It’s surprising how I have developed new habits since living in Italy. These Italian habits are easy to acquire, and very difficult to lose. They are also likely to annoy or surprise your friends and family if you take them back home! However I’ve been assured that this is normal! The subtle changes in my…
Apologies for my silence on here, but in Winter the north of Italy slows down, and so there is not much to report at the moment! However, after winter, the mercury is rising, so everything and everyone is starting to spring back to life! February is when the festival season starts again. Every town and…
Massimo Bottura, the chef and co-proprietor of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, needs no introduction. His restaurant has won every award given by the culinary world. If you want a reservation at his restaurant you have to book months ahead, and they can be as difficult to get as an audience with the Pope. However,…
We’re taking a break for the Christmas holidays, but before we disappear until 2018, we wanted to say a few words. First of all, Merry Christmas (Buon Natale in Italian!). We’d like to thank everyone who visited our little corner of the internet. We share what we are passionate about, and it means a lot…
This is my second Christmas in Italy, and I now think that I am getting the hang of how the Italians like to celebrate the festive season! Just like in the UK, the Italians start their celebrations early! On December 8th, which is a public holiday to celebrate the Immaculate Conception. This is the conception…
It’s now officially Christmas in our house as we’ve opened the first panettone of the year! As always, I like to use any leftovers of anything I use, so I’ve been thinking of ways to use any leftover panettone that might be lurking around after Christmas.
Even when I lived in England, it was never Christmas until I’d watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” and opened my first panettone of the season. Imagine my excitement when I found out there was a panettone festival just up the road in Milan! Naturally I had to get tickets for my wife and I as…
So, we have now been in Italy for just over a year. I thought now was a good time to share the good and bad things that we have experienced during the last year.
I got a nice surprise the other day when I received a message to say that my little blog had been nominated by Khloe of Simply Khloe for the Liebster Blog Award! The Liebster Blog Award is great way to get to know other bloggers that you follow, and also a way to get to know newer bloggers!
It’s now November, and the summer festival season in Italy is coming to a close. However, as always, it goes out with a bang – Cioccolandia, a day long festival of fabulous chocolate! Willy Wonka could learn a lot from this festival! Every year the town of Castel San Giovanni turns into a chocolate lover’s delight.…
I am a fan of “nose to tail” eating, which means that you use as much of an animal as possible, so that nothing goes to waste. The amount of food that is wasted in restaurants and homes around the world is estimated at a third of all the food bought, and the majority…
I live in a beautiful town called Piacenza and I love its local food and wine. It is often overlooked by people visiting the Emilia Romagna region. They either they think that were in Lombardia (we’re right on the border), or they bypass us for the more famous tourist places like Bologna, Parma, Modena or…