Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
fried fish in Naples is also a standard dish. Try some
sfogliatelle
for dessert, a
ricotta-filled layered pastry. On the other side of Southern Italy,
Puglia
features
hearty fare, heavy on the vegetables and seafood, including such specialties as
orec-
chiette,
“little ear” pasta, with sautéed local greens.
The hot hills of
Sicily
have spawned a strong-tasting, often spicy cuisine.
Maccheroni con le sarde
is a traditional Sicilian spaghetti with sardines and olive oil
flavored with pine nuts, fennel, and other spices. At smaller coastal towns, order
fish fresh off the boat; swordfish is quite popular and tasty.
Involtini siciliani
are
bread-covered meat rolls stuffed with egg, ham, and cheese. Or try the vegetarian
caponata
eggplant in tomato sauce. Sicily is also famous for its desserts. Its
can-
noli
pastries stuffed with ricotta or chocolate, and
gelati
ice creams, are considered
some of the best in Italy.
VARIATIONS
No matter what part of Italy you visit, one of the best ways to fully experience
Italian cuisine is by taking a
cooking class.
Classes are offered in every variation,
from an afternoon seminar at a restaurant, to an all-day trip to a country kitchen
complete with wine tastings, to a multiweek (or multimonth) formal culinary
education course certifying some of the best chefs in the world. Chapters 3 and 4
list a good sample of cooking classes targeted at the short-term visitor.
The Slow Food movement is gaining momentum in Italy.
Slow Food
is more
than a type of cuisine—it's an attitude. It emphasizes eating in a more traditional
manner: using genuine, local (usually organic) ingredients, encouraging tradi-
tional food education, holding tastings, and creating an organization of partici-
pating restaurants and food suppliers who share the same principles. Now there
are “slow” hotels, tours, and many restaurants. Find out more about the 35,000-
member Italian organization at
www.slowfood.com
, and then register to have
access to their encyclopedic food descriptions, restaurant recommendations, and
tasting events.
THE ART & ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY
by Bill Fink
You can't help but be awestruck at the sheer quantity and quality of over 2,500
years of Italian art and architecture. For students of Western art and culture, Italy
is paradise. The country will even impress those whose eyes glaze over at the
thought of marble statues and Madonna-and-Child paintings. It's one thing to see
a classical art reproduction in a textbook, or in a sterile museum display, but it's
something else altogether when these historical works are viewed in the context of
the area in which they were created.
Photographs or reproductions can't produce the awe you'll feel while standing in
the Roman Colosseum, gazing at the Mediterranean from the 2,000-year-old tem-
ple of Dionysus, or walking the eerily preserved streets of Pompeii. The majesty and
mystery of historic Catholic Mass are best understood in the darkened
duomi
of
Florence or Siena, their walls lined with Last Judgment frescoes threatening the
wrath of God or the rewards of Paradise. Even Italy's museums give the artwork a
context, housing pieces in Renaissance villas converted into museums, family
palaces, or the elaborately decorated city “offices” of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.
