One of the more magical spots in a magical city. Saying it exudes mystery and romance is almost redundant.
Category Archives: Private Italy Tours
A Preview From Mama Isa’s Cooking Class
After she finished the tiramisu preparation class, Isa showed my wife how to do a simple pomodoro sauce with garlic, capers, and a special type of cherry tomato called “daterini”. You can’t get them in the US, but a good cherry tomato from your farmers market or organic grocer will taste almost as good as what we ate that day in Padova.
I shot about 20mins of video that I’ll edit and share for the foodies out there, but I wanted to get a sneak peak out before dinner time to make you dear readers good and hungry. We tossed this sauce over some homemade tonnarelli (think square spaghetti) that the wife rolled out and cut right there in Isa’s Padova kitchen. What a blast! After all this time sending clients there, the wife was glad she finally got her turn to enjoy Isa’s teachings; Isa’s committed to the original “slow-food” culture, meaning locally sourced, home-prepared ingredients and dishes that eschew processed foods. She’s keeping the old ways of preparing Italian cuisine alive in this day and age of rampant processed food addiction, and needless to say we support that wholeheartedly.
More on tiramisu and tonnarelli soon! But for now…yes, this was some darn tasty stuff, so feel free to be jealous. 🙂
New Post Up At KFTW
Nothing earth-shattering for regular readers, but Kiss From The World is a great little site and I want to support their efforts to show people the importance of cultural exchange. I did put up the obligatory smoochie picture of me and the wife up on top of the belltower at San Giorgio Maggiore as well. What can I say, Venice just makes you feel amorous! And that’s a good thing.
Update: they removed it, saying it was too generic. I must concede I find that rather disappointing–I was sharing a unique insight about Venice that, when you think about it seems obvious, but really, really isn’t. You’d think that’d be the kind of insight they want to have.
Update again: it’s back, was a misunderstanding.
Cooking Classes, Hotels, and Wonder
We’ve been sending folks to Mama Isa for a while now, so that my wife got to take one of her tonnarelli and tiramisu classes for herself instead of hearing about other people enjoying it was just wonderful; I figure I should edit the video and stills from that and do a write up on that first. Several other things that’ll take more time that I want to put together will trickle out in the next week or two, depending on how long this latest bout of jet lag takes to dissipate and let me quit procrastinating. As much time as I spend in airports, one thing I’ve noticed is conditioning doesn’t matter as you age: past 35…sitting in a big metal very arid tube for hours and having your biorhythms disrupted just takes a while to get over. Even a short hop business trip for a few days will leave you drained and dreading airports.
But to tide you fair readers over, I’ll post some pics here and there to share in the wonder that is the Veneto. And yes, I still cry a little when the train pulls out of the station and Venezia recedes in the distance. This one: from the vaporetto *1 at night. Sigh…such beauty. Everyone should see this place at least once. I remain committed to the notion that if they did, we’d end all war.
Tiramisu and Tonnarelli
Today’s cooking class with Mama Isa in Padova was everything the wife hoped it would be. The results speak for themselves!
Tonnarelli are a fresh pasta made via an instrument known as a chitarra (guitar), pressing the dough through a series of strings to make a square spaghetti-like noodle.
Gourmet Cicchetti In Venice
After a long flight and incurring some rather confused circadian rhythms, it was time for some vino bianco and some smoked swordfish wrapped around robiola, artichoke hearts, Italian tuna in red peppers, bacala, and local sardines and anchovies marinated in lemon and olive oil. Perhaps the best food I’ve ever had, and not just because we we’re travel weary.
This is one of our secret spots, well out of the way, but so worth finding! Come join us.
On Our Way
Southwest got us to EWR. Now for United to get us to MXP!
Sassi Italy Tours shirts are in full effect:
Venice Weather…YES!
Not to boast or anything, but we’re going to be doing some filming and promotional work next week in Venice, and the weather forecast is as follows:
How perfect is that? We’ll get some clouds for capturing La Serenissima’s mystery, some fairly warm and sunny days for being outside, it won’t be too cold, the summer heat is months away. Once in a while my timing is good!
Stay tuned, as we should have some good stuff to share.
This is why we stress to prospective travelers the importance of not discounting off-season travel. Carnivale will be over, summer crowds will also be months away, the airfares are better, the hotels are more cost-effective, and we’ll have any easy time getting in to see attractions…all with spring like weather that’s just about perfect. Really any time between October’s latter days and the end of April is the sweet spot for Venezia.
Dear Italy: Please Fix This Problem
My hometown has a pretty darn good pizza joint run by a couple Napolitani brothers, Salvatore and Vincenzo. I remember talking to Vinny about Pompeii when Doug was running a tour there a couple years ago and talking to him about the treasures in near his hometown, and asking whether he was homesick for them.
“Nah,” he said…”Italy is a great country, but the Italians, they’re no good people…they don’t take care of what they have.” At the risk of sounding provincial, I’d argue that’s not as true in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice…but in Campagna? Perhaps. Pompeii is not being properly cared for, and that’s got to stop. It belongs to Italy, yes, but it also belongs to all of us on the planet. It’s an unparalleled and irreplaceable opportunity to glance back in time and see what an ancient culture–one whose shadow we still live in, whether we realize it or not–actually looks like.
It can’t be allowed to just fall apart.
The New T-Shirts Came Out Pretty Well
Doesn’t hurt that I had the cutest model on the planet to show them off; these are for sale of course, and free to anyone booking a tour, just let us know your t-shirt size when we’re figuring out your itinerary. They’re made with heavy Gilden brand shirts with a fine cotton feel.
I’ll be sporting one in Venice next week while we do some promotional work. See you over there!
Sassi Italy Tours 