Eat-alian for Beginners

This is my first post on the food that I experience on my travels. The page has been under construction for quite a while and I'm so happy and excited to finally fill it out! I hope to share some of my insights on foreign cuisine and the entries will also serve as an excellent travel blog for me to reminisce upon. Let's face it, for people who love to eat, we remember our vacations on a meal-by-meal basis as much as we recall the tourist attractions.

Here's a little background on our trip -- it's the first full-on vacation with my wonderful/handsome boyfriend, Orin, and I. We stayed in four cities -- Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre and Venice. We also made day trips to Siena and Ghizzano, a little town in the Tuscan countryside. My overall impression of the food is that the Italians certainly follow the "eat seasonal, eat local" motto. It's not a "movement", it's a way of life. Even lettuce tasted more, well, lettuce-y. We visited several markets, and let me tell you, the abundance and variety of produce and deli goods would make any American yuppie green with envy. My only complaint is that, on many occasions, the restaurants can be very heavy handed with salt. Portions are noticeably smaller, but that's probably a good thing. 

Rome	Florence
Cinque Terre	Venice

We tried as much as we could to eat outside of the tourist areas to get a feel of "authentic Italian food". We definitely developed a case of the self-hating-tourist-itis. We would prowl for restaurants that weren't dominated by English speakers. I believe we were fairly successful in our quest to sample the foods that the natives enjoy. Make sure to do your homework ahead of time. Orin almost wore out his thumb flipping through our Lonely Planet and Rick Steve travel guides in search of the best places to eat (thank you, wonderful/handsome boyfriend!). We had our misses, but undoubtedly hit a few gems during the trip. Well, I'm going to stop the jabbering and start talking about the food!! A warning, if you're not hungry now, you will be by the end of the entry.

The place-setting at this little restaurant in Tuscany