Italy 2019

Montepulciano where they filmed "Under the Tuscan Sun"

It's been years since Bill and I took a long trip just the two of us. Over the years, we have had a few little getaways and left the kids, but because we always wanted to take Morgan and Dylan on great adventures, we took them with us on most of our vacations.

They are both in college, so we decided to take a trip to Italy, just us two! We packed so much into this trip and walked between 15-20 miles each day. Our journey began and ended in Rome where we definitely did some of the touristy things. We visited the Colosseum and Vatican City where I stood in awe of the Sistine Chapel. We took photos in front of the Spanish Steps and threw a coin into Trevi Fountain. We ate lots and lots of food and drank wine and had gelato and quite a bit of espresso.

On this subject, I offer advice to anyone who has never been to Italy... don't eat at the touristy spots! The best Roman cuisine is found in the neighborhoods where Romans eat. If you are walking along near Vatican City or Spanish Steps and there's someone outside the restaurant trying to lure you in to eat there, don't go! And if that person is super good-looking and it's only 6:00 (real Italians eat after 8 p.m.), run! Our favorite meal in Rome was at a neighborhood called Trastevere which is a bohemian area with a super funky vibe. We stopped in to have pasta and we ended up sitting in this adorable restaurant for almost three hours where no one was speaking English. We returned to this neighborhood a couple of days later to eat by the river and listen to live bands. A young and fun crowd of Italians sat on the steps of Piazza di San Calisto and I wish I could have stayed forever.

As much as I enjoyed Rome, my favorite part of this trip was Tuscany. I had never been to Tuscany and had always wanted to go. We went via bus and made a few beautiful stops in Umbria on the way. We visited and toured Montepulciano, a medieval hilltop town surrounded by the most beautiful vineyards I have ever seen (no offense to Napa, but Italian vineyards are perfection). This adorable town is known for its vino nobile red wine which I must say was delicious. We also visited Montalcino for wine tastings and some seriously delicious pasta. And one of my two favorite gelato spots was found in a town called Pienza.

About gelato... so many of the gelato shops are fake crap. If you find a gelato shop and notice that the gelato is fluffy and super colorful, that's not your place. You want it to be fresh and natural. You know that bananas are not yellow, right? So if your banana gelato is yellow, that stuff is fake. There is a really great gelato shop not far from Trevi Fountain in Rome too. In fact, I might have liked it just slightly better than the one in Pienza. If you're ever there, it's called Gelato di San Crispino.

Now, sadly I'm back in Fort Worth, Texas, but I plan to recreate Italy in my kitchen. I will begin with Tuscany because I'm in love with it and the food there is like a taste of heaven. I found a site today to help me with this task and I hope things go well. I did bring back some wine from there. This one is Brunello which kind of likes to compete with the Vino Noble. I liked them both.

Italy, I know I'll return because I threw that coin into Trevi Fountain. Until then, thank you for the warm welcome and the beautiful time to escape. L'Italia è bellissima.

Walking through Montepulciano

Winery in Montalcino

Another Montalcino winery

Colosseum

Vatican City in the Papal Palace