Trattoria da Gigi is an excellent place to eat in Venice. It is located not far from the world-famous Piazza San Marco. You can sit inside or outside on a lovely patio setup like a garden. Our favorite dishes where the Pasta con Vongole and the Risotto. The staff is friendly and the prices are reasonable.
Watch the YouTube video below about this restaurant.
– Ciao
– george
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:
– George Febish
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:
– George
Grotta Palazzesse is a famous cave restaurant in Polignano a Mare on the Adriatic sea. This is the most romantic place in the world to have a meal with someone you love. The views are magnificent. You will remember this for the rest of your life.
The restaurant is:
We spent a morning touring the old center of Polignano a Mare and then had lunch in this fabulous restaurant. We were so lucky to get a table at the edge overlooking the sea. You feel fabulous as you sit at your table sipping a glass of good wine. As you enjoy your wine, you look down to the sea and see boats below you entering and exiting the cave.
Come join us in this great restaurant and see the views we saw. If you are lucky enough to be in this area of Puglia, make a reservation here and experience it yourself.
– George
Have you longed for a trip to romantic Italy? Have you dreamed about eating real Italian food? Do you long to see the museums or architecture? Maybe you have relatives there and just want to reunite old ties. What ever your reasons are, Italy is a great place to spend a vacation. After a week you are feeling relaxed and enjoying life. After two weeks you are totally relaxed, speaking some Italian words and loving the food. Longer periods in Italy will make you an Italian for life!
The northern lake Area offers beautiful scenery overlooking the Alps or maybe Tuscany with its wines and romantic scenery. The large cities of Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome or Naples are great places to see Italians being themselves. They also are great for seeing living history. Look at the buildings the architecture and envision the people that built these great cities. Maybe southern Italy with its Amalfi coast and Capri or farther south into the Cilento National Park. Beauty unspoiled by man and pristine beaches. What is stopping you?
If it’s being afraid of big tours or doing it on your own, we offer an alternative for the selective traveler to see what they want to see and spend as much time as the want. If you find a great Italian spot, the last thing you want is to be taken away by a tour bus. It would be wonderful to change your plans and just stay in your new found location. Italy is all about love, romance, beauty and spontanaeity.
Italy creates many wonderful memories and experiences but you have to touch it! Get away from the crowded tourists areas and meet real Italians. See places that will change you forever. Don’t eat in tourists restaurants. These will be memories you will never forget.
George
Italy has a special place in my heart. I am not Italian but I did a lot of work there. I gained a respect and a love for the country, the people, the food and the wine. Italians seem happy with there life. They know what is important. Their families, their life , their food & wine are all very important to them. They have to work but it is not a important part of their lives. Walk any Italian city (big or small) and you will see the elderly and the young walking. They enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables. They love their cooking especially mamma’s cooking. Their coffee, wine, gelato and bread are a tradition to them. You can here them argue about how good or bad the pasta is at a restaurant. It will never be mamma’s pasta.
As I walk through a city, I smell the cooking. I see the people outside all around me. I hear the language and the passion with which it is spoken. This is the Italy I so love. People are very friendly here. Just say Buon Giorno to a stranger and watch the smile appear and you will get a Buon Giorno back. If you are trying to speak the language remember there are informal and polite forms of speaking. The young are becoming less formal but the elderly still require a stranger to speak formally.
Be respectful, smile and enjoy all that your senses are experiencing. I even enjoy seeing Italian laundry out to dry. No I don’t have a laundry fetish! I enjoy the colors and shapes against a backdrop of old buildings. It is one of my favorite photo op. In Italy you can buy a dryer but most people prefer the clean scent of drying their clothes outside.
In the morning I enjoy being in the local bar for coffee and a cornetto. You are submerged in a group of Italians, all talking and quickly drinking their coffee and eating a small cake or cornetto.
Cornetto
As you leave after breakfast, you are again engulfed in Italian life on the streets. Listen and watch how they talk and communicate with each other. Enjoy the scooters speeding by you. Take in the smells as you pass a restaurant. Later stop in a bar, pizzeria or trattoria for lunch. Bars are famous for eating standing up. It costs more to take a table. You will see Italians eating Panini (sandwiches) and drinking a beer or glass of wine. Between about 2 pm and 4 pm watch the Italian Passeggiata (walk). Families and friends stroll together to enjoy each others company.
After your afternoon walking or visiting museums, look for a large piazza. Life really explodes in the Italian piazzas. You will find lots of bars and restaurants here as well. Pick a non touristy place for dinner. I always look for one with mostly Italians and few or no foreigners. You will have to eat late to see Italians as no one eats dinner early in Italy.
Evening is my favorite time to walk, watch and have a gelato.
Life here is much less stressful. Enjoy what you have and what you are. Be Italian for a short while.
George
International Cuisine is not fast food!. Many travelers look for McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and other American fast food chains when they travel. I have news for you, Fast Food is NOT cuisine! If you go to a foreign country and eat American Fast Food, you are missing out on the true gems of that country. Countries like Italy have unbelievably good food. It is NOT the same as Italian food in America. It is soooo much better. Go, see, experience and enjoy the food and wine.
Fruits & vegetables in these countries are so fresh and ripe. You can smell them and the taste is so delicious. Fish is wild caught and meats are raised and fed properly. Everything tastes great the way it was intended to taste.
In addition to the raw ingredients, the recipes are old and delicious. In Italy you don’t find heavy sauces or a dish with 17 different ingredients. Dishes are simple and stand on the taste of the one or two main ingredients.
I suggest that you try different things when traveling in Italy. Even if you don’t think you like it. This is how you expand your taste buds. There is no better place in the world to do this than Italy.
My memories are of the bread, coffee, gelato, pasta, pastries, pizza, fish, truffles, buffalo mozzarella and wine of Italy.
Mangia … Mangia!
George
Southern Italy is known for its fish. Where we are in Campania there is always great fish. Off the coast and to the south is a major swordfish area. The fish is always fresh. You can get many kinds of fish plus shellfish. Shrimp, calamari and octopus is great. We eat fresh fish in the local restaurants or buy it in a fish market to prepare at home. As we shop for fish, we often see a local fisherman with his catch in the store.
Fresh Fish
Local Fisherman with his catch
It is so different eating fish caught that day for dinner. The taste is fresh and delicious. Italians don’t even have a word for fishy. Often the fish is over pasta but you can also have it on a plate as a steak.
One difference is the fish all have heads on when served. The Italians look at the eyes to determine freshness of the fish. They are experts at cleaning the fish with a fork and knife. The clams are tiny and so tasty. If you don’t like clams because they are chewy, you will like these because they taste so good. Fish is never over cooked. It is never covered in sauces. It is served with a little salt and you taste the freshness of the fish.
When in southern Italy, try the local fish. Enjoy fish at its very best. Life here is rally Dolce far ninete!
George
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