Italy Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Gazing and Grazing

Tuscany – Iconic Views, Good Food and Stay (and sheep) at La Bandita

August 18th, 2015

I've long been obsessed with getting photos of the idyllic Tuscan countryside - you know, the ones with the rolling hills and cypress tress. So last year in May, 14 of us friends and family stayed in La Bandita, a converted farmhouse on a hill between Pienza and Chianchiano Terme. Although the drive up and down the hill to La Bandita took a bit of getting used to, the place was really well located to explore central Tuscany. And best of all, the food at La Bandita, cooked on the spot by a...

Lake Garda’s Ristorante Beati – Meal with a View

July 21st, 2015

Ristorante Beati sits overlooking Lake Garda

We swung by Lake Garda for dinner at Ristorante Beati, a pretty romantic restaurant with nice views, while en route back to Verona from the Alto Adige. The restaurant has a nice setting, overlooking Lake Garda and serves a seafood favored menu. We chose the restaurant due in part to positive reviews but also because it wasn't all the way in town so access to the A22 expressway to Verona was quicker.

The restaurant was much swankier than we anticipated but the staff were very...

Alto Adige – Italy’s Austrian Wines and Scenery to Boot

July 20th, 2015

A church among the vines in the Alto Adige

Alto Adige or Sudterrol (to the local Tyrolleans) is a piece of Austria in northern Italy complete with alpine landscapes and crisp white wines such as the Gewürztraminer. This was the second last stop in our April wine tour of Italy. Our trip had taken us from the well known Tuscan wines to the heel of Italy on Mt. Etna and refined Amarones around Verona, but this is an area with its own lingo and culture.

We drove to St. Paul's winery in the Alto Adige from Verona, around...

Verona – Amarone Tasting and a Twilight Walk

July 19th, 2015

I knew nothing about Amarone so our visit to winemaker Nicolis this past April was a most enjoyable education particularly when accompanied by copious amounts of food and wine at dinner and a twilight walk in Verona. The tasting of good Amarone also debunked my view that this wine tends to be sweet. It was, in fact, one of the nicer red wines we tried on our wine tour of Italy.

After the rugged scenery of Sicily, we were back in the rolling hills and sculpted gardens of northern...

Sicily – Road Trip from Palermo to Catania

July 18th, 2015

View of Mt Etna at sunrise from the roof of the UNA Hotel Palace in Catania

The scenic route between Palermo and Catania this past April, gave us a chance to enjoy more of Sicily's rural scenery. Although taking the SS120 was not wholly our choice but due to a landslide that damaged the A19 expressway linking the two cities, it nonetheless worked out fine for us. We savored the area's famous fungi over lunch at Ristorante Veneziano in Randazzo near Mt. Etna. And once in Catania, we took a morning walk to its main fish market.

So it was much longer ride of...