Another minor update on my allegedly food-driven
travels.

(I tried to email an earlier version of this report
to Christine but due to failed web-email interfaces
I think it never got there.)

As per plan, we flew to Milan and my dining partner
drove us to Parma where we ate at the bio-energetic
restaurant "Aprito Sesamo". It was quite a wonderful
meal, a fixed seven course menu.

The hoped for one-hour drive from Linate to Parma
didn't quite work out, as we were half way to
Parma before we actually found the autostrada...
I was navigating by compass (which ultimately
works, but incrementally).

Originally, we were going to spend the next three
days without planned itinerary in Tuscany. But
my ever-thoughful partner had a brainstrom and
suggested we immediately proceed to outside of
Assisi and stay at a biofarm there. This worked
out splendidly; we cut around Tuscany (sniff, sniff)
by heading nearly to Rimini before taking the beautiful E45
over the mountains towards Perugia. So although
a white truffle experience was not to be, this time,
we had an excellent black truffle experience in town;
but in house at the farm was farm-local olive oil, eggs, fresh
pasta, boar salami, sagratino wine, and oregano, upland
cress, and thyme from the garden, and some good cheese and
a Sagratino wine (I think I already said that), all of which
we happily prepared for ourselves in our little self-catering
farm unit.

There was a discussion of are fresh farm eggs
better ... the answer is yes, for poached eggs.

The next phase involved and equally moutnainous
drive, part through a valley (the Valerina?) which
has changed but half a naugt in centuries; and
then dropping down to sora where our next biostay
is. We have just arrived so more later...

cheers

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:45:29 +0000 (UTC),
(Steve Pope) wrote:

Another minor update on my allegedly food-driven
travels.

(I tried to email an earlier version of this report
to Christine but due to failed web-email interfaces
I think it never got there.)

As per plan, we flew to Milan and my dining partner
drove us to Parma where we ate at the bio-energetic
restaurant "Aprito Sesamo". It was quite a wonderful
meal, a fixed seven course menu.

The hoped for one-hour drive from Linate to Parma
didn't quite work out, as we were half way to
Parma before we actually found the autostrada...
I was navigating by compass (which ultimately
works, but incrementally).

Originally, we were going to spend the next three
days without planned itinerary in Tuscany. But
my ever-thoughful partner had a brainstrom and
suggested we immediately proceed to outside of
Assisi and stay at a biofarm there. This worked
out splendidly; we cut around Tuscany (sniff, sniff)
by heading nearly to Rimini before taking the beautiful E45
over the mountains towards Perugia. So although
a white truffle experience was not to be, this time,
we had an excellent black truffle experience in town;
but in house at the farm was farm-local olive oil, eggs, fresh
pasta, boar salami, sagratino wine, and oregano, upland
cress, and thyme from the garden, and some good cheese and
a Sagratino wine (I think I already said that), all of which
we happily prepared for ourselves in our little self-catering
farm unit.

There was a discussion of are fresh farm eggs
better ... the answer is yes, for poached eggs.

The next phase involved and equally moutnainous
drive, part through a valley (the Valerina?) which
has changed but half a naugt in centuries; and
then dropping down to sora where our next biostay
is. We have just arrived so more later...

This is sounding wonderful. It's the type of Italian vacation my son
in law would love. He wanted to spend 6 months on some type of farm
in Italy a couple of years ago. Take pictures and post ASAP!

--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.

(Steve Pope) wrote:

Another minor update on my allegedly food-driven
travels.

The next phase involved and equally moutnainous
drive, part through a valley (the Valerina?) which
has changed but half a naugt in centuries; and
then dropping down to sora where our next biostay
is. We have just arrived so more later...

That's where I went a couple of weeks ago, where I boight the wonderful
potatoes! They are famous there for trout as well, since the waters of the
Nera are so clean and cold. Past the Valnerina id the Pianogrande of Umbria
with lentils of Casteluccio and Norcia which is famous for its pork since
Roman days. This is a true foodie trip!

Christine Dabney wrote:

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:45:29 +0000 (UTC),

(I tried to email an earlier version of this report
to Christine but due to failed web-email interfaces
I think it never got there.)

Never got it.

Yes, I suspected so. But now I have a better internet
connection, at least for a couple days.

The hoped for one-hour drive from Linate to Parma
didn't quite work out, as we were half way to
Parma before we actually found the autostrada...
I was navigating by compass (which ultimately
works, but incrementally).

Ya know...maps work quite well.

Right. My excuse is, while we bought a brand new map
of central Italy while we were in London, it does not
go as far north as Parma or Milan, and I figured I
could get by with a 20-year-old Michelin map of that
area. Clearly, roads and autostradas (autostrade?)
have moved around considerably in the intervening length
of time.

Now that we're on the newer map I'm much less disoriented. :-)

Take pictures of the food, etc.
Jot down what you ate at these multi-course meals.. I don't know if
anyone else is interested, but I sure am!!

Thanks. I hope to upload some photos very soon.

I am bringing a lot of my Italian cookbooks to the bay area, so
Italian food will be cooked and eaten a lot. Even if I can't get to
Italy now, I can at least eat like an Italian. And Kermit Lynch has
some great values on Italian wines now. Will be getting a case or
two..or more.

This sounds like a plan!


Steve

Giusi wrote:



The next phase involved and equally moutnainous
drive, part through a valley (the Valerina?) which
has changed but half a naugt in centuries; and
then dropping down to sora where our next biostay
is. We have just arrived so more later...

That's where I went a couple of weeks ago, where I boight the wonderful
potatoes! They are famous there for trout as well, since the waters of the
Nera are so clean and cold. Past the Valnerina id the Pianogrande of Umbria
with lentils of Casteluccio and Norcia which is famous for its pork since
Roman days. This is a true foodie trip!

Yes I recall your saying that you went up there; I believe you
were much further up in the mountains, in Norcia. We only
went through the 4 km tunnel that takes you to the middle
of the valley of Valnerina, and continued south. So we
saw about half of it, but it was beautiful. We had enough
time for a one hour walk up the disused railway path up
a side canyon.

Today was equally good; we went from Sora, to the Abruzzo
National Park and hiked around for about three and a half
hours. There was nobody up there, just some
cattle and donkeys wearing cowbells to scare the bears
away. On the highest part of the trail, there was some
definite bear scat -- the only bear who lives in Abruzzo
is a grizzly bear, and this was large enough scat that
it sure looked like a grizzly. But we did not see the bear,
nor the other famous occupants of the park like the chamois.

The fall colors are really beautiful right now.

Steve

sf wrote:

(Steve Pope) wrote:

The next phase involved and equally moutnainous
drive, part through a valley (the Valerina?) which
has changed but half a naugt in centuries; and
then dropping down to sora where our next biostay
is. We have just arrived so more later...

This is sounding wonderful. It's the type of Italian vacation my son
in law would love. He wanted to spend 6 months on some type of farm
in Italy a couple of years ago. Take pictures and post ASAP!

The pictures are uploaded from camera to laptop, I just
need to refig them and get them on my website.

Your non bio son would probably like this sort of farmstay. I
must admit that every other guest here is between 20 and
30 years younger than us. I feel that we should have
done this in our youth, except that in our youth, this
sort of thing did not even exist.

But there are now tons of tourist farms in Italy; I think
we found these places through Slow Travel or Slow Food.
(The proprietor here has said the Slow Food people have
been through, but said it with a bit of a shudder:
sort of like, "We're Slow Food, and we're here to help!"

S.