Italian Food

I felt obligated to add this page in order to educate and inform.  I know some people think: Italy = pasta.  And though there was a lot of pasta around, that was not the staple of every meal.  In fact, pasta was the main entree in only ONE meal we had (sorry, that would be two meals - I just thought of another), and that was a lunch.  Wait, three meals (I thought of it while writing the below) - but considering three meals out of 18 possibilities, that's not bad!

Italians (and tourists) eat dinner (the last meal of the day) late.  Very late.  We usually arrived at restaurants after 7:00.  The last night we had dinner (in Rome), we were the second couple  eating at 7:30, but by 8:30, every outdoor table was full (the only couple that went inside to eat arrived about 9:00).

The dinners (at least in the restaurants) were quite some production, and we had musical accompaniment for half of them.  The typical dinner was four or five courses, though not quite as filling as it might sound - it took an hour plus to eat the meal and they usually didn't rush us.

Gelato!!  Gelato can be summed up in one word: yummy.  Gelato is made from iced milk, rather than iced cream - therefore, it is much lighter (and healthier) than ice cream.  The flavors are much more pronounced too.  We had gelato almost every day as desert with lunch, and once or twice after dinner (where the meal was a little smaller such as that in Siena).

Here are some menus of what we had to eat:

Lunches:

• Mozzarella & tomato, chicken panini, and spitzel (fried ball of something - we think potato)
• Paninis (roasted vegetables; prosciutto, mozzarella, & mushrooms; prosciutto; prosciutto & cheese; ham; ham & cheese)
• Mozzarella salad (with the paninis one day)
• Pasta (4 different ones on one plate) and bruscetta (see pictures below)
• Pizza
• Mc Donald's (just kidding)

Dinner:

Rome - first night:

• Antipasto (slices of various meats such as prosciutto and salami)
• Pasta fagioli (pasta and bean "soup")
• Chicken caccitore (Steve) and salmon (Linda)
• Moose

Rome - second night:

• Antipasto (same as above)
• Penne with tomato sauce
• Chicken and sausage
• Fresh fruit

Tuscan night:

• Antipasto (melon and prosciutto)
• Pasta fagioli
• Cheese tortellini and penne
• Pork chop and sausage (Steve) and lamb chop (Linda)
• Moose
• Fruit

Siena night (at the Piazza del Campo):

• Calzone (Steve) and cheese & spinach ravioli (Linda)

Venice night:

• Anitpasto (see first night)
• Penne with tomoto sauce
• Veal scallapini (both of us)
• Cake

Rome - last night:

• Antipasto (see first night)
• Pasta with lamb sauce (Steve) and penne with tomato sauce (Linda)
• Sliced pork with potatoes (Steve) and sliced veal with potatoes (Linda)
• Moose
• Biscotti with sweet wine

And now, a couple pictures.....

Bruscetta (in Venice)
Pasta (in Venice)