Beau and I flew into Rome and immediately got in our rental car and headed north towards Cinque Terre. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, google it. I cannot do it justice. You’ll be glad you did.) It was 3:00 in the afternoon and we were starving and decided to brave the gas station food. Yes, our first meal in the country famous for pasta, was at a gas station. But yeah, definitely the best gas station food I’ve ever eaten.
Meal #1: We stopped at AGIP and so did half of the other people traveling along the interstate. That place was packed! We fought our way through the crowd and found ourselves in some sort of line where we were quickly asked to order. In some sort of frantic answer we gave them two sandwich names and paid. Beau got us drinks and a little sweet something to munch on. I think that was mostly to satisfy me because he knows that I like to finish a meal with something sweet in my mouth. J Beau and I sat outside eating our paninis and drinking our cokes.
We both got Prosciutto and fresh Mozzarella with Arugula on some sort of delicious bread. It was melted and warm and heavenly. And did I mention that the gas station serves beer on the go? Yep.
On we drove to Cinque Terre, eating our hazelnut yummies.
Meal #2: We had stopped in the first town called Riomaggiore. We found a place to lay our heads and went looking for a place to fill our bellies. The restaurant below our hostel looked good and so in we went. We sat by the window and drank our wine. Beau had me try an Italian “tradition” called Grappa. Nasty stuff. Don’t ever try it, no matter the tradition. Gross. The Italians were laughing at me.
Antipasto: Stuffed Mussels-that’s right, these little guys were cut up and stuffed with bread crumbs, herbs, and cheese and closed back together and cooked in a light tomato broth. I’m so glad I got that recipe! Wonderful!
Primi: Chestnut pasta with pesto. This was on special and it was great. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto and so that drew us in, as well as the fact that we had never had chestnut pasta. It was wonderful!
Secondi: Grouper sautéed in a light tomato broth with potatoes. Also light and delicious. We split everything.
Dessert: Tiramisu. We had to try it. Admittedly, it was different looking that any other tiramisu we had ever had. There were very little lady fingers and a lot of cream, but it was wonderful. We loved it.
Meal #3: This was breakfast at the hostel and although it was mostly not worth mentioning, I feel like I would doing a disservice if I didn’t mention the Brioche (we call them croissants). Wow, just thinking about them, I can smell them and even taste them. And they were hot out of the oven. I had two. J
Meal #4: After hiking all day, we stopped in the 4th town, Vernazza, to have lunch. Beau and I each ordered a pizza, thinking they would be “personal pan”, but we could have split one. Somehow, though, we each managed to eat it all, as well as the bread that came prior to the pizza. Can you say carb overload? Both of us seemed to order almost the same thing. We had prosciutto on them and mushrooms and fresh mozzarella. Beau added artichokes and olives (not sliced but thrown on there whole). We liked them okay. I will say that I loved that they were thin crust and easy on the sauce.
Meal #5: Last town called Monterossa. We found our hotel and headed out to walk the village. While exploring the shops, we found one with a shopkeeper that was super friendly and offered us a wine sample and a pesto sample. Naturally, we tried them both. She gave us her card and said that she and her husband owned a restaurant down the street. After about an hour of exploring we decided to have dinner and came across that ladies’ restaurant. After being seated and drinking our wine for a bit, we ordered:
Antipasto: Anchovies with lemon juice (Cinque Terre is famous for their Anchovies) These were surprisingly good. I don’t think I would order them over mussels or something. But we enjoyed eating them.
Primi: Funny shaped pasta tossed with pesto. Loved every bite. I plan to make that pesto again for sure. Loved it.
Secondi: Grilled prawns. These things were huge! They were more like little lobsters and that had that same flavor-a little on the sweet side. We drizzled them with lemon and ate. Very filling and hearty and good.
Dessert: Tiramisu. Yep, we did it again. And they were different even between villages. I couldn’t say I liked one more than the other. They were different and both equally delicious.
We loved the food in Cinque Terre. We loved the whole place. Check it out and go there!
On to Rome….
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