We decided to save a couple of bucks and fly RyanAir to Spain. For those of you who have never taken one of these "discount" airlines, we haven't even left Calci yet and it's already been quite the adventure.
We originally booked to fly from Pisa to Seville, but that flight was cancelled so now we're departing from Bologna. The departure is at 6:30 AM so here is our itinerary:
This morning we have booked a taxi for 11 AM to take us to the train station. I tried using the online booking but due to some deficiencies in the online booking system it does not actually accept online bookings. So this morning I phoned and fortunately the dispatcher spoke English.
We are then taking a train from Pisa to Bologna. We haven't actually bought the train tickets yet so are hoping we won't have too long of a wait at the station. It's about a 2 hour train ride to Bologna.
We are staying overnight in Bologna and looking forward to trying some delicious Bolognese cuisine!
We then fly out of Bologna the next morning. Due to bag restrictions on Ryan Air we have jammed 2 weeks worth of cloths (for 3 of us) into one 15 kg checked bag. (The bag itself weighs about 4 kg empty). Ryan Air sends me about 4 emails a day reminding us that the carry-on limit is strictly 1 bag, max 10 kg, including all purses, laptops, shopping, etc, and the charge is 60 Euro for oversize carry-on baggage. There is also a charge if you don't pre-print your boarding card, if you want to reserve a seat, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Once we arrive in Seville we have a rental car for 2 weeks, we are spending the first night in Seville, and the next day drive to our beach rental in Zahara, between Gibraltar and Cadiz, Spain. The chances of every leg of this trip running smoothly without incident are "as close as you can get to zero without falling in". So expect some interesting blog entries over the next few days!
Sunday, 21 July 2013
Saturday, 20 July 2013
Mark Knopfler in Lucca, Italy
Yesterday we drove up to Lucca (a short distance from our house in the Tuscan hills) to see Mark Knopfler play in Piazza Napoleone, one of the main plazas in this ancient city.
No big deal :-)
We decided to stay the night in Lucca, as the drive home is fairly windy and we didn't know how bad the traffic would be, what time the concert would be done, how much beer we would drink, etc. As it turns out the best part of having a room in Lucca is it gave us the chance to have an afternoon siesta prior to the concert :-)
We drove up to Lucca before noon and explored the city. We wandered the streets, visited a couple of churches, stopped at a few wine bars and cafes, and climbed up the Giugli Tower for a view of the city.
I seem to be the one who always instigates these climbs, even though I'm the only one who is afraid of heights. This tower wasn't too bad, the guard rails were all about chest height (compared to the knee-height guard chains at Hua Shan). From this height all Italian cities look pretty much the same! (But I'll probably keep climbing these towers every chance I get.)
We scouted the piazza where Mark was scheduled to play. We had standing room tickets so decided to arrive early and claim a table at one of the cafes.
Here is us in line.
And here is the view of the stage, from our table.
Here were are waiting for the show to start. Not too bad!
Me watching Mark Knopfler in Lucca, Italy! Definitely one of the high points of this trip so far.
This was our view of the stage, once Mark started to play. Not too bad, although most of the time there was a huge crowd in front of us and it was difficult to see. However the sound was amazing!
And they had a big video display, of course. So we had a not bad view via the video.
There was a couple from Northern Ireland at the table next to us. We chatted them up and arranged a possible house exchange for next summer!
The next day (today) we strolled around the Lucca city wall (about 3 km). With a couple of stops for coffee and snacks, and a visit to the local market, it took us about 3 hours. Hey, we're on holiday and not on a schedule!
Tomorrow we're taking the train to Bologna, and the next day flying to Seville to spend 2 weeks in Southern Spain. We've got a place on the beach for one week, and then touring for a few days before we fly "home" to Italy.
I should mention here that most people speak English, however we've been trying out a bit of Italian when we get a bit of confidence. I've written up some postcards and we stopped by a post office in Lucca to mail them. We took a number (A140) and waited out turn. After awhile I got called to the counter and proudly announced "Ai bisogno di sette francobollo!" (I need seven stamps.)
"Oh no, you need a "P" number not an "A"."
What? I got the wrong number and now you're not going to sell me stamps? What kind of a bureaucracy are you running here? So I stormed back to the ticket machine and got a new number (P102) but by that time I no longer felt like buying stamps.
This is my adventure in Italian so far. Otherwise I've been using English pretty much full time :-S
No big deal :-)
We decided to stay the night in Lucca, as the drive home is fairly windy and we didn't know how bad the traffic would be, what time the concert would be done, how much beer we would drink, etc. As it turns out the best part of having a room in Lucca is it gave us the chance to have an afternoon siesta prior to the concert :-)
We drove up to Lucca before noon and explored the city. We wandered the streets, visited a couple of churches, stopped at a few wine bars and cafes, and climbed up the Giugli Tower for a view of the city.
I seem to be the one who always instigates these climbs, even though I'm the only one who is afraid of heights. This tower wasn't too bad, the guard rails were all about chest height (compared to the knee-height guard chains at Hua Shan). From this height all Italian cities look pretty much the same! (But I'll probably keep climbing these towers every chance I get.)
We scouted the piazza where Mark was scheduled to play. We had standing room tickets so decided to arrive early and claim a table at one of the cafes.
Here is us in line.
And here is the view of the stage, from our table.
Here were are waiting for the show to start. Not too bad!
Me watching Mark Knopfler in Lucca, Italy! Definitely one of the high points of this trip so far.
This was our view of the stage, once Mark started to play. Not too bad, although most of the time there was a huge crowd in front of us and it was difficult to see. However the sound was amazing!
And they had a big video display, of course. So we had a not bad view via the video.
There was a couple from Northern Ireland at the table next to us. We chatted them up and arranged a possible house exchange for next summer!
The next day (today) we strolled around the Lucca city wall (about 3 km). With a couple of stops for coffee and snacks, and a visit to the local market, it took us about 3 hours. Hey, we're on holiday and not on a schedule!
Tomorrow we're taking the train to Bologna, and the next day flying to Seville to spend 2 weeks in Southern Spain. We've got a place on the beach for one week, and then touring for a few days before we fly "home" to Italy.
I should mention here that most people speak English, however we've been trying out a bit of Italian when we get a bit of confidence. I've written up some postcards and we stopped by a post office in Lucca to mail them. We took a number (A140) and waited out turn. After awhile I got called to the counter and proudly announced "Ai bisogno di sette francobollo!" (I need seven stamps.)
"Oh no, you need a "P" number not an "A"."
What? I got the wrong number and now you're not going to sell me stamps? What kind of a bureaucracy are you running here? So I stormed back to the ticket machine and got a new number (P102) but by that time I no longer felt like buying stamps.
This is my adventure in Italian so far. Otherwise I've been using English pretty much full time :-S
Friday, 19 July 2013
Pizza our second attempt
We had a nice relaxing day today. We decided to spend a day relaxing at the beach, but it was a bit overcast and threatening to rain (we felt a couple of drops but no real rain) so we went for a walk instead. We drove to Marina de Pisa and wandered along the waterfront. It was mostly a rocky shoreline (with Italian sunbathers laying out on the rocks) with a small stretch of sandy beach. Most was private, with bathhouses renting out deckchairs and umbrellas, but there was a small patch of public beach which I imagine would get pretty crowded on the weekend. (We were there on Friday and the weather as I mentioned was not ideal for sunbathing.)
We decided to do another pizza for dinner. I think this time we pretty much perfected it.
A raging fire in the oven. Note the temperature is over 300 already. You are supposed to get it up to 400, and then cook the pizza at 300, but today we only managed to get it up to about 330.
The pizza ready to go. This time we rolled out the dough using a rolling pin (rather than tossing the pizza Italian style) so they are actually round. I also remembered to flour the board so they didn't stick going into and out of the oven.
Pizzas cooking, note how they've retained their pizza shape!
Pizza number 1 - lookin' good!
Pizza number 2 ready to eat.
Next pizza day we are going to try also cooking bread, pie, and maybe a few other treats. As the oven cools down there are different foods you can cook at the different temperatures. We've been using this site as a tutorial - http://www.slowfoodandhandforgedtools.com.au/using_oven.html - but if anyone has any suggestions send them along! (This site also says we can use the ash on our garden - are there any gardening geeks out there who can shed some light on this?)
We decided to do another pizza for dinner. I think this time we pretty much perfected it.
A raging fire in the oven. Note the temperature is over 300 already. You are supposed to get it up to 400, and then cook the pizza at 300, but today we only managed to get it up to about 330.
The pizza ready to go. This time we rolled out the dough using a rolling pin (rather than tossing the pizza Italian style) so they are actually round. I also remembered to flour the board so they didn't stick going into and out of the oven.
Pizzas cooking, note how they've retained their pizza shape!
Pizza number 1 - lookin' good!
Pizza number 2 ready to eat.
Next pizza day we are going to try also cooking bread, pie, and maybe a few other treats. As the oven cools down there are different foods you can cook at the different temperatures. We've been using this site as a tutorial - http://www.slowfoodandhandforgedtools.com.au/using_oven.html - but if anyone has any suggestions send them along! (This site also says we can use the ash on our garden - are there any gardening geeks out there who can shed some light on this?)
Thursday, 18 July 2013
Siena and San Gimignano
We did an overnight trip to Siena and San Gimignano, staying one night in Siena. The drive to Siena was pretty straightforward, except that a truck cut me off on the highway near Florence and I missed the Siena exit, and we ended up doing about 60 KM from Florence to Siena through the backroads. The scenery was very beautiful but both Sonya and Jack were almost car sick.
When we got to Siena, first order of business, gellato in the main piazza:
The stones were warm even in the shade and I got a short nap!
We booked a very nice apartment for our 1 night stay! Quite by accident. When I book a hotel I usually sort by price, and then find the first (least expensive) room with decent reviews and in a decent location. In this case one of the least expensive options was an apartment, not a hotel. It was a challenge to find, but in the end was worth it. It had a separate bedroom, living and dining room, and a full kitchen, and a giant soaker tub (room for about 4 people):
But the crown jewel was the shower. It had jets from 4 different directions, including a waterfall, and had a built in radio. We're going to do another visit to Siena just to use this shower again!
Here is a shot of the famous piazza:
We bought a combo ticket to see a bunch of the sights, including the duomo. It was quite impressive, with thick striped marble columns supporting the roof:
Here is the outside:
We climbed up the facade for a view of the city. Why do I spend all my holidays doing this to myself??? For the view, of course. Note how I manage to get a good picture even while holding onto the railing with a death grip with one hand:
Next we visited the duomo museum. Ever notice how in religious pictures everyone has a halo? Well I guess a lot of statues are given halos as well, because the museum had a whole room displaying just halos. I asked Sonya to look angelic but I think she looks more regal:
I'm going to send this picture to Sierra so they can use it to update the photo on her company ID card.
Next we drove to San Gimignano, a small town in the hills dating from about 900 AD.
Most of the buildings and the town wall dates from the 1200 or 1300's, before a plague wiped out 2/3 of the population, and the town was taken over by the empire of Florence and the Medicis.
We stopped for a glass of San Gimignano wine. This was stop number 5 of 6 for the day (breakfast, lunch, gelato, mid-afternoon snack, wine, dinner) and is typical of our schedule on this trip!
Tried to capture a picture of the sunset on the way back to our car. The photo doesn't do it justice at all!
Overall Siena and (especially) San Gimignano were overrun with tourists. They are beautiful cities, and definitely well worth visiting, but I think my favourite place so far on this trip is Calci, the small town near our house.
When we got to Siena, first order of business, gellato in the main piazza:
The stones were warm even in the shade and I got a short nap!
We booked a very nice apartment for our 1 night stay! Quite by accident. When I book a hotel I usually sort by price, and then find the first (least expensive) room with decent reviews and in a decent location. In this case one of the least expensive options was an apartment, not a hotel. It was a challenge to find, but in the end was worth it. It had a separate bedroom, living and dining room, and a full kitchen, and a giant soaker tub (room for about 4 people):
But the crown jewel was the shower. It had jets from 4 different directions, including a waterfall, and had a built in radio. We're going to do another visit to Siena just to use this shower again!
Here is a shot of the famous piazza:
We bought a combo ticket to see a bunch of the sights, including the duomo. It was quite impressive, with thick striped marble columns supporting the roof:
Here is the outside:
We climbed up the facade for a view of the city. Why do I spend all my holidays doing this to myself??? For the view, of course. Note how I manage to get a good picture even while holding onto the railing with a death grip with one hand:
Next we visited the duomo museum. Ever notice how in religious pictures everyone has a halo? Well I guess a lot of statues are given halos as well, because the museum had a whole room displaying just halos. I asked Sonya to look angelic but I think she looks more regal:
I'm going to send this picture to Sierra so they can use it to update the photo on her company ID card.
Next we drove to San Gimignano, a small town in the hills dating from about 900 AD.
Most of the buildings and the town wall dates from the 1200 or 1300's, before a plague wiped out 2/3 of the population, and the town was taken over by the empire of Florence and the Medicis.
We stopped for a glass of San Gimignano wine. This was stop number 5 of 6 for the day (breakfast, lunch, gelato, mid-afternoon snack, wine, dinner) and is typical of our schedule on this trip!
Tried to capture a picture of the sunset on the way back to our car. The photo doesn't do it justice at all!
Overall Siena and (especially) San Gimignano were overrun with tourists. They are beautiful cities, and definitely well worth visiting, but I think my favourite place so far on this trip is Calci, the small town near our house.
Climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa
... or as we say in Italian, "La famosa torre de Pisa".
Cousin Rob (Sonya's cousin) decided to visit Rome for a few days, so after we dropped him at the train station we wandered over to the Field of Miracles to see Pisa's most famous sight. First order of business, the obligatory tourist photos:
I had a bit of trouble getting Sonya and Jack to agree (they thought it was kind of cheesy) but eventually they got into the spirit:
I saw a group from Ohio spelling out "OHIO" (using the tower as the "I") and I suggested I could take a picture of them spelling out "VIC", but this was a bit too much for them :-(
We bought our tickets to climb the tower, and as you buy for a specific time, we had a couple of hours to kill, so we decided to see the cathedral.
A lot of churches in Italy have rules about not wearing a hat or showing legs or shoulders, so they have shawls they give out. It makes it look like there are a bunch of angels wandering around the church :-)
Here is the view from the top of the tower:
Note the death grip on the fence. The tower has a noticeable lean at the top. On the one side you feel like you are about to fall off (or at least I did). So I hung out mostly on the other side of the tower. They give you about 15 minutes to hang out and the top and then send you down, to make way for the next group.
This is the view towards Calci, and our house in the Tuscan hills.
The next day we drove to Siena and on the way visited San Gimignano, which will be the subject of my next post!
Cousin Rob (Sonya's cousin) decided to visit Rome for a few days, so after we dropped him at the train station we wandered over to the Field of Miracles to see Pisa's most famous sight. First order of business, the obligatory tourist photos:
I had a bit of trouble getting Sonya and Jack to agree (they thought it was kind of cheesy) but eventually they got into the spirit:
I saw a group from Ohio spelling out "OHIO" (using the tower as the "I") and I suggested I could take a picture of them spelling out "VIC", but this was a bit too much for them :-(
We bought our tickets to climb the tower, and as you buy for a specific time, we had a couple of hours to kill, so we decided to see the cathedral.
A lot of churches in Italy have rules about not wearing a hat or showing legs or shoulders, so they have shawls they give out. It makes it look like there are a bunch of angels wandering around the church :-)
Here is the view from the top of the tower:
Note the death grip on the fence. The tower has a noticeable lean at the top. On the one side you feel like you are about to fall off (or at least I did). So I hung out mostly on the other side of the tower. They give you about 15 minutes to hang out and the top and then send you down, to make way for the next group.
This is the view towards Calci, and our house in the Tuscan hills.
The next day we drove to Siena and on the way visited San Gimignano, which will be the subject of my next post!
Monday, 15 July 2013
How are we eating over here?
One big difference between my Italy and China vacations is that here in Italy I have access to a full kitchen. Including an outdoor brick oven (we cooked pizza the other night) and a BBQ. So, the other night we decided to cook steaks:
I haven't tried to start a charcoal grill for a long time! But fortunately the technique came back to me.
We had the steak with some fried mushrooms and onions, zucchini, and some leftover spaghetti and salad. Kind of an Italian style meal :-)
The next day we went to Pisa (and climbed the Leaning Tower - I'll post some pics once I have a chance to sort through them) - we planned to cook dinner again but found that the grocery store closed early on Sunday :-( Too bad, we had to eat out again! Italian menus typically have many courses (Aperitif, Primi Piati, Carne, etc) and since Italian meals last hours and hours and are very social occasions, you are expected to order from the many courses. However we haven't accustomed to eat that much food yet, so we've been eating "Chinese Style" off of the Italian menu - ordering a selection of dishes and then sharing them. All my Chinese friends would be very impressed, all that is missing is some bai jiu and festive toasting!
This meal we had penne with a spicy tomato sauce (picante!), rabbit and a mixed salad. (Notice that when you order a "carne" plate (meat) you basically get a hunk of meat. You have to order all the sides separately.) Oh and also a sausage pizza :-)
After dinner we wandered over to the main square (we drove into Calci for dinner) and there was a concert going on! A quartet (piano, accordion, violin and piano) plus a singer. They played a selection of songs from movies, including a jazzy number where the accordionist basically turned his instrument into a bongo and the violinist became a bassist (we tried to figure out how a violin became a bass but to no avail).
At one point (during Mamba Italiana) the singer ripped off her dress revealing a green dress underneath and danced a sexy mamba number!
The concert started around 10 PM and finished after 11. We are wondering how the Italians are adjusting to life in Canada, since the Brentwood Bay "music in the park" on Wednesdays starts at 6:30 PM and finishes promptly at 8:30! We are imagining the Italians showing up to the park "early" at 9 PM and wondering where everyone is!
I haven't tried to start a charcoal grill for a long time! But fortunately the technique came back to me.
We had the steak with some fried mushrooms and onions, zucchini, and some leftover spaghetti and salad. Kind of an Italian style meal :-)
The next day we went to Pisa (and climbed the Leaning Tower - I'll post some pics once I have a chance to sort through them) - we planned to cook dinner again but found that the grocery store closed early on Sunday :-( Too bad, we had to eat out again! Italian menus typically have many courses (Aperitif, Primi Piati, Carne, etc) and since Italian meals last hours and hours and are very social occasions, you are expected to order from the many courses. However we haven't accustomed to eat that much food yet, so we've been eating "Chinese Style" off of the Italian menu - ordering a selection of dishes and then sharing them. All my Chinese friends would be very impressed, all that is missing is some bai jiu and festive toasting!
This meal we had penne with a spicy tomato sauce (picante!), rabbit and a mixed salad. (Notice that when you order a "carne" plate (meat) you basically get a hunk of meat. You have to order all the sides separately.) Oh and also a sausage pizza :-)
After dinner we wandered over to the main square (we drove into Calci for dinner) and there was a concert going on! A quartet (piano, accordion, violin and piano) plus a singer. They played a selection of songs from movies, including a jazzy number where the accordionist basically turned his instrument into a bongo and the violinist became a bassist (we tried to figure out how a violin became a bass but to no avail).
At one point (during Mamba Italiana) the singer ripped off her dress revealing a green dress underneath and danced a sexy mamba number!
The concert started around 10 PM and finished after 11. We are wondering how the Italians are adjusting to life in Canada, since the Brentwood Bay "music in the park" on Wednesdays starts at 6:30 PM and finishes promptly at 8:30! We are imagining the Italians showing up to the park "early" at 9 PM and wondering where everyone is!
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Our hike to a 12th century monestary
We decided to go on a hike and have a picnic lunch with our leftover pizza, so we googled around for some local hikes and found the following:
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4081960
As well as providing some information about hikes all over the world, this site also provides GPS files that you can download and load into Google Earth or a Garmin GPS unit. I gave this a try, and managed to successfully load the trail into Google Earth (but unfortunately not Google Maps, which is what we've actually been using for navigating). The downside to Google Earth is that it is not available offline. I was hoping I could get something where we could follow our progress as we hiked the trail (and therefore reduce our chances of getting lost) but sadly was unable to do so :-(
This hike was categorized as "easy", however "easy" in Italian must translate as "very steep", or "straight up", because that's what this hike was! So as soon as we came to the first flat area (after about an hour) we stopped and had our picnic - leftover pizza, grapes, chips and "green lemon beer".
After this the trail flattened out so we continued, and we ran into a very nice surprise! (Although if we'd actually read the description of the trail beforehand, or read any of the signs along the route (which were all in Italian) it would have been a bit less of a surprise.) High up in the mountain was an old abandoned monastery from the 12th century.
It was mentioned in the write up on the web site, but was a surprise for us when we stumbled across it.
Most of the buildings were overgrown.
Some of the entrances were blocked with barbed wire, but others were open and you could wander about in the ruined buildings.
Can you see me in this picture? This building has a spectacular view of Pisa, which s about 20-30 km away.
Inside were scattered water and wine bottles, and lots of graffiti on the walls. This is obviously a popular party spot for the local teens, despite the difficulty of getting here.
"Don't move!" I made them stand like this for about 5 minutes while I looked for the perfect shot.
Heading towards the church. The walls were in pretty much prefect condition, the structure was just missing a roof. Contrast with the rest of the buildings, which were in various stages of crumbling. We should probably have heeded the warning signs to stay out, but of course they were all in Italian.
A view from the trail head. You can just make out the monastery on the first ridge, just above the roof of the yellow building in the foreground.
As I mentioned the ruins were a bit of a surprise to us when we came across them. Afterwards I noticed that the trail write-up mentioned them, but if it were me I would have named this trail something like "Steep hike up to a very cool set of ruins from the 12th century!!!"
(Ed note. The trail is called "Valle delle Fonti Eremo del Mirteto Foce Pennecchio", which is actually something like I suggest, although not quite so clear for us gringo tourists.)
I think the Italians get a bit blase about seeing old ruined buildings, and they only make special note if a trail does NOT lead to an old ruin. We were discussing how our Italian counterparts are doing in Canada and decided that they must be disappointed with all the trails we recommended for them because all they lead to are spectacular viewpoints but no old ruins :-(
After the hike we tried to stop for a gelatto, but it was around 3PM which is siesta time here (have I mentioned how civilized the Italians are?) and all we could find were some cold beers.
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4081960
As well as providing some information about hikes all over the world, this site also provides GPS files that you can download and load into Google Earth or a Garmin GPS unit. I gave this a try, and managed to successfully load the trail into Google Earth (but unfortunately not Google Maps, which is what we've actually been using for navigating). The downside to Google Earth is that it is not available offline. I was hoping I could get something where we could follow our progress as we hiked the trail (and therefore reduce our chances of getting lost) but sadly was unable to do so :-(
This hike was categorized as "easy", however "easy" in Italian must translate as "very steep", or "straight up", because that's what this hike was! So as soon as we came to the first flat area (after about an hour) we stopped and had our picnic - leftover pizza, grapes, chips and "green lemon beer".
After this the trail flattened out so we continued, and we ran into a very nice surprise! (Although if we'd actually read the description of the trail beforehand, or read any of the signs along the route (which were all in Italian) it would have been a bit less of a surprise.) High up in the mountain was an old abandoned monastery from the 12th century.
It was mentioned in the write up on the web site, but was a surprise for us when we stumbled across it.
Most of the buildings were overgrown.
Some of the entrances were blocked with barbed wire, but others were open and you could wander about in the ruined buildings.
Can you see me in this picture? This building has a spectacular view of Pisa, which s about 20-30 km away.
Inside were scattered water and wine bottles, and lots of graffiti on the walls. This is obviously a popular party spot for the local teens, despite the difficulty of getting here.
"Don't move!" I made them stand like this for about 5 minutes while I looked for the perfect shot.
Heading towards the church. The walls were in pretty much prefect condition, the structure was just missing a roof. Contrast with the rest of the buildings, which were in various stages of crumbling. We should probably have heeded the warning signs to stay out, but of course they were all in Italian.
A view from the trail head. You can just make out the monastery on the first ridge, just above the roof of the yellow building in the foreground.
As I mentioned the ruins were a bit of a surprise to us when we came across them. Afterwards I noticed that the trail write-up mentioned them, but if it were me I would have named this trail something like "Steep hike up to a very cool set of ruins from the 12th century!!!"
(Ed note. The trail is called "Valle delle Fonti Eremo del Mirteto Foce Pennecchio", which is actually something like I suggest, although not quite so clear for us gringo tourists.)
I think the Italians get a bit blase about seeing old ruined buildings, and they only make special note if a trail does NOT lead to an old ruin. We were discussing how our Italian counterparts are doing in Canada and decided that they must be disappointed with all the trails we recommended for them because all they lead to are spectacular viewpoints but no old ruins :-(
After the hike we tried to stop for a gelatto, but it was around 3PM which is siesta time here (have I mentioned how civilized the Italians are?) and all we could find were some cold beers.
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Our latest adventure - Home Made Pizza
The place we are staying has a pizza oven (!!!) in the back yard. So of course we had to try out some home made pizza. We Googled some instructions and a few recipes, so how hard could it be?
Well, the first thing is that all the groceries here are in Italian. We found some pizza flour (with a nice set of Italian cooking instructions on the side) and eventually found some Yeast Butter (why no yeast? apparently it's sold in butter here) and of course a good stock of wine and beer, and set to it.
First step - making the dough.
I don't usually make dough unless I've got some kind of stress in my life (punching down a lump of dough is very therapeutic!) however for the sake of a pizza I made an exception.
Step 2 starting the fire.
To bring the stone pizza oven up to temperature (400 degrees C) you basically build a big fire in it. It took us a couple of tries but eventually we got it going.
Step 3 - when the dough has risen, spin it into perfectly round pizza shells.
How is my technique? The pizzas did not turn out exactly "round", but it gives them more of an artisan look, no?
Step 5 - cook the pizzas!
The first one came out looking pretty much like a pizza. The dough was a bit too thick, because we didn't find the rolling pin until we rolled out the second dough. However we had some adventures getting the second pizza in and out of the oven.
This is before it went in. It came out looking kind of like a train wreck, however with the thinner crust it was much more delicious so our next adventure will be trying to figure out how to properly enter and exit the pizzas to/from the pizza oven.
Overall the hardest part of the whole exercise is getting the oven up to temperature, and then keeping it there. So I can understand why the pizzerias here don't want to serve pizzas at lunchtime, when there isn't the amount of clientelle to justify the effort. (Dinner is a big social meal here. At lunchtime most just sty home and nap. Very civilized!)
Well, the first thing is that all the groceries here are in Italian. We found some pizza flour (with a nice set of Italian cooking instructions on the side) and eventually found some Yeast Butter (why no yeast? apparently it's sold in butter here) and of course a good stock of wine and beer, and set to it.
First step - making the dough.
I don't usually make dough unless I've got some kind of stress in my life (punching down a lump of dough is very therapeutic!) however for the sake of a pizza I made an exception.
Step 2 starting the fire.
To bring the stone pizza oven up to temperature (400 degrees C) you basically build a big fire in it. It took us a couple of tries but eventually we got it going.
Step 3 - when the dough has risen, spin it into perfectly round pizza shells.
How is my technique? The pizzas did not turn out exactly "round", but it gives them more of an artisan look, no?
Step 5 - cook the pizzas!
The first one came out looking pretty much like a pizza. The dough was a bit too thick, because we didn't find the rolling pin until we rolled out the second dough. However we had some adventures getting the second pizza in and out of the oven.
This is before it went in. It came out looking kind of like a train wreck, however with the thinner crust it was much more delicious so our next adventure will be trying to figure out how to properly enter and exit the pizzas to/from the pizza oven.
Overall the hardest part of the whole exercise is getting the oven up to temperature, and then keeping it there. So I can understand why the pizzerias here don't want to serve pizzas at lunchtime, when there isn't the amount of clientelle to justify the effort. (Dinner is a big social meal here. At lunchtime most just sty home and nap. Very civilized!)
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