The Foreign Noodle: June 2013

Positano was our second stop on our honeymoon, and is perhaps the most wonderful place on earth. It was so. incredibly. beautiful. I cannot put into words, or even show with pictures, my love for the Amalfi Coast. It was our longest stay (4 nights), and we left wishing it were longer.

View from our fantastic hotel room

One night we were at the square on the water drinking a glass of wine, and there was an old Italian woman fishing with just a hook and a line - no pole, net, or anything else. Kevin started to try to speak with her, and in the very few English words she knew and lots of hand motions, she was able to tell us that yes, she ate what she caught, and she was normally able to catch enough for the next day or two. She opened a plastic grocery bag and showed us a fish and a sea anemone. She quietly walked up and down the length of the square, casting out her simple hook and line with an amazingly strong arm. At one point she paused, looked over at us, and pointed out to the water. "Barricuda", she said simply, pulling her line in so it wouldn't be cut by the fish's sharp teeth. We looked past her pointing finger, and saw a very large, dark fish (apparently barricuda's in Italy are dark brown, not silvery blue like those in South America) prowling through the water. It made me shiver. We saw another (or maybe the same), some time later. As I had drunk a few glasses of wine, this resulted in me dancing and shimmying while singing Heart's Barricuda.

Kevin (not a barricuda) swimming in the sea

Obviously, this was the place for Kevin to get some amazing seafood. I was perfectly content to fill up on pasta, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and, of course, lots of wine. One memorable meal we had was at La Tagliata, a restaurant recommended by our driver on our way to Positano. A shuttle picked us up at our hotel and took us and about a dozen others, up the mountain on some very narrow and rickety roads. Looking out the window of the shuttle, it looks like you are flying off the cliff - quite exhilarating! When we got to the restaurant, we walked in and were greeted by Pepe, and given a little table along the windows, which overlooked the cliffs and the sea. It was beautiful. The restaurant was family-style, so everyone was served the same thing. We ordered a bottle of white wine, and were then tempted with about a dozen small plates of appetizers, including caprese salad, a zucchini rice salad, bruschetta, sauteed spinach, peas, cheeses, and so much more. It was so good, and I am quite sure I could have filled up on these things alone. But then we were served a salad, and after that, four types of pasta, and then Kevin got a whole platter of meat to himself. The meal was finished with a couple types of desserts (the only one I recognized was tiriamisu), and limoncello, which originated on the Amalfi Coast (and let me tell you, the lemons there were as big as your head!).

Pepe, the waiter (and son of the Owners/cooks) at La Tagliata

The last night we were in Positano, we ate at a restaurant, Buca di Bacco, that was recommended to us by our waiter in Rome. This is where Kevin ate multiple sorts of seafood. In my opinion, it was pretty gross and I was unable to look at it, but he said the seafood platter was delicious. As it was our last night in Positano, we splurged and ordered more food than we really needed. I had eggplant croquettes, which were delicious, and Kevin ordered fried meat ravioli as our appetizers. I ate a lot of bread that night, and also fell in love with Italian "pretzels", while Kevin had the seafood platter. I also ordered my spaghetti pomodoro (yes, again!), and Kevin ordered gnocchi (yes, again! - what can I say, we know what we like!).

Eggplant croquettes

Ahh, the seafood platter - anchovies, calamari, a small catfish (whole), and much more

More seafood, blech

Bread and "pretzels"

Fried Ravioli

Kevin's gnocchi

Spaghetti pomodoro, my favorite

A super cute cappuccino

The meal was delicious and ended with super-cute cappuccinos, but overall, I will remember Positano for it's breathtaking views from every direction, lemons as big as your head (and the scent of them everywhere), perfectly clear blue water, and very happy people. It was the best four days of my life.

It's been a while since I have posted anything, but I feel like I have a good excuse, in that it was my honeymoon, so I wasn't suppsoed to do anything I didn't feel like doing right now. However, a month later, I suppose it's time to come back to reality. Plus, I have a million things to share about our most amazing trek through Italy.
I think the best way to to this is to go through each city, one post at a time.
Rome first, since that's where we flew in to. As I look back at it, I love that city more and more. Obviously, it was amazing since it was our first stop, and we were all excited and giddy about being in Europe, and NOT in Pittsburgh or at work. ;)

So here it is, Rome through our eyes (with maybe a few words of description).

Our very first food stop in Italy - gelato, of course! Pistachio was my tried and true favorite. We did not miss one day of gelato in the entire 2 weeks we were in Italy. It was THAT GOOD.

Sitting in the courtyard of our hotel in Rome, we ended our nights with a(nother) bottle of wine next to the fountain.

Italian happy hours are amazing! Buy one drink, and they offer all you can eat appetizers, including pizza, bruschetta, and so many other yummy foods. It was amazing. The drinks weren't bad either.....!

And speaking of food, our favorite restaurant of the entire trip (we went twice) was Trattoria Cadorna dal 1947, as noted on the bottle of water here.