The land of coffee, pasta, pizza, lasagne, bread, cheese, gelato…

So it’s only really just occurred to me that I haven’t actually mentioned the idea of food much, and considering how much I love food – and the fact that I’m in Italy…

Well I don’t know where to begin, but in short: the food is absolutely amazing! To a certain extent, it’s somewhat different to the clichés available overseas – for example, the thought of having pineapple on a pizza is frowned upon, as well as ‘mochas’ referring to the little coffee pot (moka) used to make coffee instead of the name of coffee with added chocolate..?

But having tried more variants of pasta than one could ever imagine, I can now officially say that I’ve experienced Italian food, the authentic way. The day I first arrived, we went out for dinner at a pizzeria, and to my utmost surprise – the pizzas are HUGE.

Although I’ve always been the one who opts for an extra slice of pizza…the concept of ‘slices’ doesn’t exactly exist here. Everyone orders their own pizza, and they’re at least 1.5 times bigger than the ones you normally find in Sydney! So that night was just a bit awkward to say the least, given I felt full after a single slice – and only managed to finish half of it in the end. But over time (and practice), I can now finish one of these giant pizzas by myself in its entirety!

Spending last week in a completely different region of Italy was really interesting, in that we had the most incredible types of bread and cheese available everywhere. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of vegetables (yes, I use the term ‘vegetables’ loosely) like olives and fennel but when added to bread the Italian way, it’s actually so delicious! And the cheese…ah!

Moving onto dessert: proprio buonissima! Gelato, chocolate, nutella crêpes, strudel, tiramisu, struffoli, cannoli, panforte, pandoro, panettone, cheesecake, biscotti…the list goes on…

I’ve gotten to the stage where not having pasta for either lunch feels like something is missing; but I can’t say I’ll ever get used to having dinner so late ie 9:30pm sometimes! So while I’m having this incredible culinary adventure though, I must say it is DEFINITELY taking it’s toll elsewhere!

Buon appetito!

xxxxxxx

Serena

[Just a small snapshot of the amazing food! Ps the picture of the pizza by no means captures how enormous the plate actually was – trust me]

[Lunch]