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an appetite for italy
By Natasha Dragun
Published in the October-December issue.
Pack your bags – and your appetite – for this luxe new tour that takes in Italy’s top hotels and restaurants, with a handful of sights thrown in for good measure.
Days 1 & 2: Rome
It begins with a mozzarella ball the size of my fist, so fresh that speckles of the milk it’s been stored in still cling to its skin. “It has protected geographical status, you know?” says my waiter, pointing to the ivory mound. “Mozzarella di bufala Campana: it’s very good.” I have no doubt about the quality of the cheese, made from buffalo milk sourced from southern Italy. My biggest concern is how I am going to tackle it.
Looking around the smart dining room – all starched fabric and dark wood – I find I am not alone. Most of my companions are as perplexed as I am; some are poking the ball, others are trying to slice it, some are pulling it apart with their fingers. Before I’ve had time to action a plan of attack, our waiter returns with platters of fiori di zucca (fried courgette flowers) stuffed with ricotta and anchovies, and coda alla vaccinara (oxtail, stewed in a rich tomato sauce) and a mountain of crusty bread. It’s my first night in Italy and already I can see that this tour is going to be all about la dolce vita.
Served as part of a Caprese salad starter at Rome’s Cabiria restaurant, the mozzarella is a far cry from the stale bread and cheap bottles of Chianti that I survived on when I first visited Rome as a backpacker more than 15 years ago.
And to be honest, I never thought I’d return as part of an escorted tour. But Insight Vacations’ new “Italian Vogue” trip is less about megaphones and coloured flags and more about luxurious small-group experiences, such as eating in hidden restaurants and staying in historic hotels. And the offbeat nature of the journey is reflected in the clientele: most are seasoned travellers – many have been to Italy before – and they’re keen to see the country in a different light.
“It’s not about the sights, so much,” says fiftysomething Minnesotan Joan. “We know we could come here and see the Vatican on our own. But this trip takes us to places most guidebooks don’t list. And that’s worth it on its own.”
Truth be told, the tour is also worth it for the Vatican. We arrive at the Pope’s residence at 9 a.m. on a dreary morning to be met by snaking queues of tourists – if you don’t pre-book your tickets or are not with a group, you can wait for more than four hours to get in to the holy city. Happily, our voluptuous guide Elena skips us past the hordes and we enter the foyer just as it starts to rain outside.
It’s hard not to be romanced by Rome: the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps… But the Eternal City is equally alluring for its cosy tavernas and haute restaurants and parades of delicatessens overflowing with wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano and tubs of pickled baby artichokes, anchovies and grilled aubergines. Unfortunately, these places are becoming more and more difficult to find as supermarkets and rising rents push them out of business. While the rest of the group ogle the domed Pantheon – that bet-hedging temple to no less than 12 gods – I head off in search of lunch provisions.
I don’t have to go far: just off the Piazza della Rotonda I discover Rossi, crammed with jars and bottles and cured meats. I begin with home-baked panini and add superb fresh ricotta, a few slices of Norcia sausage, and some roasted peppers marinated in garlic and olive oil. I can’t resist buying a few other provisions: a slice of melanzane alla parmigiana aubergine (parmesan aubergine bake), a couple of porcini arancini di riso (fried rice balls with mushrooms) and some amaretti (almond) biscuits – for later. As I stroll back to my hotel – the handsome Boscolo Exedra Roma, with its shimmering rooftop pool – overladen with packages of produce, I decide that it’s a good thing for my waistline that we’re moving on tomorrow.
Days 3 & 4: Rome To Capri
The orange trees lining Rome’s streets gradually fade into olive groves and then vineyards and fields of corn as we move south through Campania en route to Sorrento, a coastal town on the verge of Naples and the gateway to Italy’s most glamorous island: Capri.
The flat plains and volcanic lakes of the Castelli Romani region are replaced by a parched ridge of hills as we approach Naples, backed by 1,281-metre-high Vesuvius, the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last century. It’s most famous eruption, however, was in 79 A.D., when fast-moving lava swallowed Pompeii. The partly excavated ruins of the city draw tens of thousands of tourists on a daily basis. It’s busy the morning we visit but the crowds pale in comparison to “cruise day” here, when some 12,000 passengers alight from visiting ships and swarm the Bay of Naples.
Leaving Pompeii we move west toward the Amalfi Coast, where craggy cliffs drop straight down to an azure sea and villages in tones of ochre and pink cling improbably to the slopes. Every bend in the corniche offers a heart-stopping view of the sparkling Tyrrhenian Sea through tall stands of pine and palm hugging the road.
Capri is less than 13 kilometres off the coast of the Sorrentine Peninsula and is easily reached via hydrofoil. Seabirds circle overhead as we approach the island’s main marina, clogged with wooden fishing boats, ferries and yachts and cluttered with groups of gaping tourists lugging suitcases over cobbled paths. But this is orderly chaos: Capri earned its resort stripes back in the 18th century and has the tourist experience down pat, as we soon discover.
Porters are waiting when we alight; they point us in the direction of convertible taxis resting in the shade of palm trees at the foot of the Faraglioni – the island’s craggy limestone heart. We’re ushered into the cars and before we have time to exclaim “Mamma mia!” we’re whizzing up a single-lane road, gasping at every hairpin bend and every encounter with oncoming traffic. We arrive at the town of Anacapri in a breezy 10 minutes. The Capri Palace Hotel, our base for the night, is beautiful but I’m tempted to have the taxi driver take me on an extended spin around the island.
A ripple of excitement from my companions eventually persuades me to tumble out of the taxi: someone has discovered that Leonardo DiCaprio and Bradley Cooper are sharing the hotel with us tonight. If we were back in Rome, there would be throngs of paparazzi enveloping the resort-style property. But Capri is so familiar with fame that Hollywood heartthrobs barely raise local eyebrows.
It’s easy to see why Cooper and DiCaprio have chosen to stay at the Capri Palace. A serpentine path lined with bougainvillea leads to the whitewashed hotel with its all-ivory lobby and rooms – five of them inspired by great artists including Kandinsky and Mondrian – looking out over the Bay of Naples. There’s a Beauty Farm, an art-filled jazz bar and a pool encircled by pines. There’s also a restaurant, L’Olivo – the only Michelin-starred eatery on Capri – into which we’re ushered as the last of the summer sun disappears into the sea.
Here, Ischia-born chef Andrea Migliaccio dishes up modern Mediterranean cuisine, using island produce where possible – think eliche pasta (shaped in loose spirals) with buffalo ragout, red onion and pecorino cheese, or grilled amberjack with a vegetable caponata that’s fresh and zesty and like the Mediterranean on a plate.
I could have happily spent our second day in Capri sprawled on a sun lounger (read: on the lookout for DiCaprio) but we’re headed to Capri Town to explore the boutiques and bistros of the island’s hub. This pocket of the Amalfi is one of Italy’s largest producers of lemons and in Capri Town, stores turn the fruit into everything from iced lemonade and limoncello to lemon-scented soaps, lemon chocolates and even perfume with citrus highlights.
Dark-skinned beauties in flowing white dresses waft past us with porters in tow carrying packages from the likes of Grazia Vozza (who does amazing things with gold) and Antonio Viva, stealing hearts with his hand-stitched
leather sandals.
I bypass the boutiques and stroll along the Belvedere of Tragara, a high panoramic promenade lined with villas and parks, to work up an appetite for lunch at Capri’s. The food is good, if predictable: Caprese salad, seafood risotto, pasta with buttery clams, dense lemon cake. The real reason to come here is for the seemingly endless view over the Gulf of Naples, with Vesuvius and the islands of Ischia and Procida in the distance.
Days 5 & 6: Capri To Florence
Heading north from Naples, we backtrack through Castelli Romani to reach Umbria, the only landlocked region on the peninsula. It’s known locally as the “green heart” of Italy for its verdant, mountainous terrain, where black truffles and cliff-hugging castles vie for tourist attention. It’s the perfect terroir for wine, including regional varietals such as Orvieto, named after a medieval town rising above near-vertical cliff tufts. Rosso and Rosato di Torgiano and Montefalco Rosso are also produced on the petite estates we see tucked between rock-strewn rivers and fields of sunflowers.
We’re on our way to Florence but before we get there, we have some more eating to do. A fortified town and UNESCO World Heritage site in Tuscany, San Gimignano has been on the pilgrimage route for centuries. In the 13th century, Catholic devotees would stop here on their way to Rome and the Vatican. Today, people come here for the ice cream.
It’s the middle of the day and scorching hot when we arrive, but everything seems much cooler and quieter inside the city’s hulking stone walls. Small shops up the main pedestrian artery showcase local delicacies in all their glory: paste, oil, bread, pasta and salt all infused with tartufo (truffle); other shops advertise wild boar, another regional specialty, which is cured, smoked or turned into sausage before being sliced and slapped between warm panini.
I’m so lost in a world of indulgence that I almost forget to look up – when I do, I find myself dwarfed by a dozen or so perfectly-preserved towers jutting out of cathedrals, casting shadows over the cobbled streets.
Things become lively again once we reach the main square, where hordes of locals and tourists clamber for cones from Gelataria di Piazza. This place is the Sistine Chapel of ice cream: Sergio Dondoli is the brains behind the operation and he’s passionate about promoting unsung local ingredients among his hundreds of flavours: creamy saffron with pine nuts, pink grapefruit with prosecco, ricotta with bilberries and spicy chocolate with notes of sour cherry. The saffron is sourced from the surrounding hills, the walnuts are from nearby Langhe, the hazelnuts from Sorrento and the pistachios from Bronte.
It’s less than 60 kilometres on to Florence and the terraced, vine-clad hills, fields patchworked in green and gold, and sandy roads lined with pencil pines tell me we’re in the heart of Tuscany. This is the Italy you see in postcards and on cooking shows; the Italy that people run away from city life to experience; the Italy that inspired the likes of Dante, Michelangelo, da Vinci and Pacioli. And in this part of the world, meat is king.
We find out just how much meat matters at dinner in Ristorante Montebuoni, a sprawling country estate on the outskirts of Tavarnuzze. Geography plays an important role in shaping the cuisine here, which is earthy, simple and seasonal. It’s summer when we visit, so we’re eased into our seats with ribollita Toscana, a steaming bowl of Tuscan-style soup made with cannellini beans, kale, tomatoes and dried bread. It’s a meal in itself but there’s much more to come. Next is a trio of bruschetta topped with duck liver, minced chicken and mushrooms; the latter, we’re told, must be accompanied by slices of aged proscuitto from a platter placed in the middle of the table. I’m reaching capacity when a waiter brings around our starter: risotto cooked with enough butter to baste a pig. It’s the colour of sunflowers and has a rich, creamy aroma far removed from the anaemic white stuff I cook at home.
The rest of the meal is a bit of a blur – there’s penne with rabbit ragout and there’s roasted pork, chicken and lamb. There are jugs of Chianti and bottles of Tuscan favourite, Brunello di Montalcino. I couldn’t possibly fit another thing in, but I do. The meal ends with sweet husky biscuits that I dip in Vin Santo, a type of dessert wine.
Regarded as the birthplace of Renaissance art, Florence has seen a greatest-hits collection of artists pass through its streets: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli and Brunelleschi among them. Much of their legacy remains in museums and galleries around town including the Uffizi, Gallerie dell’Accademia (home to Michelangelo’s David) and Palazzo Pitti. But we don’t have to amble that far to worship at the door of culture.
Our lodgings for the night, Hotel Brunelleschi, occupies La Pagliazza, a cylindrical stone building dating back to the Byzantine era. It may be nestled in the city’s oldest building but my room is as modern as they come, newly renovated and draped in white with a separate living area, a four-poster bed and a bathroom that is bigger than my Sydney apartment.
It’s not a museum or historic hotel but San Lorenzo Mercato Centrale, packed with produce stalls, has a salubrious history of its own – some of the shops here have been operated by the same families since the late 1800s. I visit early the next morning for breakfast supplies.
Behind one glass cabinet I see handfuls of zucchini flowers and Borlotti beans the size and colour of small nectarines; behind another, pimply-skinned guinea fowls wait to be cleaned. I stop by Baroni Alimentari, a delicatessen selling meats and cheeses and 20-year-old balsamic that’s velvety-rich and so precious it’s served by the drop. It’s the perfect accompaniment to my other purchases: a small sphere of mozzarella and oven-fresh bread.
Day 7: Florence To Viareggio
Perched on Italy’s Ligurian coast, the five villages that make up Cinque Terre – Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso – remain miraculously unspoilt. It’s a scenic drive here from Florence, with the road hugging a high mountain pass overlooking pastel-hued homesteads, terraced vineyards and craggy cliffs that spill down to the sea. Along with the coastline, the five villages make up a national park that’s been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and can be explored on foot – a dirt track links the towns – as well as by train or boat, or a combination of all three.
We begin in Manarola, where candy-hued houses rise from the sea in tiers like a giant wedding cake. A single-lane street bisects the town, taking beachgoers from their cars on the outskirts to the rocky beach at its base. Young holidaymakers jump from outcrops into the ocean; nearby, a fisherman smokes a cigarette in the July sun, fixing a net in anticipation of the next day’s haul.
From here it’s a clattery 10-minute train ride on to Monterosso, where restaurateurs are preparing for lunch.
The earthy aroma of crushed garlic and basil wafts from almost every eatery we pass – here, mealtime is all about pesto. At Ristorante Il Pirata, the rich paste is served on everything from seafood to salads and is slathered on the hand-pulled pasta we’re served on earthen plates.
We end the day in Viareggio, a sepia-hued lido that looks as though it’s been plucked straight from a Fellini flick. Daybreak is the perfect time to make the most of my balcony at the Grand Principe di Piemonte, overlooking rows of umbrellas arranged with surgical precision on the beach, the soft waves rolling in. Last night told a different story – the strip a cacophony of teenagers, wide-eyed tourists, musicians and strolling lovers. After an indulgent breakfast spread at the hotel’s Michelin-starred Il Piccolo Principe restaurant, we leave the sand and surf behind for the watery boulevards of Venice.
Days 8, 9 & 10: Viareggio To Venice
You can’t visit Tuscany without popping in on Pisa and we stop to take photos before escaping to the cool, cobbled streets of nearby Lucca. The birthplace of Puccini, Lucca is perfectly encircled by Renaissance-era city walls, today used as a pedestrian promenade, and is a world away from the gaudy hawker stalls and tourist hubbub of Pisa.
Elena surprises us with lunch at a hole-in-the-wall trattoria where tables have been laid with butcher’s paper and topped with huge wooden boards stocked with bruschetta and pecorino cheese, salami and prosciutto. It’s 11:30 a.m. when we bundle back on the bus, happy and sleepy and full of Chianti.
Not everyone falls in love with the languid lagoons of Venice at first sight – it’s touristy and expensive and the restaurateurs would rather watch sports on TV than serve you pizza. For all its mythic enchantment, its wondrous changing light and shimmering reflections, its haunting intimacy, Venice can seem indifferent to the casual visitor. Until you get away from the 10 euro coffees being sold at Piazza San Marco, that is.
In the city’s backstreets, or on the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello, you can find superb bacaro (wine bars) where a Campari and soda pairs perfectly with cichèti (small plates). With a free evening, I wander over bridges and under arches until I reach Enoteca do Colonne, where I order musèto (a fatty sausage made mostly from pig’s snout) and a masterly fritto misto. It’s light, it’s local, and it’s the perfect entrée to a sunset cruise along the Grand Canal.
But before I make my way to the dock, I have one more dish to devour: perfectly formed mozzarella balls deep-fried until golden-brown. And this time, I know exactly where to begin. •
Photography by Natasha Dragun.
TRAVEL FACTS
getting there
Etihad offers flights from Sydney to Milan via Abu Dhabi, with onward connections to Rome on Al Italia. 61-2/8024-7200; etihadairways.com
Air France flies from Sydney to Rome via Singapore and Paris. 1300-390-190; airfrance.com
getting around
The Italian Vogue trip is one of three luxurious “Gold” tours offered by Insight Vacations that visit Italy. In 2012, the 11-day tour includes two nights in Rome, two in Capri, two in Florence, two in Viareggio and two in Venice. Transport is by coach as well as fast-speed train between Naples and Florence; a number of boat trips, several superb meals, and accommodation in some of Italy’s finest hotels are also included. insightvacations.com
when to go
Insight Vacations runs the Italian Vogue tour from April through October 2012, with fortnightly Monday departures.
where to stay
Book the Italian Vogue tour in 2012 and you can look forward to overnight accommodation in the following hotels.
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Capri Palace Hotel & Spa. 14 Via Capodimonte, Anacapri; 39-81/978-0111; capripalace.com
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Grand Hotel Plaza. 126 Via del Corso, Rome;
39-66/7495-2617; grandhotelplaza.com
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Grand Principe di Piemonte. 1 Piazza Puccini, Viareggio;
39-5/844-011; principedipiemonte.com
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Hotel Brunelleschi Firenze. 3 Piazza Santa Elisabetta, Florence. 39-55/27-370; brunelleschihotelflorence.com
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San Clemente Palace. 1 Isola di San Clemente, San Marco, Venice; 39-41/244-5001; sanclementepalacevenice.com
further information
Talk to Italian Tourism for additional tips on travelling
to Italy. italia.it
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