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Trip to Italy Recap #2

Julie Deily · 11 Comments

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

This second recap is a long time coming. I feel bad that it's so late but so much has happened since our trip to Italy in October and I had tons of pictures to sift through. In case you missed the first recap, here it is. To say we had a good time and that we ate well is a complete understatement. We had the times of our lives. Ate really well and have wonderful memories. Our friends who know us in person, the next time you see us, we might be super annoying because we talk about our Italy trip all the time.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

To start from where I left off before, we went on a tour of a cheese factory in San Romano in Garfagnana. It was amazing to see a family-run operation.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We had to get dressed to see it all…

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

And of course we got to taste three different cheeses and the pecorino was our favorite!

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Next up was a place that specializes in Charcuterie and slow food in Castelnuovo in Garfagnana called Vecchmio Mulino. Andrea, the owner, of the shop, is jovial and everyone in town knows him. Everyone who walked through the doors knew him and acted as if he was family. (That's Pixie, hi Pixie!)

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We ate tons of food…seriously, we didn't even eat dinner that night. This carpaccio with porcini mushrooms was amazing. Porcini mushrooms were in season and to be able to have them fresh…they were so delicate and amazing. I keep saying I need to find them here…somehow, even if they are dried.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Next, we went and had gelato…because there's always always room for gelato or ice cream! 🙂

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

The next day, we went to Lucca. What a gorgeous town. The main area of the town is surrounded by a city wall. It's quaint and definitely has a small town feel. Do you see Curtis?

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

I just had to take a picture of this door. The character of the wood and the door knockers…it just spoke to me.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We had lunch at Canuleia. We ate outside and the weather was perfect. This one of my favorite meals. The pasta dishes we had were super simple with fresh ingredients. I can still taste it…and of course we had wine too! This was a tomato risotto dish we had with pesto and fresh mozzarella.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

And then, we had lattes. Of course, in Italy…espressos, lattes, etc. are very cheap like 1 Euro. It's a nice pick me up after lunch and I can't get over this table. It's actually tiles that look like worn wood. There were so many places…every where I looked…I wanted to take home wood, tiles, marble for backdrops for photos!!

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Pixie found the cutest gift shop, Le sorelle, I bought a bunch of soaps and these…washable paper! I bought a couple of them and I have an orchid plant in one of them. So practical, they are made from sustainable materials and feel like leather but wash like fabric and are actually paper. I would have bought so much more if I had more room in my luggage to take them home!

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

And our day in Lucca was not complete without getting gelato about 4 times. 🙂 I had pistachio every. single. time.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Here's a shot of the town wall…it's interesting to hear the history of Lucca and similar towns. They were constantly trying to protect themselves from invading towns and peoples and the wall was built to keep from invasions.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Chef George made us an amazing seafood stew. He cooked it all. day. This was our last meal at Villa Daniella.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Look at those amazing prawns.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

The stew had shrimp, calamari, octopus…and yes, Curtis ate octopus! He said it's better than squid. It was amazing. So rich and full of flavor.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We toasted to our last night of our stay outside of Lucca and and more adventures ahead.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Next stop was Casamonti in Sienna. This a beautiful area and what people call Chianti Country. This house is over 1000 years old, isn't it amazing? We had an amazing lunch, which a lot of it was made with Cinta Sense pigs. A breed of pigs that are native to the region, they are only found here today, and date back to the Middle Ages.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

They were cute little pigs, we saw them driving in but didn't get a chance to see them up close. They are black with one white stripe and some have white front legs.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

The tomato sauce in this pasta was out of this world. Mike (one of the sweepstakes winners) told the proprietor that the pasta was amazing and she said “I know”. She cracked us up. She told us about the property she owns with her husband and how it's been in his family for a generations. Their care for the pigs, their 3000 olive trees and their grape vines, they know exactly what they are doing and take very seriously what they are doing. You can see the passion and the care in her eyes and her words.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Some of the wines they make and I just fell in love with this table. 🙂

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

After Casamonti, we headed to Castello Banfi. A gorgeous property that has a castle!

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Seriously, the air out there was pure and brisk. It was so gorgeous.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Here's a shot of the castle.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

It was epic. Everyone we talked to, when we told them we were going to Castello Banfi, they just sighed and told us that we were going to love it. I only wish we got to stay there for more than one night.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Look at the beautiful vineyards.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We had a six course Chef tasting menu that included a homemade pasta with sea bass, Cinta Sense ravioli, a Veal fillet and what you see above is seven layers of chocolate with pine nuts and salt ice cream. Each course included a wine pairing and after dessert we had a shot of Grappa! Grappa! We have an inside joke with Mike and Martha about Grappa. I hope we can visit them one day in Oregon for Grappa! 🙂

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

The next day, we made our way to Rome. It was a beautiful 3.5 hour drive from Banfi to Rome. And just a few minutes in our hotel room and we were off to Vatican City.

If you ask Curtis and I what we were most impressed with, it would be the Vatican.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We were lucky to have a 3 hour guided tour with a very knowledgable and very nice tour guide. He took us into the map room. There were floor to ceiling paintings like this and paintings on the ceilings. Everyone walking through was just looking all over, up, down…it was amazing and pretty cool to see depictions of borders of countries from hundreds of years ago.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

And into the Sistine Chapel, no pictures though, it was not allowed. Awe-inspiring is all I can muster. It was amazing.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

And into St. Peter's Basilica. So rich with history and so immense. You can't even imagine or fathom the size of this place until you're there. I can't even capture even 10% of one side of the place in one shot.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

I'm really glad we went to Vatican City.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

It was our most favorite place to visit in Italy…and that's even hard to say since we enjoyed the entire trip.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

The last day, we had all to ourselves. Mike and Martha went home that morning, we had breakfast with them. They are the sweetest and I'm glad to have their friendship. We email every so often and I wish they didn't live all the way in Oregon…so we could visit them often.

We explored Rome all day. My only goal was to get gelato that day. And tons of pictures of course. At one point, my iPhone screamed that it had no more room. No more memory left to take pictures. That means I took too many pictures.

The amazing part about Rome was we would be walking along and it pretty much looks like a modern city and then something from the past shot up out of nowhere.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

The sky and the weather was perfect.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We had to go see the Colosseum in Rome since we were there. We were just in awe.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Here's a panoramic view from one angle. Just breathtaking.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

And here's another example of the beauty of Rome. One side of the street is modern and over the railing at the Piazza Forum in Rome…the ruins.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

We sat there for a long time just staring. I thought about if those walls could talk. What they have seen in hundreds of years…

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

It was just amazing and I realize how fortunate I was to have this opportunity to see all of this, to experience it and to be able to experience it all with my husband. I was and am still floored.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

Just gorgeous.

Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's

This is our last night in Rome. We ate wayyyy too much and then went and got gelato for dessert. Huge thanks to Michael Angelo's, to Michael, Cheryl and Sara for making us feel like apart of their family and for hosting us on our trip to Italy. In a couple of weeks, I promise to share with you a recipe I learned to make with Sara.

And a couple of things I'll leave you with that I learned and rediscovered on our trip:

  • Food doesn't have to be elaborate or overwhelming to be amazing. Often simple, fresh ingredients are enough to satisfy as well as amaze you.
  • We want to explore the world more. Sometimes the wifi didn't work or we weren't able to get service but that's okay. I didn't have my face on my phone 24/7. I could just look around and soak it all in.
  • You should try new things, experience new things. Curtis and I both tried a lot of food that we never would have tried at home but wanted to because we were having an experience of a lifetime. I definitely want to continue to push myself to do this even if we're ‘just' at home.

Disclosure: Thanks to Michael Angelo’s who hosted me on my trip to Italy. I only work with brands that I love and always share with you my honest opinions.

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Categories: Sponsored, Travel & Events Posted: January 27, 2014 Updated: October 12, 2016

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Trip to Italy with Michael Angelo's
Trip to Italy Recap #1
Julie of The Little Kitchen

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Welcome to The Little Kitchen! I'm Julie and I love to cook, bake, eat and share (not necessarily in that order). I share easy recipes, stories about my family (which includes my pets) and my travels. And I actually do have a little kitchen.

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    1. Gayle Bannister says

      June 15, 2014 at 11:03 am

      Your trip to Italy looks beyond amazing! The food, the wine, the decor; beyond what anyone could imagine. Such history cannot be described and pictures are what we have. Thank you so much for sharing. Most of us will never have that opportunity.

      Reply
      • Julie Deily says

        June 17, 2014 at 6:59 pm

        Thanks so much, Gayle!

        Reply
    2. shelly (cookies and cups) says

      February 6, 2014 at 1:43 pm

      This trip is my husband’s DREAM! Love seeing all your pics…and that gelato!!

      Reply
    3. Mercedes says

      February 4, 2014 at 11:35 am

      What an amazing trip! That tomato risotto picture is making me drool!

      Reply
    4. Joanne @ Fifteen Spatulas says

      January 28, 2014 at 8:44 am

      I LOVED your second recap! The castle place was the most striking to me…how gorgeous. And the photos from Rome take me right back. The history there is so amazing!

      Reply
    5. leslie says

      January 28, 2014 at 8:25 am

      WOW….what an amazing trip. I would have gained 534 lbs!

      Reply
    6. Cookbook Queen says

      January 28, 2014 at 8:04 am

      Totally jealous of all this trip, Julie!! Your photos are fabulous — and all the food!! OMG 🙂

      Reply
    7. Laura (Tutti Dolci) says

      January 28, 2014 at 2:00 am

      Your photos of Rome bring back such great memories and Castello Banfi is stunning!

      Reply
    8. Jenny @ BAKE says

      January 28, 2014 at 1:45 am

      This looks like an amazing trip! your photos are beautiful!

      Reply

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    Julie of The Little Kitchen

    Hi there, friend!

    Welcome to The Little Kitchen! I'm Julie and I love to cook, bake, eat and share (not necessarily in that order). I share easy recipes, stories about my family (which includes my pets) and my travels. And I actually do have a little kitchen.

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