Italy Trip Day 3 - Gubbio & Cortona

Woke up to another rainy day. It was getting a little depressing, but we didn't let that stop us from heading out early after breakfast to drive to Gubbio, the town of festivals. As luck would have it, there had been a festival in Gubbio just the day before, so the town was still decorated with hundreds of flags, and still had a festive air about it (and almost no Americans, as we discovered walking around, and hearing only Italian spoken by all). We strolled around town until we found ourselves at the funivia, a funicular, like a ski lift, that takes you up the side of a mountain to a pretty church and an amazing view of Gubbio and the valley below. It was scary, but fun, and the views were well worth the few white-knuckled moments in the air!

After getting back to solid ground, we found our stop for lunch, Taverna del Lupo. This place was more upscale than most of the other places we ate during the trip, but the service was attentive, not stuffy, and the food was excellent. We started with the aptly-named "delights of the house" (a huge selection of different antipasti), then I had the lasagne with ham, mushrooms and truffles, and Steve had a pasta with guinea fowl. We share another bottle of Sagrantino. I should take a minute here and explain that under normal circumstances, even while on vacation, we hardly ever drink an entire bottle of wine with lunch, and then yet another with dinner, but we loved the wine here (and we were indulging in two and three courses for every meal), so we couldn't help ourselves. At lunches, we keep saying that we'd order the bottle, but just not drink it all, but every time, we'd be near the end of lunch, and see the bottle empty. Oh well, I guess that's what vacations are for!

After lunch, while walking back to the car, we stopped at the 20 B.C. Roman amphitheater, which was covered in beautiful green grass. We took tons more pictures, then headed to the more famous hilltown of Cortona, famed from the book "Under the Tuscan Sun," which no doubt was also the inspiration for the sudden influx of dozens of American college girls running around, the first real American tourist presence we saw on the trip.

After some more exploring there, we were welcomed into the cheerful, pretty restaurant, La Bucaccia. The owner was quite the character, joking and laughing with the whole restaurant, and at one point used our camera to take unique portraits of each of us by pointing the lens through our wine glasses! The food here was every bit as memorable as the atmosphere. Steve had an antipasti of cured meats, then ravioli with meat sauce, followed by a vegetable flan alongside an enormous serving of pork liver (which he couldn't finish, even after a valiant effort), while I had tagliatelle with wild boar and a tender but unremarkable roasted pork with potatoes. This all paired very nicely with a bottle of Rosso from Avignonesi, a winery we'd soon be touring...

Italy Trip Day 2 - Montefalco & Deruta

We woke up jet-lag early, and were greeted with another grey wet Umbrian day. We enjoyed our first breakfast at the inn, which consisted of meats, cheese, pastry, fruit and cereal. It was included in the incredibly low price of our room, 180 euro a night, but did get boring after about the third day. After loading up our tourist gadgets (two still cameras, a video camera and a gps) we headed to our first hill town, Montefalco. The town is very small, but picturesque, even in the rain (the main piazza is shown above).

We explored the side streets for a while, taking a ton of pictures with our new SLR camera (which we were still learning how to work), and then took refuge from the rain in a tiny restaurant called L'Alchimista. We started with an antipasti of cured meats and cheese and a melted cheese and truffle concoction. We then moved on to pasta, ravioli with pea puree and rabbit sauce for me (picture below), and wild boar tagliatelle for Steve. We shared a bottle of Sagrantino di Montefalco, which was the first time Steve or I ever tried this type of wine. We fell in love!

After Montefalco, we moved on to Deruta to look at the town's famous hand-painted ceramics. We bought some wonderful pieces from one of the shops, and then, since we had a couple hours to kill before our dinner reservation, we stopped in Perugia to buy some chocolate. For dinner, we ate one of the best meals of the entire trip, at L'Antico Forziere, near Deruta. We had scrambled eggs with truffle, a bright green and amazingly flavorful broad bean risotto (shown below), and for secondi, pork and beef, each with roasted potatoes. We had another bottle of Sagrantino, and a chocolate and pear crepe for dessert. Start to finish, we now agree that this was probably our favorite meal, and given the delights awaiting us in other towns to come, that's really saying something!

Italy Trip Day 1 - Tuoro Sul Trasimeno

My husband and I recently got back from an amazing 2 1/2 week trip to Italy. The vast majority of our trip was spent visiting small towns and villages in northern Umbria and Southern Tuscany. The main focus of our trip was (not surprisingly) food and wine. Since we had so many wonderful meals and drank so much good wine, in addition to visiting many beautiful towns, I thought it would be best to do a day by day account, even though that means I need to do 16 separate posts. This may take a while!

We arrived at FCO (Rome's Airport) on Friday, May 14th, in the morning after an uneventful overnight flight from the US. Thanks to frequent flyer miles, we were able to fly business class, which was quite nice, and afforded us the opportunity to get a few hours sleep before our adventure began. Getting our bags, clearing customs and getting the rental car was a breeze, as was exiting the airport and getting on the A1, the main toll road going north and south through this area of Italy (this last part was made easy by this helpful article on Slow Travel Italy).

We were greeted with rainy overcast skies, and I was a little worried that the GPS we brought would not be able to find a satellite, but after a few minutes of turning it on, it found where we were, and we were on our way to our first destination, Tuoro sul Trasimeno, a small lake town in northern Umbria near Cortona (picture of the outside of the inn is above). We got there pretty quickly (probably about 2 1/2 hours), and found our home for the next 4 nights, I Capricci di Merion. This lovely inn is just actually in town (which was surprising, since from the photos on the website, it looked like it was in the country), but felt somewhat isolated because of the landscaping and views of the lake in the distance.

We checked in and were shown our room, the Puccini Room (shown at left), which was a very pretty suite on the second floor. It had a small sitting area/kitchen, a bedroom with a wood burning fireplace, and a bathroom with a big jacuzzi tub (but no shower, which was really the only negative about this room). After dropping off our bags, we went into town in search of a restaurant that was still serving lunch (it was about 2pm at this point).

We found a quaint place called il Teatro above an old theater. It was tiny, but cozy, maybe 8 tables, and it looked like the older woman who waited on us (and spoke no English) was also the one cooking the meals. We had a simple but delicious meal of pasta (ravioli with tomato cream sauce for my husband, and tortelloni with truffle sauce for me), and headed back to the inn to check out the "wellness area" before dinner.

The hotel has built a spa type facility which showcases a beautiful jacuzzi, sauna, and rain shower system. Couples can reserve the whole area to themselves for an hour at a time for no charge. We were able to snag a free hour and relaxed in the jacuzzi for a while (which made us even more tired). We reluctantly left when our hour was up, and got ready for dinner in the hotel's dining room.

The dining area of this inn is beautiful at night, colorful upholstered chairs, soft lights, and a harpist completes this romantic experience (though my husband expressed some uneasiness with the pop leanings of the harpist's repertoire)! And the food was wonderful. We shared a first course of melon and mozzarella with truffles, then I moved on one of my favorite dishes of the trip, strawberry risotto, shown at right (Steve had the gnocchi with duck sauce for his primo course). Our secondi were good but not great, a theme that unfortunately lasted most of our trip, where it seemed the most inspired flavors in Tuscany and Umbria are reserved for primi. This night we ate roast chicken with potatoes for me and beef tenderloin for Steve. All well-cooked and competent, but after the creative strawberry risotto, a bit of a letdown! We drink our first Umbrian wine of the trip, a Rosso di Montefalco, which was quite tasty as well.

After dinner, we enjoyed the fire in our beautiful fireplace and our mission was to stay awake until a reasonable time to avoid the jet lag. Staring up at the ceiling painted with an expansive glow-in-the-dark starfield with the crackling fire at the foot of the bed, we failed in our mission, and fell asleep early.

Road Trip Part X - Paso Robles, Day 3 & 4

After another great breakfast (this time it was croissant french toast and bacon), we spent spent most of our last full day of the trip at Hearst Castle in Cambria, which was a short 30 minute drive from the inn. We stopped by Medusa, a mexican restaurant in downtown Cambria, for a quick lunch before heading to the Castle. As I was a first time visitor, we took the recommendation of the Hearst Castle website and chose tour #1, which included tickets to the IMAX-type movie that depicts Hearst's life and the building of the castle. The tour itself was informative, and the grounds and buildings were beautiful. It was a very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon, and I'd recommend doing one of the tours if you are ever in the area.

We spent our last wine and appetizer hour with Diane and Jim, getting to know them better. I'm definitely envious of their life! After the sun set, we headed to dinner at Villa Creek (owned by the same people who own the Villa Creek winery we visited the day before). The place was packed and the service suffered because of it, but the quality of the food made up for the slow service. We started with a yummy corn soup, I had the veal stew with mashed potatoes (a special) and Steve tried the quail. I thought mine was better, but both were very tasty. For dessert, we shared a huge serving of peach pie a la mode. We enjoyed dinner with a Villa Creek wine, the 2006 Willow. This dinner was $150 with tip.

We enjoyed another restful night's sleep with the fireplace on this time (it was finally cool enough to use it) and then sat down for our last breakfast of the trip. And what a breakfast it was. Diane made this AMAZING quiche with sausage, leeks and cheese, which she served with fruit. Steve still talks about that breakfast. I think I may need to ask Diane for the recipe.


We took several trips to the car to load up our luggage and the massive amount of wine we bought and made it over to our reservation for a tasting at Torrin. Torrin rents space at Booker Winery, which is where we had our tasting. Scott, the owner/winemaker, was in the middle of harvest, so we got spend about an hour witnessing most stages of the winemaking process up close and personal (we tried grapes that had been picked the day before, saw the just crushed grapes, saw them punching down other vats of grapes that were farther along in the process, etc.) Our visit with Scott ended with a tasting of two of his wines (we bought two bottles of each).

We hit the road, and an hour later, a quick stop at Patrick's Side Street Cafe in Los Olivos for lunch was in order, after which I resisted the temptation to do more wine tasting (which if you've been to Los Olivos, you know how hard this is since the tasting rooms line both sides of the street in that small town). We then drove the rest of the 2 hours home happy and full.

Road Trip Part IX - Paso Robles, Day 2

The next day we had the first of three gourmet breakfasts at the inn. Diane made us lemon souffle pancakes with raspberry sauce and sausage. Yummy. We then spent the morning at the urgent care clinic (don't ask), before starting our whirlwind day of wine tasting. We started at Turley, bought 6 bottles of fantastic zin and then went to Linne Calodo, where they were pouring some amazing wines (they are a little pricy though). We bought two bottles then moved on to Denner, where we bought a bottle of the mourvedre to have with our picnic of cheese, crackers and nuts at one of the picnic tables at the winery (picture above). We drank the entire bottle of wine (I'm still not sure how) and then went on to Villa Creek for our last tasting of the day. Our palates were pretty blown by then, so I don't remember much about this tasting, although we did buy 4 bottles here, so I hope they are good!

During the wine/appetizer hour back at the inn, we met the other two couples who were guests there, and again enjoyed the sunset from the outside seating area (the picture at right shows the same view, but later during the moonrise). One of the couples we met was going to the same restaurant we were going to that night (which was Artisan), so we changed our reservation time so that we could share a table with them.

Artisan is an amazing restaurant. From the food, to the service, to the decor, everything was flawless. We started with the cornbread with lavender honey butter (a must), then I had the meatball gnocchi appetizer with tomato sauce (very good), then salmon with corn puree and black eyed peas, fresh corn, turnips and cherry tomatoes (seriously delicious). Steve had roasted tomato soup as his appetizer, then moved on to the sea food stew with saffron broth. We shared peach cobbler and trio of creme brulees with the other couple, and had another wine we brought with us, a 2005 Denner Ditch Digger. Dinner ran us $130 with tip and $15 corkage.

Road Trip Part VIII - Paso Robles, Day 1

The next day we drove the 5 hours to Paso Robles, stopping at Chili's along the way for lunch. Once we got into Paso, we went straight to the inn, Canyon Villa. Although we loved the Farmhouse Inn (the best of all the places we stayed on this trip), the Canyon Villa was a real find. It is a beautiful house that looks like a Tuscan villa, perched on a hill overlooking vineyards. The owners, Diane and Jim, were gracious hosts who run this 4 room inn with what seems like effortless ease. We were shown the Siena room, which is in the front of the house, and which boasts a jacuzzi tub, fireplace and a little balcony from where we could see tons of deer each morning on the hiilside. We were the only guests for the first night of our stay, and enjoyed the daily wine and appetizer hour outside watching the sunset by ourselves before making our way to Deborah's Room at the Justin Winery for dinner.

The winery is pretty far from the main area of Paso, and we were late for our reservations, but the waitstaff was gracious about our tardiness. Dinner was another multi-course extravaganza with wine pairing. I had the cannelloi (very good), foie gras (great), trout (the winner, especially the 2-way cauliflower), and the shortcake (also very good). Steve had the bisque, the scallops (very good), the short rib (tender with an amazing sauce), and the S'mores (good) The waiter poured us way more wine than was on the menu, which was great, but boy, were we full afterward. Deborah's room has only 6 tables, and is very beautiful and romantic, so I would definitely recommend it for a special occasion. We will be back the next time we are in Paso. Dinner came to $300 with tip.

Click below to enlarge the food menu and the wine menu:

Road Trip Part VII - Napa Valley, Day 3

After breakfast the next day, we went to our tasting appointment at Storybook Mountain. We were given a tour by a little German woman who was the wife of the winemaker. This winery specializes in zins, so we bought 4 bottles of our favorites before going to lunch at Taylor's Automatic Refresher. Taylor's is a small gourmet hamburger stand that is very popular. You go up to the window to order, and then sit at one of the many picnic tables and wait for them to call your name so you can go pick up your order. We had burgers, onion rings, sodas and a chocolate shake. It was about $35 in total.


We went to Mumm's after lunch and enjoyed some sparking wine on their outdoor patio overlooking their vineyard (picture at right), bought some white wine for an upcoming party and then went back to the inn to relax before the social hour. For dinner we dined at a local favorite called Cook. The place was packed with people who obviously all knew one another, and at one point I think Steve and I were the only non-locals there. The food was great, and not very expensive at all. We shared a corn soup to start (delicious), then I had a risotto with shrimp and pesto and tomatoes (a special for that night, which was also tasty), and Steve had a pasta bolognese (the winner of the night), and we shared a flourless chocolate cake for dessert (very decadent and good). We had yet another wine we brought from home, a Chateau Montelena Zin from 2004, which was delicious. We spent $125, including tip and $15 for corkage.