Italy

Hi Travel Eat Love readers!

My name is Amanda and my husband and I have a food and travel blog called The Hungry Wanderers.  We’ve been blogging for less than a year and were originally inspired (or peer pressured) by our blogging friends in Charlotte (in particular, Kath from Kath Eats Real Food!).  Since I started reading blogs about a year and a half ago, I had mostly been following nutrition/fitness focused blogs and was so happy to find Travel Eat Love a few months ago.  There seem to be so few food & travel blogs out there!  Meghan – thank you so much for inviting me to guest blog while you’re busy traveling!

When my husband and I first contemplated creating a blog, we knew right away that it would be somehow travel related.  We love to travel whenever we can (both for work and for pleasure) and we also make it a goal to try new restaurants as often as we can when we decide to go out.  It was a little over a year ago, though, that we realized how lucky we are to be able to travel as much as we do and we wanted to share our experiences, and tips, with our friends, families, and the blog community! It was during a Christmas vacation to Italy with his family that we finally decided to start blogging (it just took us a few months to actually get there!).

Making it to Italy was a bit of a stress as our flights from Germany were cancelled twice in one day (we started our vacation with a river cruise through Germany and Austria).  While we were looking forward to meeting up with my husband’s family, we were most concerned about missing the top tour of our upcoming trip: the Catacombs of the Vatican!  Luckily, we were rebooked on a flight that actually made it and we were able to make the visit with the family the next day.

My brother-in-law had booked tickets weeks in advance for the limited admission Catacomb tour of the Vatican (essentially, a tour of the areas beneath the St. Peter’s Basilica).  Unfortunately, due to the interest in protecting the catacombs, in which some parts are over 2000 years old, we didn’t take any photos.  Highlights of the tour included burial sites, a chapel, and what is believed to be St. Peter’s tomb, all under St. Peter’s Basilica!  For all these years, it was assumed on a hunch that his remains were below, but it wasn’t until recently that they found what they believe to be his remains. Neither the Husband nor I are Catholic, but the history of this site was awe-inspiring and humbling.

After the catacomb tour, the family ventured up into St. Peter’s Basilica.  Being nearly Christmas, it was quite crowded but not so much that we couldn’t enjoy the beautiful work of the Catholic church.  There were still a few days until Christmas, but the seats were already set up for Christmas mass.  There would be room for lots of worshippers!

On Christmas Eve, after enjoying an amazing Italian meal at a local restaurant, we decided to venture back to the Vatican to see what it’s like on Christmas.  It was absolutely breath taking and serene.  Although there were many visitors waiting in line for entrance for Midnight Mass, it was calmly quiet in the area in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.  This calm is in such contrast to what we experience in the United States and it was wonderful to experience on this evening.  The Husband shot a number of photos of the Christmas tree, Nativity scene and St. Peter’s Basilica.

When he changed his angle ever so slightly, we discovered a lit room in the right corner of the photo.  This light (from what we were told) symbolizes that the Pope is home 🙂 (and of course he was, being Christmas Eve and all!)

Overall, our Christmas vacation in Rome was filled with wonderful sites and history along with amazing foods and flavors.  We definitely recommend traveling to Rome if you have the opportunity.  If you are interested in religious history (whether or not you are religious yourself) and you know you’ll be visiting at least a few weeks in advance, be sure to book a reservation for the Vatican Catacomb tour! You won’t be disappointed!

Meghan – Thanks again for the invite to guest post! Hope you’re having a wonderful new year!

Hello from Europe! Below is a guest post from my good friend and college roommate, another Meghan! Meghan is a travel planner extraordinaire, and we have enjoyed some great travel adventures from St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland to Queen’s Day in Amsterdam to camel riding in Tunisia and pub crawling in Roma! 

Traveling to Europe is a yearly necessity for me.  Whether it’s returning to some favorite places like Amsterdam or Ireland, or trying out new spots like Provence and the Greek Islands, it’s something that I look forward to every year.  It also helps maintain my sanity!  One of my favorite places to go is Italy, which has the holy trinity of food, wine, and overall beauty.  I’ve stomped around Rome, Florence, and Bologna on several occasions, and have been to Venice and Verona but one place that always pulls me back is Cinque Terre.  Literally meaning “five lands”, Cinque Terre is comprised of 5 villages perched on the cliffside with the Ligurian Sea below.  Cinque Terre had avoided a major tourist influx, but once Rick Steves took a liking to the area, tourism has steadily increased in the past 10-15 years.  Despite this, and thanks to it being slightly off the beaten path, the area still has a very authentic feel.  You won’t be able to get by on English alone, so brushing up on your Italian is required. 

Of the 5 villages, I chose Riomaggiore as my home base.  It essentially has one main street, littered with markets, restaurants and gelatarias, and then a harbor area that leads out to the rocky beach.  As you can see, the village is comprised of very colorful buildings that seem to hang precariously off the mountainside. 

There are hotel rooms available, but I like to rent an apartment.  Most if not all apartments have a lovely view of the ocean, but my last time there, I really hit the jackpot.  Here’s the view:

The interior was fine, but the prize was our long balcony that just hung over the water.  There were lounge chairs for our lazy days and a table where we could have dinner overlooking the sunsets.  One of the great things about having an apartment is that you have a kitchen.  The local markets have freshly made pasta and sauces, along with a huge array of mouth-watering anti-pasti options.  One of the area’s specialties is pesto, which served over freshly made gnocchi is simply perfection. 

While it’s tempting to spend my time in Cinque Terre sunbathing, reading and drinking wine, I like to work up an appetite by hiking the trail that connects the five villages.  There are several different trails, differing in length and difficulty, but I have stuck to the main trail, which is about 12 km (8 miles).  For me, that is more than enough exercise!  The first 2 segments (starting in Monterosso) are the hardest.  They seem to mostly comprise of going up.

After climbing steps like those, one of the best sights in the world is the next village, which brings a little rest and perhaps some gelato.  Ok, not perhaps, DEFINITELY gelato!

And the perfect way to celebrate the end of the hike? Parking on a lounge chair with a glass of vino. 

Another specialty of the area, being so close to the water, is seafood.  Some of the best mussels I have ever had were eaten in Cinque Terre.  They are plump and juicy, whether they are in a pesto broth, or sitting atop a bed of linguini with spicy tomato sauce.  I also got to try out stuffed mussels, which I had never heard of before, never mind tasted.  The ones I had were stuffed with breadcrumbs, herbs and spices – simple and delicious.

Being in Italy, wine and gelato are part of the daily diet, at least for me.  While Liguria is not well known for their wines, reds from nearby Tuscany are easily found and very inexpensive.  One Cinque Terre wine of note is Sciacchetrà, a white dessert wine.  I haven’t been a huge dessert wine fan in the past, but this stuff is delicious.  It’s also very hard to find in the States, so I make sure to bring a bottle back with me.  Gelatarias also dot the landscape, seemingly every 20 feet.  I feel like it’s only fair to sample as many flavors from as many shops as I can, so my 2-gelato a day rule is strictly enforced.  Sadly, all of my gelato seems to disappear before I can get a nice photo of it. 

I’m not sure when I will be in Cinque Terre next, but I know it will be as soon as possible.  It’s the perfect spot for a vacation within a vacation.  No museums, no big ruins to see.  Just the sea, wine, and wonderful food.