The Thing About Food

When we were on our own, food was a challenge.  The biggest problem is that in Italy, restaurants serve lunch from around 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm.  Then they close and re-open for dinner at 7:00 or 7:30 pm. But our schedule usually delivered us to our new destination around 3:00 pm.  We were famished by then and couldn’t last until 7:00 pm for food.  So we’d find some sort of sub-par café or a grocery store and get whatever we could.

The hiking tour was entirely different because Mt Sobek and our guide, Giovanna, had it all worked out.  They scheduled ahead of time with restaurants or farmhouses who provided amazing, multi-course meals made from locally produced meats and cheeses, and from beautifully prepared fish and game. It was more than all of us were used to eating but it was fantastic. 

In Italy, it goes like this: first an antipasto platter that includes cheeses, lean slim-cut meats, and maybe some veggies or olives. Second, a pasta course. Third, a meat or fish course. Then, il dolce: tiramisu was always a choice but was varied in its execution. Panna cotta and fruit tarts and usually something chocolate also figured in. The restaurants didn’t usually offer gelato but there were plenty of gelato shops around to address that need.

A few meals stand out. One was mainly polenta prepared three different ways.  Another included both thin-cut veal and incredibly tender venison, accented with veggies. We also had delicately prepared fish several times and, on our last night, large servings of shellfish as a first course.  We had a few vegetarians on the tour who were accommodated with equally delicious options. Had we been on our own, there is no way we would have found our way to such wonderful restaurants and/or had known how to order.  There are definitely advantages to the guided tours!