Planning a trip to Europe can be expensive and frustrating. In this video I give ideas for saving money, planning and creating a trip that will be fun and memorable. Don’t spend your time running around a city and traveling between cities. Enjoy life in Europe. Be a European while you are there. Make contact with locals, communicate, observe life around you. Enjoy the museums and sites but also savor the food and wine. Watch the Europeans around you. How do they live their lives?
The video below will help you plan a memorable and rewarding trip to Europe. Buon Viaggio…
Next to airfare, hotels will be your biggest cost. If your staying for an extended period of time, they may be the biggest cost of the trip. You first have to decide on:
Is it a special occasion like a honeymoon where you want an expensive hotel with nice amenities and views.
Are you independently wealthy and the price is of no concern
Are you visiting Italy to see the country, the people, etc. In this case you will only be sleeping in your hotel room. The small Italian hotels will work fine and give you more of a sense of being in Italy.
Hotels, like anywhere, change price seasonally and as they become more popular. Shop and see what the prices are. DO NOT PAY EXTRA for breakfast! Breakfast in Italy, as the Italians do it, is the cheapest and easiest meal. Go to the nearest bar (they are everywhere) and order an espresso, cappuccino, latte or coffee Americano and a sweet roll. This will cost you 2 Euros outside the big cities and maybe 5 Euros in the cities. Italians usually choose a cornetto. This is a small roll that can be plain, filled with chocolate, jam or cream.
What ever you choose, enjoy Italy. Do not try to do too much. Be an Italian while you are there. You do not need Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and eggs! Eat like the Italians which is so much more healthy for you.
Naples is considered the birthplace of pizza. It started in the late 1700’s. Early pizzas had things like tomatoes, cheese, anchovies and garlic on them. In 1889 after Italy became unified, King Umberto & Queen Margherita visited Naples. Chef Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria Brandi and his wife created a new pizza for the Queen and named it after her. It was to have the colors of the Italian flag: Red – tomato sauce, Green – Basil and White – Mozzarella Cheese.
This pizza was not known outside of Naples until around 1940’s. Today it can be found all over the world. The original style, still made in Naples, uses a wood burning oven (between 600 & 750 F), 00 pizza flour, live yeast, fresh basil, EVOO and buffalo mozzarella cheese. It is thin crusted and light. Each person gets a whole pizza, which is NOT sliced and eats it with a fork and knife or takes a slice in the streets of Naples in paper. It was street food for the poor.
ORIGINAL NAPLES PIZZA RECIPE:
Making the dough:
Mix flour, water, salt and yeast. Pour a liter of water into a dough making machine, dissolve 50-55 g of salt, add 10% of the total amount of flour you are planning to use, then dissolve 3g of yeast, and start mixing gradually adding the remaining 1.8 Kg flour until the dough reaches the desired texture and consistency, defined as “Il Punto di Pasta”, smooth to the touch and very extensible .
Rising:
Let the dough rest on a marble slab or a wooden surface for 2 hours covered with a damp cloth and then divide into individual ball-shaped portions of 180 grams each.
Set aside in a container to rise for a second time for 4-6 hours at room temperature.
Rolling:
Use your hands and with a round motion roll out the dough on a marble slab covered with flour until it becomes 3 mm thick with a 1-2 cm edge.
Filling:
Take about 60g to 70g of chopped tomatoes and using a wooden spoon place in the center of the disk of dough. With a spiraling motion, spread the tomato over the surface. Then add a pinch of salt on the tomatoes, 80 – 100 g of DOP buffalo mozzarella, cut into strips and some basil leaves. Again with a spiraling motion starting from the centre, add 4 to 5 grams of extra virgin olive oil.
Cooking:
Cook in a wood- brick oven at a temperature between 450C° to 480C°, rotating the position of the pizza frequently to make sure the heat is spread evenly.
Eating method:
Use your hands and enjoy the taste of Italy!
Our Pizza:
Often, we make our own dough, but today we were testing some prepared doughs from both Trader Joes and Publix Supermarket. We also make our own pizza sauce from marzano tomatoes, but sometimes you just have to have a quicker alternative:
Dough Balls from Trader Joes and Publix
Sauce – Premium Organic Paesano Tomato and Basil (available at Costco)
Buffalo Mozzarella from COSTCO
Fresh basil from our supermarket
We brought the dough to room temperature, divided it into two balls and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then on a floured surface, we pressed the dough out in all directions from the center to form a circle. You then grab a side of the dough and pull out and fold back over your hand to increase the size of the pie. This is continued all around the pie several times until it is the size you want (around 10”). The center should be paper thin and thicker around the edges. The Trader Joe’s dough was the best to work with and had the best results, forming a larger pie without tearing. The Publix dough was a bit more delicate, but also made a very good pizza.
Next ladle some sauce on pie in center and spread it out in circles around pie. Then season the sauce with Parmesan cheese and garlic (if desired). Next place the fesh basil and finally the Buffalo Mozzarella cheese. Then sprinkle some EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) over the top.
Pre heat your oven to 500-550 with a good quality pizza stone in it. After it reaches temperature wait another 15 minutes to allow stone to reach the temperature. Use a pizza Peel to slide the pie onto the stone. It should only take about 5-6 minutes to cook. The edges should be brown and check bottom so it doesn’t get to dark.
The crust edges should be crispy but the bottom center should be soft. Take pie out of oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing or serve whole like in Italy.
If you are doing a second pie, allow oven to reach temperature again before putting it in.
Here are 12 differences between America and Italy. They are not all the differences but some to consider on your trip. Italy is a wonderful country with great people, food, wine, museums and countryside. It is a different country with different customs and ways. These are not good or bad just different. Be aware of differences and don’t be shocked.
The YouTube video below goes through the 12 differences:
We recently went to Italy to spend a relaxing time at our condo in southern Campania. Normally we take an extra week and travel to some other area of Italy but this time we just wanted to relax at the beach and enjoy Italy. This is a story about our local area, the people and the food. It is also a story about how Hurricane Irma caused us to have the longest trip home ever.
Watch the video VLOG below and follow us through this interesting trip to the mezzogiorno:
There is a lot to say about the food of Italy and its all good. Except for very touristy places, the food is fresh, well prepared and delicious. Italians love their food and so does the rest of the world. You may think you know Italian cooking because you eat in Italian restaurants in England or America or your parents were Italian but it is not the same as what is served in Italy.
Italy’s restaurants serve local fresh foods usually organic. The dishes are simple but extremely tasty. It may be a simply cooked meat or fish over a grill fire or a pasta cooked al dente with a wonderful sauce or fresh vegetables. You can eat well in any non touristy ristorante or Trattoria. These places pride themselves in the food they prepare and serve.
Come with us as we talk about the different foods around Italy. It is not just pasta and pizza. Our YouTube video below explores these wonderful foods.
Everyone loves a good beach and Campania (southern Italy) has some of the best beaches in Italy. From Naples through the Amalfi Coast to the Cilento National Park in Southern Campania are great beaches. The Amalfi Coast is world renowned but the beaches are black lava stone. The Cilento National Park in cities like Marina Casal Velino and Ascea (both of these we have done YouTube VLOGs on) have white soft sand beaches.
These beaches have clubs and public beaches. The public beaches are free and you can bring a blanket or lounge chair and umbrella. The clubs give you two beach chairs and a table and umbrella for a fee. Some clubs provide music and free WiFi. They also usually have a restaurant that serves good food. You can order a wine, beer or prosecco in a glass on the beach.
The beaches of the Amalfi Coast are very touristy and people from all over the world go there. The beaches of the Cilento National Park are touristy for Germans and Italians. These are major summer beach resorts especially in August when most Europeans are off from work.
Come see these beaches with us in the YouTube video below:
Ravello is a beautiful mountain town above the Tyrrhenian Sea & Amalfi on the famous Amalfi Coast.Ravello is a 13th century city built-in Moorish style. The gardens at Villa Cimbrone are beautiful and provide the best panoramic views of the sea far below. Villa Rufolo is another beautiful estate visited by many tourists.
From Amalfi take the bus by the ferry docks up to Ravello or a taxi. The road winds itself up a steep incline to reach the city at the top. As you get off the bus or taxi you are outside the city walls. Walk through a tunnel in the old wall to reach the city center. Villa Rufolo is on your left. The main piazza and restaurants are straight ahead. The tourists information is to the right and Villa Cimbrone is to the left at the very end of the city.
Ravello is easy to navigate as it is not very large and there are only a few streets. Allow time for the two villas. Plan on luck outside in the piazza. On a hot day have a gelato in the piazza. As you leave Ravello and travel back down to Amalfi, you know you have just left a very special place. from Amalfi you can catch a bus to ferry to Positano, Sorrento, Naples or Salerno and a ferry to Capri.
Come walk with us through beautiful Ravello and Villa Cimbrone in our YouTube video below…
Campania is in southern Italy below Rome. It includes famous areas like Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Campania has wonderful Blue Flag Beaches and some very interesting mountain towns. You have everything thing here including: museums, beaches, mountains, great food & wine and friendly people.
We chose this area to have a second home and have fallen in love with it. Come walk with us through several towns in the great region.
This is a different VLOG for me. In this one I talk about the reasons I love Italy and give tips to both first time travelers to Italy well as experienced Italian travelers.
The video covers several sections:
Why I love Italy
Top Reasons I love Italy
Museums
What to do in Italy
Finding Places to Eat
The Metro (Subway)
Time to go
Hotels
Currency (Euros)
Airfares
Hopper App
Driving in Italy
Put Italy on your Bucket List
If Italy is not on your bucket list, it should be. Watch the video below and see why so many people love and go to Italy.
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