Tag: featured

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Chiacchiere Season in Sicily

Chiacchiere is pronounced Kee-ah-kerry.  The word chiacchiere actually translates to “gossip” in Italian.  The treats are supposedly named this because this is the activity that people do while eating them with coffee.   That cracks me up that they would name something after that, but Im not surprised because the Italians definitely do gossip over coffee. (locally: cafe, cafe macchiato, cappucchino, etc)

You can get Chiacchiere baked (forno) or fried (fritto).  Surprisingly we Continue reading “Chiacchiere Season in Sicily”

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Provence France – Wine Paradise

We headed to Provence after a few days in Nice and Monaco.  Again this is a very late post in that this trip was back in the Spring of 2012.  In an attempt to catch up on a lot of posts Im going to have to be light on the writing.  More details in the captions of pictures :).  So all I can say is that Provence was like Sonoma/Napa on steroids.  There just seemed to be so much more depth to the wine experience here in comparison.  There are a lot of different factors that played a role in this including the scenery, food quality, interactions with wineries, and just overall vibe.  Not to mention the wine is pretty outstanding as well! Continue reading “Provence France – Wine Paradise”

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Skiing & Snowboarding in Sicily

Its funny how much is packed on this island.  I always thought San Diego was unique because you could go skiing and surfing all in the same day, but here its even easier.  It takes about 40 minutes from where we are to get up the mountain and its amazing how the scenery changes.  You go from a mild coastal climate all the way up to 6 feet of snow in that short amount of time.  There are two skiing opportunities on Mount Etna,  the north side (Linguaglossa) and the south side (Nicolosi)… we were on the north side.

Granted I don’t think we will be seeing any winter Olympics here Continue reading “Skiing & Snowboarding in Sicily”

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Chestnuts and Artichokes in Sicily

The fall/winter season came quickly.  In November we had a very mild month and then all of the sudden we woke up one morning chilled to the bone with a storm.  We found Mt. Etna with a huge snow cap on it already!  During this time of year you start seeing a whole new batch of foods at the market.  Chestnuts (castagne pronounced: Cas-tah-nee) are one of them.  On the side of the roads you will see this giant billowing of smoke coming out of what looks like  a chimney starter.  Inside they are roasting a boatload of chestnuts.  The locals love these things.  On my many attempts of trying them from several different sources (based on recommendations of locals)… they are all similarly bad.  I think that its the texture of the chestnuts that I don’t like.  They have this mealy kind of chalkiness to them that just sucks your mouth dry.  Sorry for the graphic explanation, but I hope that it made it clear…ha.

On the other hand Artichokes (carciofi  pronounced:  Car-cho-fee) are also showing up! Continue reading “Chestnuts and Artichokes in Sicily”

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Crazy Cheap Flights

Ive been searching for some ski trips lately and came across some crazy flight deals that I had to share.  Take a look at the picture below.  Its a flight from Milan to Budapest for $3 .  Roundtrip!!!.  This not being my first rodeo.. Im sure that there are some weird rules like a charge of $10 per pound including your own body weight or something..ha.  The name Wizz Air doesn’t really give me that warm and fuzzy feeling of an airline I would like to hug the Alps with, but at $3 Im tempted just for the principle.   Has anyone flown Wizz Air?  By the way Skyscanner is my favorite flight search engine out here because it includes a lot of European airlines that Kayak doesn’t.

 

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Monaco

When I think of Monaco I picture James Bond.  007 just sitting at the casino ordering a shaken martini, with his Aston Martin waiting outside.  Im happy to report that its pretty much true…. if you use your imagination a bit.  The casino and the cars are definitely there.  You just have to replace a few of the Hawaiian shirt casino visitors with some GQ clad players.

Speaking of high class, Jess and I arrived in Monaco via bus. 🙂 .  But I have Continue reading “Monaco”

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Firriato Etna Rosso 2009

I had to write about this wine while it was still in my mind here.  We just had this last night and it was great.  This wine woke up my tastebuds with some character.  Lately wines really haven’t been surprising me… probably because we have been playing it safe with the wines we know.  I liked this red a lot and its price was nice at under €10.  Im giving it the Ferrari stamp of approval because its a good representation of the reds from Mount Etna. 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Nice France

This is sad, but this trip was actually back in early June.  I have been lacking in the writing category… big time.   Luckily its partly a happy problem of traveling, but its also that I have run into a lack of focus for the blog.  I have been thinking too much about the direction of the blog.

Anyways enough about all of that.   I figured a good way to get back in the Continue reading “Nice France”