A winter stay in Valpolicella would be incomplete without a few visits in the local restaurants. There is a lot to choose from! Even if the AirBnB house we rented is located in a small village there is a variety of places that serve a high-quality food. Italy is famous for its food and sometimes you might get lost is a variety of names. You might wonder what is the difference between ‘osteria‘, ‘trattoria‘ and ‘restaurant’ thus here is a simple explanation. Osteria The least formal of all places that offer you food in Italy. It sometimes is run by a family and offers you a place at the common table, shared with other guests. The food is always fresh, prepared from the local ingredients and often there is no menu: the owner of a waiter tells you what is served today and you choose from it. It serves wines, often produced by the owners (‘produzione propria‘), brought to the table is carafe rather than a bottle. Recently there is a new trend to make the osterie more attractive by using a modern design or hosting ‘aperitivo‘ in late afternoons. The one I visited here, in Negrar, was called Osteria del Bugiardo and it was fabulous! Trattoria Less formal than a restaurant more formal then osteria. It always serves local food but the main focus is on wines. The food is always simple, the choice is limited and the customers are in major part locals. It has been always an important place for the meetings of the residents and a common space for exchanging the ideas and gossips. Restaurant Obviously, there is a huge variety of the formality here. There are exclusive restaurants that serve a high quality, expensive food but there are also those less expensive and well connected with the area. It is true especially in Italy where many people visit a restaurant with their families, friends and colleagues. It is worth checking with the locals which restaurant is good but if you can’t do it just pass the restaurant in the evening (20:00-21:00) and judge it out of the number of cars parked in front of it. If the restaurant is not in the city centre, next to the famous touristic spots, this strategy works just fine. Especially in the countryside: good restaurants are always full of locals! Bar or pasticceria Pssst! I know that there’s a lot of people who love sweets thus I would strongly encourage you to visit bar or pasticceria in the morning. The best place to start a day in Italy is the one that bakes their sweets in situ, in their backyard. Fresh, warm sweet brioche in the morning will lift your spirit!  

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Let me share this short story with you: it is published at a very interesting travel blog called Travelling with Sweeney. I met Catherine – the founder and editor – in Dublin and we exchange our business cards. After few months you can have a look at the result of this meeting and my guest post at her blog. She is an enthusiast of Italy and traditional cooking so I thought it is a very good idea to share my story with her. All comments published under this post made my day! So even if you know the story already, please visit Catherine’s blog and read some other posts related to Italy. Enjoy your week! UPDATE This is great news! Due to high interest in this post and in my experience in Italy I’ve decided to make the participation in Italian life possible for you! Yes! It is possible to join me for a week this autumn! Check the details here! The project is called iloveFerrara and it is the essence of Italian Dolce Vita. Have you ever thought about visiting Italy? Here is an alternative way on how to visit Italy and get really close to the Italian way of life. I created a project ‘I love Ferrara‘ so you could join me and experience how beautiful and tasty Ferrara is. If you wish to immerse in Italy book your holiday now!  

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I enjoy writing guest posts. Some people find it boring but for me this is always a chance to step back and think about my travel experiences from a different perspective. When I prepare another post published on NullnFull blog I treat it as another part of a series. So, I know that my readers have already known my story, my favorite destinations and activities. When I prepare a guest post I need to summarize my travels, think about it as a long term activity and decide which are the most important things to me to share. So, I was glad when Sonia asked me if we could exchange blog posts. And I picked up best things about Italy. Again. Strangely enough, every time I write about my love towards Italy there are new things coming. And so, although you’re used to my Italian stories I am pretty sure you’ll like this one too. Enjoy! Have you ever thought about visiting Italy? Here is an alternative way on how to visit Italy and get really close to the Italian way of life. I created a project ‘I love Ferrara‘ so you could join me and experience how beautiful and tasty Ferrara is. If you wish to immerse in Italy book your holiday now!  

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UPDATE This is great news! If you have ever thought about coming to Italy and participating in Street Dinnes this is an excellent opportunity for you! Yes! It is possible to join me for a week this autumn and experience together this awesome event! Check the details here! The project is called iloveFerrrara and it is the essence of Italian Dolce Vita. Street Dinner 2013 I have just returned from my favorite Italian town Ferrara where an amazing event took place. It was the fourth time when Street Dinner was organized and it gathered this time more than 300 participants. I shared some basic information with you before but now it’s time to give you the full review of what happened. I started with meetings with people responsible for organization of this event: Giulia- from the local touristic organization, and Zeno- the person who brought this idea to Ferrara. After meeting these two people and some other collaborators I am pretty sure that the success of such events is strictly related to the effort of few enthusiasts. It took Zeno few years to gather people from the local community to organize it for the first time. From the moment they were convinced about the beauty of this idea the rest was just fine. Although this idea was imported from the French white dinners- the idea that currently spreads out through the world- there are some particular elements in Ferrara that does not exist anywhere else. First of all: the location is secret! I knew about it before but I had no idea that the secret is really kept from everybody until the very last moment! Even I spoke to the guys from the organization committee the day before they didn’t tell me a word about it! And I am really grateful for this because I could participate in the event just like everybody else. Second, the message on the location is revealed through the text message. In the late afternoon the city center was full of people dressed in white, hanging around, laughing and waiting for the message. The locals and other tourists were intrigued and were asking us what is the reason behind the white crowds. The whole beauty of this idea was seen when the message came and everybody dressed in white were walking to the same direction. Just like Zeno described: like white wave through the city. I expect nothing less than that at this year’s event: Street Dinner 2014 is coming! Book today! Small groups were growing fast and finally we arrived to the place indicated. It made us walk through the most beautiful parts of the city which was one of the organizer’s ideas. The Marfisa Palace (Palazzina di Marfisa d’Este) and local tennis club were hosting the first part of the event: aperitivo. The location was spectacular! And the food served as well. What marvels me about it is that in the garden there were no tables or chairs but people did not mind. There was live jazz music as a background and we had simply amazing time together. We immediately got some new friends and just started chatting about the place, food, previous Street Dinners and Ferrara. We could also visit the palace which was impressive even for the local people. Some of them admitted that it was the first time they visited it and were delighted about it! If that was the end of the event I would be already happy about it. BUT this was just the BEGINNING! We received another message with the location of the food distribution. And again, the white wave flooded the city. The main street Corso Gioveca was transformed into a walking-only zone so we could get our dinner sets (meat or sea food). It was dark already but our white clothes were visible from the distance. If you add to it a sound of laugh you’ll get a picture of happy people having fun. The third message of the evening indicated the location of tables and chairs collection.  And finally we got to the point and the location of the dinner was revealed: Piazzale Medaglie d’oro. This is a modest square at the entrance to the city center. There is large stairs and a sort of archway that leads to the Castello. The most impressive thing about this location was a transformation of ordinary public space into an open air restaurant with special guests in it. I admire the effort of the organization committee, their perseverance and enthusiasm to bring this event to Ferrara. And, just like Zeno said, the modern media accused for distance people from each other were employed for the opposite: to bring them together. The company at the table was awesome and the whole atmosphere unforgettable. Just after we ate our dinner and drink excellent wine we started to dance. Watching 300 people dressed in white dancing at the stairs with a renaissance town as a background was something really special. My guess is that our joy out of gathering, eating out, enjoying the beauty of Ferrara exploded and so the dance was a lovely conclusion of this edition of Street Dinner. I simply can’t wait the next year event! Have you ever thought about visiting Italy? Here is an alternative way on how to visit Italy and get really close to the Italian way of life. I created a project ‘I love Ferrara‘ so you could join me and experience how beautiful and tasty Ferrara is. If you wish to immerse in Italy book your holiday now!  

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What is it? Broadly speaking, Street Dinner is an annual event- a dinner- that brings together people passionate about food and entertainment. It grew from a global movement of unconventional restaurants and eating habits. There are at least three very particular features re this event. First, the place where the dinner is set is not revealed until the very last moment. The only thing you can be sure is the it is UNCONVENTIONAL (like having your dinner in a square or in a public garden). Second, the participants are asked to follow the dress code, which is TOTAL WHITE. Finally, this is an opportunity for local vendors to delight the participants with their specialities, which means excellent food. In Ferrara the Street Dinner has been organized for 5 consecutive years. Here is super cool news: you can participate this event! I have prepared a holiday package for you that includes a 1 week stay in Ferrara and pass to all Street Dinner events. Join me and book today! This year, 2014, it takes place on Saturday, September the 6th. How it works? When you register online you are asked for a cell phone number which is used to let you know: the place where you get table and chair from and the location of the dinner. However, you get these messages JUST before the beginning of the dinner. So, you dress white, you wait until the very end to get informed about the location, then you take a table and chair and join few hundreds of other food enthusiasts having your dinner like nowhere else. What is so special about it? Many things. Most of all the atmosphere of the event boosts amazingly through the whole city. In the late afternoon there are small groups of people dressed in white walking around and slowly in the early evening the city is full of them. What I consider really nice is the gathering of so many people to celebrate good food, excellent wine, medieval buildings and- surely- beautiful weather. This is really FUN and THRILLING event. I simply can’t wait to be there! Practical Information: Don’t forget to join before August, 28th! http://www.facebook.com/streetdinner http://twitter.com/streetdinner http://www.youtube.com/user/StreetDinner http:// www.streetdinner.it Find out how was the 4th edition of Street Dinner here!   Have you ever thought about visiting Italy? Here is an alternative way on how to visit Italy and get really close to the Italian way of life. I created a project ‘I love Ferrara‘ so you could join me and experience how beautiful and tasty Ferrara is. If you wish to immerse in Italy book your holiday now!  

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Expectations towards travel of any kind has grown. People who undertake the trip expect many things from it, starting with simple relax and finishing with a complete change of life. It’s OK to have your own plans regarding the journey however it needs to be reasonable to avoid disappointment. After my full immersion in Italian traditional kitchen I thought I should learn some local history. Although I had a general idea of renaissance in Italy I wanted to know something more about the modern times. My Italian friends gave me two things: an old Italian movie titled La lunga notte del ’43 directed by Florestano Vancini (The long night in 1943), and a book Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis). Both- the movie and the book- tell a story of Jewish population in Ferrara and their tragic story during the WW the 2nd. Learning the modern history of Ferrara brought me to an extraordinary place: the Jewish Cemetery. In a sunny winter morning I entered this cemetery and took a series of pictures published above. Not far from the vibrant main square, full of noise and move, the cemetery brought me to the parallel world, full of memories and peace. I think it completes the story of Ferrara and if you ever visit this town I think it is worthy to enter this cemetery. Its beauty in the morning light when it is covered with yellow ginkgo leaves is pretty obvious. And powerful too.  

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True: my job looks like never-ending holiday, however, I need some rest too. And guess where am I going? Italy, of course, where else? As a result of my holiday I’ll limit the post published to one post a week in July. Knowing my habits you can expect that the holiday planed includes trekking in the mounties and visits in some touristic places. Trento Alto Adige, Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Umbria are on my list. As I am going to visit some new and old places I promise to bring you a huge bunch of new stories and beautiful pictures. Where are YOU going this summer? I’m very very curious of your holiday destination so please share it with me by commenting this post. Have a good holiday, wherever you go, and let’s stay in touch!  

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Sharing a recipe on how to prepare cappellacci rossi is a tricky job to do. Mostly because of the language issues. The Italian cook who shared this recipe with me called the basic ingredient rapa rossa. Dictionary translates it to the English beetroot BUT when you translate it back to Italian the dictionary says it’s barbabietola rossa. In order to avoid misunderstanding I’m pasting below a photo of this vegetable and call it as you want! This recipe was given to me while I was assisting an Italian cook in his preparations therefore all quantities are proximate. He was preparing huge amount of food designed for the whole bunch of hungry people rather than for a small family. And of course just like all professional cooks: he has never used any sort of a scale! I saw the famous Italian quanto basta (“to taste”) in practice. Ingredients to prepare pasta: 6 eggs 600g of flour a cup of grind beetroots Ingredients to prepare filling: 4 patched beetroots 300g of ricotta (sort of the Italian white cheese) 100g of parmiggiano (sort of the Italian cheese) salt pepper The way you prepare pasta is similar to the one published already here. The only difference is that when the pastry is almost done you add a little quantity of the beetroots. You need to grind it carefully in order to get a smooth pasta. The trick to prepare filling is finding a good proportion between ricotta and beetroots. When I was observing the cook he was adding ricotta fervently. The  cheese added to his cappellacci was produced by the farm located within agriturismo. I filmed a few short clips on how to prepare cappellacci but I still need to work on it before it’s published. The final effect of this dish was also strengthened by the way of serving it. The final touch was up to the poppy seeds mixed with small amount of mascarpone and sweet cream. Exquisite dish! Credits: photo of beetroots was downloaded from Flickr on the Creative Commons license, author of this photo is Marj Joly.  

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My last trip to Ferrara in Italy was full of events and one of the unexpected attractions was a short visit in a chocolate factory Offelleria Rizzati. I got invited to see the process of chocolate production, however, I hope to visit this place again as I didn’t have enough time to get the details, take good photos and-OK let’s go public- to eat enough chocolate! Although short this was a fascinating visit. I am generally curious of how particular things are being made, especially if its about food. Rizzati is a family business and their production has started about 10 years ago. They import cocoa beans from: Equador, St. Domingo, Peru, and Madagascar. The cocoa seeds are cultivated and harvested 2-3 times a year depending on the weather conditions. This is the reason of diversification of the seeds’ origins. Some years are very generous while some others modest and as the factory needs to run all year round they need to secure the import. The main focus of this company is to make the chocolate produced of high quality. They have a strong preference towards techniques and productions process that takes more time than usually employed in huge factories. Moreover, they offer some products of their own recipe, like tenerina without flour or creams of consistency similar to Nutella but prepared of crushed nuts and sugar solely. I felt really strange trying particular types of chocolate like you normally do in a vinery or something. I have never thought that the proportion of the cocoa beans or the process of crushing and melting it can change the final taste. One of the chocolates prepared of more than 80% of cocoa left a sensational small pieces of cocoa in my mouth, similar to the grains of sand. I also ate the cream made of pistacchio and it was one of the sweetest thing I have ever eaten. The company also produces candied fruits. Unfortunately, I didn’t  have time to go into details but of what I heard the main characteristics of their fruits is related to long process of frying and drying with huge amount of sugar. I hope to visit this place again pretty soon to give you some further details.  

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Probably you are right when thinking this list should be titled ‘Best Food of Emilia-Romagna’, however, I added two delicious foods popular outside the region and I thought the title ‘Best Italian Dishes’ is justified this way. Fair enough. I spent years in Italy eating the best food in the world. Months after months I have been discovering nuances, particularities and exceptions of the Italian taste. It seams to be obvious but let me say it loud: not EVERY Italian food is of high quality. Being a tourist in this lovely country makes you vulnerable for cleaver tricks of dishonest people. So, to try the best food in the world you need to be ‘vulpine’. Here is a list of 6 best Italian foods and if you’re ever in Italy you can’t leave without trying them! And you can now taste all of them! How? Well, by coming to Ferrara of course! If you join me this September you will taste them all! For more details click here. Tigelle or gnocchi fritti con affettati misti Let’s start with a starter or as we call it in Italy antipasto. In Emilia-Romagna, but also outside the region, one of the most delicious starters contains a variety of local ham, sausages and beacon. If you’re a vegetarian you can always try the local cheeses instead. All of these goodies are eaten with traditional bread which also varies across regions but you should try it with warm tigelle or gnocchi fritti. Quite often along these two you can also try the local marmelades or honeys. It is simply delicious. Beware: it’s so good you need to control yourself not to be full before the first course come! Pizza Naming pizza one of the best Italian foods is not trivial, I assure you. This is simply one of the things that are impossible to eat with delight outside Italy. Even if you find an Italian cook somewhere in the world he/she will tell you that flour, leaven, tomatos or even water (!) is so different than in Italy. The best pizza I have ever eaten is served in one of the local restaurants in the countryside of Emilia-Romagna. As I am a huge fan of very thin bottom I truly enjoy pizza at La Corte del Duca. This pizzeria is so good that at the weekends people are ready to wait for a table for about an hour. The service is excellent and you can also drink a local beer. I think that the secret lies in good sfoglia but also exceptional compositions of the ingredients at the top of it. One of my favorite ones is called Pinuccio and it has smoked cheese (scamorza affumicata) and sort of mountain bacon (speck) on it. If you add a bit of spicy oil on it you’ll get the best pizza ever. Cappellacci di zucca I have the impression that on my blog I’m talking about this dish over and over again. Whatever the truth is I still think this is one of these things that you should try while visiting Emilia-Romagna. Mainly because of its particularity of combination sweet and sour, which is often associated with Chinese food rather than with typical Italian dish. After years of eating cappellacci especially during the season which starts in september I realized that the best filling comes from the sweetest pumpkins. When the summer is sunny and considerably dry the pumpkins are incredibly sweet so you don’t need to add any sugar.  The combination of mashed pumpkin, nutmeg and parmigiano ‘swaddled’ with soft sfoglia is unforgettable. So do not hesitate to plan your Italian experience including this dish. Ah, right, there is stil an ongoing discussion between two cities: Ferrara and Mantova, how the real cappellacci should be eaten. While in Ferrara and Bologna you eat it with meat sauce (ragu) in Mantova you’ll eat it with butter and salvia. Just recently I got one explanation why is that. It says that in Mantova you add amaretti (sweet grated cookies) to the filling and it would be distasteful to combine it with meat. In any case, you should absolutely try it. Tortellini alla panna This is one of my favorite dishes of all kitchens in the world. Tortellini are very small dumplings staffed with meat and served with cream. There are two particular things about this plate: the dimension and the filling. The perfect dumplings are really small, so you could place at least three of them on one spoon. It takes a lot of time to prepare a hundred, and it takes even more time to prepare thousands so each customer receives a substantial plate. In Italy beside the possibility to eat it in a restaurant you can prepare it by yourself at home. You simply buy 300g of filling and using 3 eggs you prepare sfoglia. Then you spend the whole morning in the kitchen and you can enjoy your evening meal. However, the filling is not available outside Italy, so to try these you need to visit Emilia-Romagna. My favorite way of serving is, as I said, with cream but in a cold winter day I equally appreciate it when served in brodo. Tiramisu As you’ve noticed this list contains starter, first course and now it gets to the desserts. This is what I normally do in Italian restaurants: I skip the second course. It’s not that I don’t like meat but for me the best part of the Italian kitchen is hidden in pasta however eaten (dumplings, lasagne, cappellacci or simply pasta asciutta). Let’s get back to the point and discuss tiramisu- the famous Italian dessert. The main problem related to this dessert is its frequent presence in foreign menus. Everybody tried tiramisu whether they did it in France, the US or on the moon! Most of them, however, has nothing to do with the real Italian dessert, prepared of high quality mascarpone cheese. This dessert is not difficult to prepare but if you have a lousy cheese you will never get an exquisite tiramisu. The one eaten recently was really delicious! Ah, and the cafe used to...

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