Entries from July 2008 ↓

We had made the commitment to have dinner at Bacco d’Oro at least once this summer, because it’s lovely when you can eat there outside. It’s an old courtyard, with buildings in different styles, that maybe were built in different periods. There is also a small chapel, always open for the guests. A dozen of tables is outside on the terrace, surrounded by a small garden and by the beautiful view of the hills all around. The restaurant is in Mezzane di Sotto, in a gorgeous valley few kilometers from Verona.
So we made a reservation for Saturday night after a very warm week but when we left home we were almost sure we would have been obliged to eat inside: after a very warm day, there had already been a shower in the afternoon and clouds and wind were still in the air.
I was wearing one of my favourite dresses, an essential sleeveless silk sheath dress, but I also stuck a light sweater in my purse, as I was expecting storm and cool temperature over there in the hills.
When we arrived to the restaurant the waiter told us they prepared the table outside despite the wind and the clouds, so this was already good news for us, because they were confident the weather would be o.k.
The aperitif was offered downstairs in the cellar: this is one of the reasons we love this place. It’s an old wine cellar with an arched ceiling in bricks, a wide table in the middle, wine racks all along the walls, containing mainly amazing Italian wines, but also from other countries.
This restaurant has a very good wine card, at very correct prices.
Once at the table we ordered our dinner. As hors d’oevre I took a flan of Monte Veronese cheese (a typical cheese from our mountains) with finferli mushrooms and a delicious “prosciutto”. Manu took shrimps in tempura with a smooth courgette sauce. He took also a pasta course (he can afford that!), hand made “tagliatelle” (long flat noodles) with a white ragout. After that I took a tartare of beef filet and Manu a “tagliata”, roasted beef in slices (delicious, with its crispy crust).
All this was accompanied by a Chianti Riserva Ducale Oro 1993 Ruffino, an austere and quite demanding wine that left us a taste of an original old-fashioned tuscan winemaking.
Believe or not, we could dine till the end at our table outside, I never needed to wear the sweater, because the wind blew away all the clouds and it remained dry and warm and we could fully enjoy our delicious dinner.

Last Sunday Illy prepared a delicious gazpacho. It is a cold Spanish soup and it descends from Andalusian culture. Gazpacho is a mix based on a combination of vegetables. There are many types of this soup, it depends from where this soup is made. Gazpacho is consumed from Spain and Portugal until Latin American countries, now it is certainly included into international cuisine books. Illy had the idea to prepare this soup in Munich because after our visit at the Haus der Kunst we came back to the hotel and after a little rest, we went in a very nice restaurant, Le Barestovino, and we ate as starter octopus and gazpacho.
Illy’s ingredients are:

• 4 – 6 medium size ripe tomatos
• 1 small yellow pepper
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red onion
• 4 – 5 small green peppers
• bread crumb from 2 slices of bread
• 2 glasses of ice water
• pepper and salt

And this is the result:

I really suggest this soup, it’s fresh and genuine during the summer.

Last summer in August we spent some wonderful days in the Côte d’Azur, staying at our friend’s house in Théoule-sur-Mer, not far from Cannes.
We still have such a nice memory of those days, we were with very good friends, in a gorgeous house overlooking the sea, and we just were in the French Riviera, what else to say?
We usually had dinner at home, after a long aperitif, cooking all together, relaxing and having fun.
Only one night, Manu and I went out for dinner in Cannes.
We arrived there around 6PM, took a walk first and then we started looking for our restaurant.
Our friends gave us the right address for a perfect oyster dinner, Astoux et Brun.
It looks like a typical French bistrot on the promenade, in a raw of many other similar-looking places.
But this one was the only having a queue of people waiting outside for a table. At first sight we thought we would never find a place, but then we decided to try anyway. After few minutes a waiter asked how many we were and very efficiently and self-confident told us to come back in twenty minutes.
When we came back our table was ready on the terrace.
We ordered two dozens of “fines de claire” oysters and a bottle of Muscadet.
The wine was really delicious, it’s a dry white wine produced in the Loire Valley (a very different taste from Italian whites) which is usually paired with oysters and shellfish. And also the oysters were simply divine, eaten raw with few drops of lemon juice, you could taste their original, primitive, mineral taste of sea.
Finally we decided to go for a walk on the promenade, and Manu wanted to ask the bill in French, so he asked me how to say. Yes, I speak French and quite fluently, but I never really studied it, so sometimes I do funny mistakes. I told him to ask “la diction”.
So Manu asked the waiter: “La diction s’il vous plaît?”.
The waiter stopped, came back and told him very kindly : “Pas la diction, di-cti-on” and he articulated to let him understand what he meant. “C’est l’addition”.
Well, it was a useful lesson for both, but I felt so ridiculous when Manu told me laughing “Hey, are you teaching me wrong things?…
The French couple sitting next to us was looking at us smiling.
“Uh – I said, standing up – I feel a kind of tipsy with all this wine…!”

As the title explains hills are one the most important characteristics of Italy. If you think about a typical Italian landscape, you expect some hills, with cypresses, a few vineyards and a wonderful sunset. Everybody in Italy and, more generally, in the world dreams to live in a place like that. Illy and I are lucky because we live in the hills north of Verona which are at the foot of a mountain chain and spread like a hand around the town.

The scenario that you can view under the hills is a paradise, vineyards, some houses or small villages and the mountains in the distance. Living at the foot of these hills is convenient for us because we are at only 5 minutes from Verona center. On the other hand, living at the top of these hills is fantastic because the landscape is unique, especially in a part of them which overlooks Verona center.
I know the hills make a place fantastic and I know there are many similar natural environments in the world, but the Italian hills are one of the most beautiful places where to live.