A light lunch at Insalata Ricca near the Vatican of a pizza margherita and lentil soup following the roast pork sandwich and fresh ricotta purchased at the Trionfale market. Our last dinner in Italy was at da Mario’s near the Parthenon, an old favorite with traditional Roman dishes and a happy neighborhood vibe. January 18, 2013
The Trionfale Market, Rome’s largest, is an endless invitation for gorgeous food photos. On a sunny winter’s day in Rome, wandering through the medieval section of the city and enjoying the people and sights is definitely the way to go. January 18, 2013
Paestum is in the center of mozzarella di bufala production, so after our visit to the site and museum we walked in search of a venta diritta direct sale opportunity. Success meant a delicious indoor picnic of cheeses back at our Salerno hotel. The sales girl couldn’t believe that we only bought one medium sized ball of mozzarella for three people. After we tasted it, we wished we had bought more too, even though we couldn’t begin to eat it all. We took the high speed train back to Rome, and arrived in time to have dinner at a great traditional trattoria, da Gino’s in the Campo Marzio. January 17, 2013
Lunch on the SITA bus from Amalfi to Sorrento, a superfresh mozzarella and ricotta picnic with a side of marinated zucchini along with fresh bread. Did I mention that Salerno is in the heart of mozzarella bufala country? Choosing our last Salernitan dinner site was difficult. We had more allegedly good restaurants untried, plus four excellent ones already sampled. Never repeating is a strongly held value for some of us. (As the tour guide, I put my thumb on the scale by not selling the new one). In the end, we returned to Serenella, with a compromise of all new dishes. Except for repeating the great pizza we had for lunch the first day. We needed to compare it to Neapolitan. For science. January 16, 2013.
Lunch at Pompeii was at the cafeteria, reasonably priced and quite tasty panini, but not photo-worthy. Dinner was in Salerno, at Il Pacchero, a slightly classier place than we usually go to, but still reasonably priced, with a chalk-board menu. January 15, 2013.
Lunch at Sorbillo’s in Naples, traditional pizza joint in the old city. Dinner at Angolo Massuccio in Salerno, a tiny trattoria with a “here’s what we have tonight” spoken menu. Both delicious. January 15, 2013.
Sunday nights can be tough to find a good restaurant. Fortunately Serenella was open.
Salerno Italy is a little visited city famous for being invaded by the allies in World War II. We’re staying here because it’s a real living city despite being conveniently located for a number of major tourist sights. We’ve had two great meals so far, pizza for lunch at la Serenella and dinner at la Tartaruga. Salerno is close to Naples so the pizza is outstanding. It’s near the center of mozzarella production. It’s on the ocean. It doesn’t see many foreign tourists so the food needs to meet local standards. All in all, our kind of food town. On Saturday afternoon, the last nice weather before a forecasted six days of rain, it seemed like the entire city was walking on the embarcadero or on the main pedestrian shopping street, still decorated for Christmas.
A dinner in honor of Laura, penne puttanesca and polpetti at da Gino’s.
