Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Breakfast) Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 26-29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Mid level Italian breakfast ANY CHARACTER HERE As I’ve written about earlier, almost all hotels in Italy include buffet breakfast. The Grand Hotel Miramare…
Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Dinner) Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 25, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Old school ANY CHARACTER HERE Finally, we enter the final phase of our epic trip: Liguria. This is another seafood area, but quite different…
Restaurant: Il Castello Certaldo Location: Celtaldo, Italy Date: June 24, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Nice view, ok food ANY CHARACTER HERE Ah, the last meal in Tuscany! (except for breakfast) We took a couple hours to visit the cute little…
Restaurant: Pizzeria Pretorio Location: San Donato, Italy Date: June 22, 2011 Cuisine: Pizza Rating: Best pizza we had on the trip ANY CHARACTER HERE The wine guide who took us to Montacino seemed to have very good taste in food,…
Restaurant: Gelateria Santa Trinita Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 21, 2011 Cuisine: Gelato Rating: Awesome! ANY CHARACTER HERE On our first day in Florence we had walked by this Gelateria with huge lines (not far from Nove IX). And then…
Restaurant: Caffe Pitti Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 21, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Touristy location, very good food ANY CHARACTER HERE On our second day in Florence we came out of the Pitti Palace starved and thirsty. One of our…
Restaurant: Ristorante Le Potazzine Location: Montalcino, Italy Date: June 20, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Tasty traditional ANY CHARACTER HERE We took a most excellent wine tasting tour of Montalcino (the home of the one and only Brunello). This was led by a…
Restaurant: Ristorante Babette Location: Poggibonsi, Italy Date: June 19, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Seafood Rating: Great food, great value ANY CHARACTER HERE After our self selection failure on Saturday, we got another restaurant recommend from our host (the owner of our villa). He sent…
What better intersection of my interests than a meal based on Ancient Roman cuisine. On Thursday July 14 and 15th the Getty Villa offered a combination of lecture on ancient food and a meal of authentic Roman dishes based on…
Restaurant: Fraiche Santa Monica Location: 312 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401. Phone : 310.451.7482 Date: July 13, 2011 Cuisine: Cal French Italian Rating: Epic! ANY CHARACTER HERE Last weekend I was eating at one of my favorite local spots, Sam’s by the Beach and chatting…
Restaurant: Osteria da Camillo Location: Poggibonsi, Italy Date: June 18, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Very mediocre ANY CHARACTER HERE We were in Poggibonsi to drop my brother off at the bus/train station and we spent a few minutes wandering around and then…
Location: Staggia, Italy Date: June 11-25, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan ANY CHARACTER HERE This is our third year renting a villa in Europe for a big chunk of June. I’ve experimented with different ways to handle the breakfast situation for a…
Restaurant: Nove IX Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 17, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Tuscan Rating: Tasty! ANY CHARACTER HERE Our Florentine friend brought us to this attractive new place on the banks of the Arno river as the sun was making it’s…
Restaurant: La Cantinetta Antinori Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 17, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Tuscan Rating: Slick and tasty ANY CHARACTER HERE On our first trip to Florence (we went thrice) we met up with an Italian friend and her family…
Restaurant: Arnolfo Ristorante Location: Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy Date: June 16 & 23, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Awesome, but hard to find ANY CHARACTER HERE Just fifteen minutes from our villa and Siena lies the city of Colle di…
Restaurant: Ristorante La Griglia Location: San Gimignano, Italy Date: June 16, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Tourist Rating: Mediocre ANY CHARACTER HERE We visited San Gimignano, as nearly all tourists in our part of Tuscany do. This is an interesting town, fairly unique…
Location: Staggia, Italy Date: June 15 & 18, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan ANY CHARACTER HERE Twice in the villa we arranged a “simple” dinner of local bounty. All the stuff below was purchased at either the local market in Staggia or…
Restaurant: Pizzeria Il Rifugio Location: Volterra, Italy Date: June 15, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan + Pizza Rating: Solid Pizza ANY CHARACTER HERE I highly recommend the medium sized town of Volterra. Besides the negative of being the home town of one…
Restaurant: Il Pozzo Location: Monteriggioni, Italy Date: June 13 & 22, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Classic Tuscan ANY CHARACTER HERE This local resteraunt in the cute little walled town of Monteriggioni pretty much typifies Tuscan cooking at its traditional best. We initially…
Restaurant: Lo Sfizio di Bianchi Location: Gaiole in Chianti, Italy Date: June 14, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Surprisingly good for a random pick ANY CHARACTER HERE My father and I went on a Chianti Classico wine tasting quest, and this…
