May 14, 2004
May 14
Rome
As soon as we set foot in Rome, we knew we'd like it and by the end of that first day, we knew it was our favorite city in Italy of the places we visited. Rome is similar to NYC in size but the city is also filled with buildings that reflects its ancient and more contemporary past. There's so much to see in the city and historic buildings are everywhere you walk. Unfortunately, we weren't in Rome for very long so much of our time was spent rushing to and through all the main sites and then trying to squeeze in some shopping before we left Italy. But we loved Rome and would love to spend some more time there.
Being the chowhound that I am, I feel compelled to comment on the food in Italy:
Venice--as I mentioned the tourists outnumber the residents significantly and I suspect the local cuisine suffers as a result. The food we ate was decent but in contrast with the rest of Italy was so-so. Venice is also seafood heavy and I can only eat so much seafood so I might be a little biased.
Florence- Yum! We want to go back to Florence just so we can try the Florentine steak along with a bunch of other local specialties.
Cinque Terre- the best dish we had in Italy was in the town we stayed in in CT, a local pasta called trofie with this delectable shrimp sauce. Sadly, this elevated culinary experience was not replicated elsewhere but the food overall in Cinque Terre was very good. Like Venice, seafood heavy.
Amalfi Coast- I was really looking forward to eating in Capri (which I heard good things about) but because of the ferry situation while we were there, I didn't get a chance to. We ate once in Ravello (the food was good but I wasn't crazy about the dishes I had) and the rest of the time in Sorrento. Unfortunately, the restaurants I ended up chosing were pretty bad save for the last one where we ate at the night before we left so I feel like I can't really make a proper evaluation.
Rome- Good but didn't read the stellar highs that we experienced in Vernazza. We didn't spend enough time in Rome though to really gauge.
The shrimps in Italy are weird--more like crawfish than the shrimps we're accustomed to here. Also weren't that impressed by the bread, save for the bread with bacon bits we had in Rome. Wine is cheap and plentiful but not always good, beware the limoncello which we might've made the mistake of drinking warm but it takes like super sweet, super concentrated lemon juice that burns your stomach (it's got a 33% alcohol content).
Happened to come across an article about the Smart car, a tiny car we saw all over Italy and will be introduced to the U.S. later this year. Italy is full of tiny cars, scooters, and bicycles and when I asked our cab driver en route to the airport why, he mentioned in addition to the streets being narrow (which we learned by the time we got to Florence), there is very limited parking in the center city which makes sense since, unlike the U.S., cities in Italy were created centuries before cars came onto the scene.
Posted by Jennifer at May 14, 2004 09:02 PM