Posts filed under ‘Restaurants’
California dreaming
Imagine picking your way across a sandy beach on a weekday afternoon – waves rolling in, cool water pulling at your feet, peachy clam shells catching your eye, the rest of the world somewhere far away – that’s what Southern California feels like to me. Slow, dreamy, quiet. Summer breezy. Can you tell it’s been too long since my last vacation?
Here are a few photos from Carpinteria, Los Olivos and Santa Barbara where much time is being whiled away.
Beautiful Barolo
It’s difficult to capture the beauty of this place in a photo. Barolo is a famous wine region in Piemonte. We’ve visited many of its towns and villages over the past few days – La Morra, Alba, Asti, Treiso and Barbaresco, to name a few.
Everywhere you go there is a panorama of rolling hills threaded with thousands upon thousands of rows of grape vines and pretty towns at every turn and vista. The churches are particularly beautiful and I am enchanted by the Italians and their quiet but clear love of gardening and flowers – roses, irises, olive trees, and window boxes stuffed with petunias, pansies and geraniums are a constant preoccupation for me and my camera.
The food is wonderful, too, although it is not the easiest place to be a vegetarian – this is a region that loves meat. I’ve only ordered wrong once, but it was really wrong as you’ll see from the beautiful plate of salumi below. The area is packed with Michelin star restaurants – too rich for us, but we’ve heard wonderful things from others. I think I’m happier with the traditional food in the osterias, trattorias and pizzerias, anyway.
Wine rules everything in this place. It is serious business and all the other tourists we’ve met are here for the wine and well versed in the intricacies of the region. I’m trying to keep up…I don’t have the same knowledge base or passion for the ‘big name’ wineries, but my taste buds are definitely enjoying the education.
Florence – Firenze
Here we are in Florence. It’s a pretty city with museums, piazzas filled with beautiful churches, open air sculpture and lots and lots of tourists.
History is everywhere, but there are modern things, too – shopping and fashion are the most noticeable (and wonderful) and restaurants. You’ll see below my pretty new shoes and a meal from Ora d’Aria, and other pizzerias and bars.
The highlight for me had been the old stuff, though. Florence – Firenze is the birthplace of Renaissance art and today I saw paintings and sculptures I’ve been in love with since my first art history course in university.
Island time
We spent the Easter long weekend enjoying four days of beautiful weather in East Sooke. It was the first break I’ve had from work and school since January and it was so nice to be away from the routines of life for a few days. Early spring is an idyllic time to be on Vancouver Island, as you can see from the photos here. We did a whole lot of nothing while we were there …
… went for walks on quiet country roads
… sat on the deck and stared out at the ocean
… checked out the creatures on the beach
… puttered around the garden
… imagined apples growing on summer trees
… visited the Sooke Harbour House for Easter lunch (and remembered getting married there almost seven years ago!)
It was bliss. I can’t wait to go back.
Mmm…fake bacon (and how I came to be a vegetarian)
Is fake bacon sufficiently inspiring as a blog topic? I don’t know, except to say look at this beautiful veggie BLT. Actually it’s a FBLAATC sandwich – fake bacon, lettuce, arugula (still growing in my garden even in January), avocado, tomato and cheese sandwich. Not quite as catchy as BLT, but every bit as good if not better.
