Hungry Travelers - Page 25 of 82 - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

Dining (and drinking) through Encore Boston Harbor

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Pat and David

On this inaugural New Year's Eve at the Encore Boston Harbor (www.encorebostonharbor.com/), a good time will be had by many. That's one sure bet at the luxury casino and resort owned by Wynn Resorts. Open since late June, Encore features 15 places to eat and drink, which is more up our alley than games of chance. We recently attended a dine-around to get a taste of several of the venues. We were so engrossed with the food and cocktails that we forgot to lose any money at the tables or slots. But one thing was obvious: Encore Boston Harbor is hell-bent on showing its customers a good time. That starts when you walk in the main entrance to a fanciful carousel slowly spinning in the...Read More

Risotto and Giotto, Padua’s bitter and sweet

Posted on December 23, 2019December 20, 2019 by Pat and David

The “sweet” spot of the Venetian city of Padua (or Padova, as the Italians have it) is the Scrovegni Chapel (cappelladegliscrovegni.it). Its walls and ceilings hold the masterpiece fresco cycle painted 1303–05 by Giotto di Bondone, the late medieval Florentine painter who invented the Renaissance almost single-handedly. Neither of us had ever seen the frescoes in person, and we built part of October's Italy trip around a couple of days in Padua and our reserved 15-minute time slot in the chapel. After more than 700 years and a couple of post-earthquake restorations, the paintings are in startlingly good condition. The strict limitations on visitation are designed to keep temperature and humidity stable. The image at the top of this post is the Last Judgment. Let's...Read More

Lunch with class and style on Trieste’s Piazza della Borsa

Posted on December 19, 2019December 18, 2019 by Pat and David

Certain dishes taste their best in special surroundings—prosecco and potato chips on Venice's Piazza San Marco, for example. Our latest pairing of plate and place is pumpkin and sausage risotto on the glorious Piazza della Borsa in Trieste. In case you don't know the city, it's just barely in Italy, sitting on the Slovenian border a few kilometers from Croatia. In fact, it's only been Italian since 1919. For hundreds of years, it was the chief shipping port for the Austrian empire. Most significantly, it was the chief importer of coffee for all of Mitteleuropa. Without Trieste, there would be no such thing as “Vienna roast.” To this day, its citizens drink nearly twice as much coffee as the average Italian. But we digress. The...Read More

Honoring the past, Rocca di Montemassi aims for the future

Posted on December 14, 2019December 11, 2019 by David

About 20 minutes southeast by car from the marvelous stone town of Massa Marittima with its 13th century Romanesque cathedral (above left), the Rocca di Montemassi estate celebrates the Maremma farming heritage all the way back to the Etruscans. It is only a short distance from Rocca di Frassinello (see previous post) but its style is lovingly retro. The Zonin family—famed for winemaking in the Veneto, Piedmont, Friuli, Tuscany, Lombardy, Sicily, and Puglia—purchased the land in 1999. Vines of Sangiovese, Vermentino, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, and Petit Verdot cover about 15 hectares (37 acres) of the 20 hectare (49 acre) farm. “Farm” is the operative word. Not only do the Zonins produce wine here, they also keep pigs and Maremma cattle, a...Read More

Rocca di Frassinello balances Bolgheri and Scansano

Posted on December 12, 2019December 11, 2019 by David

Draw a line on the map between Bolgheri and Scansano, and Gavorrano is right at the mid-point. Featuring soils comparable to those found in Chianti and Montalcino, the home of Rocca di Frassinello (Località Giuncarico Scalo, Gavorrano; +39.0566.88400; roccadifrassinello.it) has one significant difference. Ambient temperatures range 4–6°C warmer, allowing grapes to mature three to four weeks earlier. That climatic difference also suits Bordelais grapes better than other regions of Tuscany, making a Franco-Italian collaboration seem inevitable. The wines hint at Scansano's traditions with Bolgheri's innovations. Seeking to replicate his extraordinary success of Castellare di Castellina in Chianti in the 1970s, Paolo Panerai joined forces with Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) in a grand experiment to harness Panerai's expertise with Sangiovese with the Rothschild mastery of...Read More

Il Fiorino crafts wine-friendly pecorino cheeses

Posted on December 10, 2019 by David

Pecorino cheese production in the Maremma dates from at least the Middle Ages, but the modern story of Maremma Pecorino dates from the 1957 founding of Caseificio Il Fiorino (Loc. Paiolaio, Roccalbegna; +39 0564 989 059; caseificioilfiorino.it/english.htm#pascoli; open for sales Mon-Sat 9am-1pm and 3-7pm). Duilio Fiorini (usually referred to in hushed tones as Il Fondatore) started the operation, now run by his daughter Angela and her husband Simone with about two dozen staff. Maremma wines practically beg for a cheese plate of mellow, supple cheeses. Il Fiorino fills the bill with a range of sheep's milk cheeses that range from a quivering ricotta to nutty, long-aged wheels. The Pecorino Toscano cheeses are a world apart from the crumbly, sharp, and very salty Pecorino Romano commonly...Read More

Emerging winery points to Maremma’s future

Posted on December 3, 2019December 2, 2019 by David

You can't quite see the ocean from the winery at Fattoria di Magliano (Località Sterpeti 10, Magliano; +39 0564 593 040; fattoriadimagliano.it). But if you turn southwest and close your eyes, you can smell the salt air rising from the coast 10 miles away. That maritime influence combines with well-drained soils to produce intensely flavored grapes. Founded in 1997 by footwear magnate Agostino Lenci, the winery embodies the expanding possibilities of the Maremma. While the traditional varietals of the region, Sangiovese and Vermentino, represent 80 percent of the vineyards, the winery also has extensive plantings of Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as significant amounts of Petit Verdot and Merlot. From the outset, the winery embraced French grapes and technique as a complement...Read More

Da Caino Ristorante celebrates rich tastes of Maremma

Posted on November 29, 2019November 27, 2019 by David

Finding the minuscule mountain hamlet of Montemerano is no mean feat—although the front desk staff of the nearby luxurious Saturnia spa resort can literally draw you a map. Once you get there over a series of winding country roads, you'll have to park in the flat space below the village. Walk up the narrow stone streets to find the glowing open door of Da Caino Ristorante (Via Canonica, 3; +39 0564 692 817; dacaino.it). It's worth every scintilla of the effort. Chef Valeria Piccini (left) is a tireless and inventive champion of Maremma cuisine, which she interprets in an elegant modern style. A chemist by training, she is a self-taught chef who took over the kitchen of Da Caino family restaurant from her mother-in-law in...Read More

Wine from a stone: Sassotondo thrives on tufo

Posted on November 27, 2019November 26, 2019 by David

Stone cities, stone Etruscan tombs, and vineyards bursting from soil of broken stone. The slightly porous gray rock known in Italian as “tufo” (“tuff” in English) consists of compressed ash from a long-extinct volcano. It is the stone that pokes through the ground throughout the highlands of the eastern Maremma. The monumental medieval cities of Pitigliano (above) and Sovana are either carved from tufo or built from blocks of it. Near Sovano, Etruscans left impressive tombs carved into a tufo hillside. Winemaker Carla Benini embraces the red volcanic soils, crafting wines of surprising depth from some of the grapes indigenous to this corner of the Maremma. She and her husband, documentary filmmaker Edoardo Ventimiglia, settled on this land outside Sovana in 1990 and have spent...Read More

Maremma Toscana DOC: Tuscany’s next great wines

Posted on November 25, 2019December 11, 2019 by David

Every wine lover knows Tuscany. Most of us cut our teeth on Chianti Classico, grew up to relish Brunello and Barolo, and pad our birthday wish lists with Bolghieri's “Super Tuscans.” But while everyone seems to know Tuscany, until recently only the Tuscans seemed to know the southwestern coastal region of the Maremma. That's changed in a big way, as some of Italy's most powerful family wine empires have taken a stake in the Maremma in the last few decades. Even local winemakers refer to the Maremma as the “California of Italy.” They continue to respect tradition, but they also prize innovation. Of Tuscany's patchwork of 40 DOCs, or named wine regions, none is more dynamic than the Maremma Toscana DOC (www.consorziovinimaremma.it/en/), established in 2011....Read More