Archive for 'Products & Specialities'

An area called Alto Metauro in the region of Le Marche is especially famous for its food and wine products. Enjoy tasting the local organic ‘Millefiori’ or ‘Spring flowers’ honey and feel the oily texture of the a resin taken from bee hives called propolis. Many restaurants and bars in the area can serve you a type of local mead, a sweet honey liquor that will delight your taste buds!

The cheeses you can taste here are among the finest in Italy! Some of the local favourites are a pecorino cheese stuffed with red peppers in oil, fresh soft white cheese and ricotta. The visitor is sure to enjoy a feast of these along with some spicy local salamis and sausages made with pork and roe deer meat.

Did you know that in Italy cake for breakfast is normal? It's true!

A typical Italian breakfast will consist of a hot beverage, most likely a espresso or cappuccino and something sweet like cake, cookies or croissants and jam.

While cereals are available in the supermarkets these are eaten more as an afternoon snack then for breakfast. Meats are also considered to be dinner foods as well as eggs. A lot of Italian dinner cuisine can contain eggs.

There are places where continental breakfasts are served but if you are travelling to Italy then you should be prepared for most people to think that a large breakfast of bacon and eggs and cereal is crazy and it will be hard to find somewhere that will actually serve this early in the morning.

Breakfast bars in Italy serve cappuccino and a sweet snack that can be conveniently consumed at the counter and you can find these all around the place where you can experience the traditional style Italian breakfast for yourself.

Cappuccino is considered a morning drink and most Italians would give you a funny look if you ordered one when breakfast time is considered over. Some Italians don't even have breakfast, just a shot of espresso to start their day. If they are out they will sometimes have a caffe or caffelatte.

If you are a lover of classic Italian drinks then you will definitely have heard of Grappa.

It is a drink that is traditionally made from the discarded grape seeds, stalks and stems from winemaking and it has been around since the middle ages.

Italians traditionally like to sip at Grappa after meals to help in the digestion of the food and also some add a little to their expresso to give it an extra kick.

Grappa has previously been considered an acquired taste but it is now becoming popular all around the world with distilleries opening up in different countries as they try to make this classic Italian beverage.

If you have never tasted Grappa then why not try some when you are next on a holiday in Italy? It is a firey drink, perfect for warming you up on a cold night, and you do not have to rush it down, instead you can take it slowly and savour the taste as this is the correct way to drink grappa, swirling it in the glass and slowly raising it to the nose to smell it before sipping it slowly.

Want to get a taste of what the real Italy is like? If so, there are many towns that you can visit in the Italian countryside, one of the most popular being Norcia, a small town in Umbria.

Norcia is famous all over Italy for its cured meats and cheeses. In fact many people travel to Norcia just to specifically buy the food from there. It is known as the pork capital of Italy and pork butchers there are actually called

Norcinos.
Norcia is not only famous for its foods however, it is also the birthplace of St.Benedict, the founding father of the Benedictine order of monks. In fact, today he is known as the patron saint of Europe.

Somehow while touring the island I always end up in the area around the mount Etna, that marvelous and still active volcano - the biggest volcano "alive" in Europe actually.

And now I have more reasons to come back because I discovered a fabulous wine called Passopisciaro, this red wine is the result of pickings that they made from vineyards on the northern side of mount Etna. The grapes from these crus ripened in various moments from the 25th of October to the 8th of November, as they lie at 500, 600, 800 mt. a.s.l. so they harvest climbing up the slope of the volcano. Generally, the higher crus are on a more gravelly soil, the lower ones in a deeper powder made with more oxidized, older lavas.

Salute !

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