FOOD

We ate out a lot in Italy, and had some memorable and delicious meals.

After a lot of heart-stopping prosciutto, these veggies were crisp and yummy on a hot day in Sansepulcro.

But perhaps our best meals were the ones we made ourselves in our “villa” in the Umbrian hills after shopping for the ingredients:

A lunch on the terrace (note the pool in the background), tuna-white bean-arugula-tomotoes-olives-parmesan.

Cakes! We didn’t make these but we did enjoy them!!

Judy grates the zucchini, Shelley makes the fritatta, Julia makes the salad.

Midge made chicken breasts pounded thin and cooked with lemon, and eggplant parmegiana.
Of course we had wonderful dining venues as well, which made it fun–and great wine!

The dining room, and the terrace outside–somedays were cool and rainy so we ate in both locations.

We took a cooking class–given by Francesca who had owned the very fancy restaurant next to our hotel in Cortona. She’s been working in the restaurant for 53 years, and said she was “retired”–she now only works from 6:00 am to 5:00 p.m. She made veal roast, gnocchi and a custard tart, which we then had for luncheon. She moves so fast I could hardly photograph her, but here she is making gnocchi–potato dumplings essentially.

Last food note: Carol brought a terrific little kit that turned out to be pretty handy–a travelling spice kit: