Mama Mia, Italia

So, last week, we ventured into the acclaimed food paradise of Italy.  We began our Italian tour in the city of Bologna, known for its Pasta Bolognese. After Bologna, we made our way by train to the beautiful city of Florence, and then we concluded our time in Italy with a few days stay in Rome. Although no food we ate was bad, we went to Italy with very high expectations, which were sometimes not met. Therefore, to best sum up our Italian food experience, we thought it best to serve up this entry as a compliment/criticism sandwich.

 

 

In Bologna, we had what puts pretty much all ice cream we have had in the States to shame: Italian gelato. For Helaina, it was her very first gelato experience, and it is sure to say she started it off right. She got a biscotti scoop, while a pistachio flavor gave Ianna a real treat. Later on in Rome, we continued our gelato indulgence with a variety of flavors like tiramisu, and dark chocolate, which tasted similar to brownie batter. The rich flavors, complimented by a smooth, creamy texture made gelato something that we will surely miss about Italy.

 

As far as criticisms go, although being surrounded primarily by pizza, pasta and paninis sounds like a delight, these options quickly grow stale when they are not only very high in price, but are also seemingly the only meal choices. Growing up with American style Italian food, we are quite used to pasta and pizza, but thought upon visiting Italy, dishes we have not tried would be available in abundance. Clearly, this was not the case. Even in trying to budget on our meals, we found ourselves spending on average about €9 (that´s around $12 folks). Typically, these "cheaper" meals were also known as the "primi piatti", which is a name for a starter course, and are very small portions in comparison to Italian dishes in the US. On top of a pricey meal selection, some ristoranti even snuck in a charge (without warning) for the use of their table settings. So all in all, if you want to visit Italy, save up your money, and don´t be afriad to do some DIY cooking.  The cities we visited did have great fresh food markets and the ristoranti were closed at odd hours from two American tourists´ perspectives.

 

To top off our compliment sandwich, we would like to discuss drinks. Espresso is cheap and easily available throughout the day, which is great if you need to refuel in energy while siteseeing. In Rome, we even were served complimentary sweets with our Italian caffe. Also, a great time that comes in a bottle is Italian wine, which is high in quality for its affordable price. We bought a bottle of wine almost every night, and usually spent between €2 and €4.

You can trust us, after a long day of spending lots of Euro on not a lot of food to keep up our energy for siteseeing, a €2 bottle of wine was exactly what we usually needed.


-Love Handling Food