated 4/14 Irish Pub page.

"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw


You're most welcome!

On May 8, 2:10 pm, bob wrote:
[snip]
My wife and I planned to take a similar trip (also taking in Venice
and Rome), and renting a villa near enough to Florence that we could
spend a week to ten days enjoying Florence's art & culinary treasures.

Unfortunately, our septic system decided to choose that time to have a
nervous breakdown and we ended up spending our holiday money on
engineer's reports, council permits and the installation of an
expensive, new system that recycles wastewater so we can use it to
irrigate our trees. We called our new system, Florence, and when asked
about our holiday we tell people that we decided to sit in deck chairs
and look at the new septic tank instead.

Our time will come, however. And when it does, I've already told the
travel broker we're using that while my wife travels with all of her
senses, I travel with my appetite. I cannot wait to eat my way around
Italy.

--

una cerveza mas por favor

What a sad tale! My language would not have been quite so mild re the
septic debacle. However, it's probably a while back and you can
almost see the funny side now.
Have fun planning your trip to Italy, we kept the calouries at bay by
walking everywhere, eating lightly for breakfast and lunch, enjoying
the divine icecreams and a great dinner in the evening with a bottle
of red (avoiding the whites generally speaking).
Cheers
Bron

Bronwyn wrote:
Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.


I'm pleased that you enjoyed you culinary adventure with us. It's
fairly easy to eat well here, isn't it? It doesn't sound like you hit
even one impossible place, although they exist-- a minority, but existent.

It took me a year to be able to read labels in the supermarket. I'm
impressed that you worked it out so quickly. At the beginning it could
take me an hour to buy food for one meal. I hadn't a clue what a lot of
things were and what you'd do with them. It was two years before I felt
capable of going to cookery school and understanding what they had to
say-- and I had studied Italian at university many years ago.

We had June in April and May has been April instead. 8 days of rain
after heat and dust for a month.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On May 8, 6:38 pm, Giusi wrote:
Bronwyn wrote:
Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.

I'm pleased that you enjoyed you culinary adventure with us. It's
fairly easy to eat well here, isn't it? It doesn't sound like you hit
even one impossible place, although they exist-- a minority, but existent.

It took me a year to be able to read labels in the supermarket. I'm
impressed that you worked it out so quickly. At the beginning it could
take me an hour to buy food for one meal. I hadn't a clue what a lot of
things were and what you'd do with them. It was two years before I felt
capable of going to cookery school and understanding what they had to
say-- and I had studied Italian at university many years ago.

We had June in April and May has been April instead. 8 days of rain
after heat and dust for a month.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com


Guisi, thanks for that interesting response. As a child I grew up in
Melbourne Australia which has a large Italian population, so I always
familiar with Italian meals and produce. My mother, Australian, loved
to cook, she was very adept at French and Italian cuisines. Now, in
my 50's, Italian cooking is the mainstay of my cooking, but (modestly)
I cook Indian, Thai and anything else I can get a recipe (southwestern
US cooking,creole, whatever).
This recent trip was my first to Italy - I had been saving it up for a
special trip - and I was not disappointed! As you can see from my
photographs, an interest in cooking gives a wonderful focal point for
travel. Yes, we saw lots of galleries, churches and architecture
too...but it will be the food I will remember!
You are an Italian American, right? How wonderful that you live in
Italy now, whereabouts?

I am glad you got some rain after we left -- everything was very dry
indeed.
Cheers
Bronwyn

Giusi wrote:
Bronwyn wrote:
Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.


I'm pleased that you enjoyed you culinary adventure with us. It's
fairly easy to eat well here, isn't it? It doesn't sound like you hit
even one impossible place, although they exist-- a minority, but existent.

It took me a year to be able to read labels in the supermarket. I'm
impressed that you worked it out so quickly. At the beginning it could
take me an hour to buy food for one meal. I hadn't a clue what a lot of
things were and what you'd do with them. It was two years before I felt
capable of going to cookery school and understanding what they had to
say-- and I had studied Italian at university many years ago.

We had June in April and May has been April instead. 8 days of rain
after heat and dust for a month.


The weather has definitely been quite changeable! It's pretty out today...

--
"All of those faeries and duels and mad queens and so on, and no one
quoted old Billy Shakespeare. Not even once."
- Billy the Werewolf, The Dresden Files

Bronwyn wrote:
On May 8, 6:38 pm, Giusi wrote:
Bronwyn wrote:

You are an Italian American, right? How wonderful that you live in
Italy now, whereabouts?

I am glad you got some rain after we left -- everything was very dry
indeed.
Cheers
Bronwyn

No, I am French-English American who is Italian by choice. In Umbria.

We are still facing a possible failure of the crops in the most fertile
area of Italy. We've missed a lot of rain and had almost no snow at all
this year.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

bob wrote:
Bronwyn writes:

Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.

My wife and I planned to take a similar trip

Unfortunately, our septic system decided to choose that time to have a
nervous breakdown and we ended up spending our holiday money on
engineer's reports, council permits and the installation of an
expensive, new system that recycles wastewater so we can use it to
irrigate our trees. We called our new system, Florence, and when asked
about our holiday we tell people that we decided to sit in deck chairs
and look at the new septic tank instead.

PUH-leeeze! People are eating here!

Some people's idea of dinner table conversation... you vacuuous
lout... feh!

And you're no kind of writer, commas are NOT garnish.

Sheldon

On May 7, 5:32 pm, Bronwyn wrote:
Hi folks,
Just returned from four weeks in Italy travelling around with husband,
Franklin. The middle two weeks we rented two villas - one in Umbria
about 10 miles out of Assisi in the hills, and one in Tuscany between
Lucca and Florence.
It was such fun shopping for provisions for the two weeks. After
sightseeing all day and walking our feet off, my relaxation was to get
in the kitchen and cook up a storm! The second villa we had friends
from NZ join us. I cooked all the dinners, Mary did the breakfasts.
The first week we spent in Rome and were given a list of restaurants
to visit from an Aussie friend who lived there for 10+ years. They
were all wonderful, simple and honest Roman food, and 'off the beaten
tourist track'.
The last week we visited Venice and Milan so restaurant choices were
'hit and miss' but really, we didn't have a bad meal all month.
Brilliant blue skies dogged us all April, turned out to be the warmest
April for 100 years!
Hope you enjoy looking at these pix. URL: http://community.webshots.com/user/bronwynferrier

--
Cheers
Bronwyn
Oz

Thanks for sharing your great pics- I was in Italy about 10 years ago,
and had the time of my life! Like you, I had no bad food. I thought it
was funny when, at restaurants, you were asked "gas or no gas" when it
came to water.