“In food we trust” was the motto stitched on the front of his starched white chef’s jacket and Alberto Dimitri Kunz, prince of Habsburg-Lorraine, believed in these words till the very end.  His death in Florence in the early morning hours of Sunday 9 March left the city a poorer place.  He will be mourned by the dozens, if not hundreds, of Select Italy clients who dined at La Giostra over the years; this hard-to-find restaurant behind the Duomo that doesn’t even have a sign on the front door.  But once inside the long, narrow dining room with its ceiling covered in twinkling white Christmas tree lights, the festivities began.  Each and every guest was personally welcomed by Prince Dimitri and even before placing their order, was offered a complimentary glass of prosecco and a platter of local delicacies to munch on while they pored over the menu.  After all, deciding what to order is hungry work: what about the carbonara di tartufi bianchi, a rich egg pasta with white Alba truffles shaved on top, or maybe homemade Brie-stuffed ravioli with fried artichokes?  Or a Wiener Schnitzel so big it hangs off the sides of the plate!  At La Giostra every dish is divine but making up your mind is half the fun.

I once witnessed the prince present an American girl celebrating her birthday with an entire chocolate-glazed Sachertorte.  The delighted look on her face was unforgettable, and that was before she took even one bite of cake.  Another of the prince’s mantras was “You don’t come to a restaurant just to eat.”  No, at La Giostra you came to be entertained and delighted and coddled, and to be served by a real prince who left you feeling like a king or a queen.  Prince Dimitri dedicated his life to the preparation and enjoyment of the earth’s culinary treasures so it’s fitting that the restaurant didn’t close its doors, even on the day he died.  The show must go on and so it will, with the Florentine Ubaldo Tonarelli flanked by Aruki Igari from Japan in the kitchen, the prince’s twin sons in the dining room and the magic hands of Liliana to roll out the fresh pasta every day. 

You can’t deny that the Florentines have good taste; it’s in their DNA and has been ever since the Renaissance, when Brunelleschi constructed the marvelous cupola of Florence Cathedral that seems to shelter all of Piazza Duomo in its terracotta embrace. It lives on today in a perfectly lit display of designer handbags in a shop window on the Via Tornabuoni or in the artistic arrangement of chocolate Easter eggs at Caffe’ Riviore in Piazza della Signoria.

But ”taste” in the other sense of the word was on display this week at Florence’s Stazione Leopolda when, from 15-17 March, TASTE 3 showcased over 170 exhibitors selected from Italy’s finest makers of outstanding food products: designer chocolate and dried egg pasta made according to centuries-old recipes, as well as aged water buffalo milk cheeses, fruit preserves flavored with balsamic vinegar and dozens of other tempting delights. Things that taste good but also represent the cultural and biological diversities of Italian food. The annual event is the brainchild of Davide Paolini, better known as the Gastronaut, one of the country’s most authoritative explorers of tastes. For the price of a 5,00 euro entry ticket, the general public could nosh to their heart’s content: a slice of spicy salami from Calabria here, a tiny Sicilian caper of the type known as “occhio del pernice” (partridge’s eye) there and a glass of red Chianti wine to wash it all down.

That the food fair was housed in the former train station built by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1848 highlighted the fact that this unique gastronomic tour would have taken several weeks of constant traveling up and down the Italian peninsula to visit even half of the producers gathered here under a single roof. They were cordial and eager to discuss the hands-on, often low impact methods used in cultivating these foods. Some of the more interesting products I tasted were the crunchy biscuits, either savory or sweet, that are the latest invention of Piedmont rice-grower Michele Perinotti of Gli Aironi near Vercelli. Some are made with rice flour and some with wheat but all are delicious with a decisive flavor of raspberries or coffee that is not too cloying or sweet – snack food that is good for you because of the antioxidants, selenium and fiber it contains.

If you can’t make it to Italy this year, don’t despair – many of the same products featured at TASTE can be sampled in the comfortable setting of Select Italy’s loft in downtown Manhattan. These monthly get-togethers combine a live-action cooking show with a demonstration of cooking techniques, and the participants get to eat the delicious results! Black Venus rice like that grown by Gli Aironi was a part of the colorful February Carnival menu while farro, an ancient unhybridized form of wheat (called “emmer” in English), is the basis of the delicious Umbrian soup to be served on Thursday, April 3. There are still a few places left so get online if you want to reserve a place at the Select Italy table. Or order one of our gourmet food baskets and have it delivered right to your door.Low credit scores
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There are some big changes to accessing the Roman Forum which are bound to be a source of confusion among travelers. Already it’s been a source of confusion on the web with different people reporting different info but Select Italy’s connections in Rome have the latest, up-to-date info.

Starting this Sunday, March 9th, the Roman Forum, a world heritage site that has been free to wander for visitors and Romans alike, will require a ticket. Among the several entrances that used to exist the one that will now be most convenient for visitors will be from the Via dei Fori Imperiali on the northern side of the Forum. The current most used entrances from the Capitoline Hill and Imperial Forum are closing.

Select Italy has already responded to this news with a new Ancient Rome group tour that includes entrance to the Forum.

Travelers not taking the tour are able to pre-buy Forum tickets (the Forum entrance is now combined with the entrance ticket for the Palatine Hill and Colosseum) here.

MORE INFO ON OUR NEW ANCIENT ROME GROUP TOUR
Reasonably priced at $65/person this service includes:
• A two and a half hour tour in English led by a Select Italy guide
• Entrance and tour of the interior of the Colosseum
• Entrance and tour of the Roman Forum
• Reserved entrance to both monuments so that you don’t need to wait in line (and with few entrances remaining open, there will be lines!) to enter.

You can then use your entrance ticket to visit the Palatine Hill after the tour. This tour will begin on March 15, offered daily at 9:00 am and 1:30 pm.

Sharp-eyed passengers on an early morning flight into Bari International Airport might be able to spot Cheyenne, a six-month-old golden eagle, calmly doing her job.

What’s her job? To strike fear into the hearts of the pesky foxes that have been plaguing the runways, lured there by the mice and rabbits that populate the fields surrounding the airport.

On several occasions in the past few months the control tower has had to close a runway because foxes were hunting dangerously close. But now there’s a new and imposing shadow descending over the airfield, and one that terrifies foxes. With a 6 ft. wing span, and the ability to lift 40 lbs. - almost three times her body weight - Cheyenne is a member of a species that is among the world’s most prodigious hunters. US airports have experimented with ultrasound, poison and traps for pest control but this is thought to be the first time an airport has turned to such a sizeable bird of prey. At $15,000 a bird, some airports might consider the system too pricey to try, however, Bari’s sleek, high-tech facility caters to almost two million passengers a year so closing a runway can prove very costly.

The airport’s innovative “bird patrol” would have surely appealed to Apulia’s most famous citizen of the past, Frederick II, the last Emperor of the Hohenstaufen line who ruled much of Southern Italy from 1208-1250. He built the region’s leading monument, Castel del Monte, as a hunting lodge and he came to this octagonal stronghold, with its commanding and somewhat forbidding position overlooking an entire valley about 35 miles northwest of Bari, to indulge in his passion for falconry.

Frederick maintained up to fifty hawkers at a time in his court. In the mid-13th century he wrote De arte venandi cum avibus, or “The Art of Falconry,” the manuscript copy of which is one of the treasures of the Vatican Library: it contains systematic descriptions of 900 species of birds illuminated by 500 miniatures in jewel-like colors. Frederick II’s Castel del Monte has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is only one of the many delights awaiting you in fascinating Apulia – contact Select Italy’s travel experts to find out more, or book one of our relaxing Apulian vacation packages.

Apulian Golf Escape
Apulian Spa & Wellness

Admit it, how many of you out there celebrated 10th Annual Carbonara Day on January 17? I certainly didn’t and, in fact, didn’t even know about this unusual holiday until I saw it on the 8 p.m. national news on TV — by that time the grocery stores in Florence where I live had closed for the day and the festivities in Singapore and Australia were already over. This self-proclaimed “celebration of authenticity and quality in Italian cuisine” is observed in 35 countries worldwide so, with the conviction that every day is Carbonara Day if its cold enough outside, I decided to celebrate today.

First step is to gather together the necessary ingredients: like a lot of Italian dishes, these are few in number but need to be of the very best quality if the recipe is to turn out well. Shopping list in hand, I walk the couple of blocks to Florence’s Piazza Santo Spirito where an outdoor market takes place every morning except Sunday. The farmers cluster together at the south end of the square, across from the steps of the church, and their colorful stalls display seasonal produce picked that very day. The little apple-cheeked woman often has farm fresh eggs of the kind Italians refer to as “uova da bere” — so fresh you can drink them raw — an idea that has never appealed to me but is practiced by a lot of the winos and street people who hang out in the piazza. These super-fresh eggs are perfect for making spaghetti carbonara because the hot pasta gently cooks the eggs so I add a few to my shopping bag. Then its on to the salumeria to buy meat and cheese. A chunk of parmigiano and one of pecorino romano (both kinds of cheese are needed) and finally the meat.

Purists insist on the cured, unsmoked pig jowl called guanciale (it means pillow in English) even though almost all the recipes in American cookbooks call for ordinary bacon — which is too smoky — or Italian pancetta, which is too lean. Guanciale has a rich, sweetly porky flavor and a buttery texture that makes the dish sing. It used to be next to impossible to find this delicacy outside of the big American cities but now there are two reliable US sources: La Quercia, a producer of cured pork in Iowa, makes it and sells it online at http://www.laquercia.us/ and Salumi Artisan Cured Meats, the Seattle company owned by Armandino Batali, father to “Molto Mario” of Food Channel fame, at http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/. Toss these four ingredients together with spaghetti or rigatoni and grind lots of black pepper on top, and you have a dish fit for a king. Happy Carbonara Day, a little bit late!

Here at Select Italy we’ve been offering people the chance to visit Trieste for a year now with tours that introduce people to this magical off-the-tourist-route city at the northern edge of the Adriatic Sea. Now it seems like the rest of the world is finally catching on.

The latest issue of American Airlines in-flight magazine has an article by Robert Draper which details his love affair with the city. In the article, Draper extols the easy-going elegance and authenticity of the city he’s been visiting every year for the past decade.

As a major seaport posited perfectly between east and west Europe, Trieste has had the distinction of being invaded by every important culture in the history of the continent. The result today is a multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city that’s seen it all and taken the best from each wave of gatecrashers.

Located two hours east of Venice, Trieste has somehow managed to stay off the tourist map, but we knew it was only a matter of time before people found out about this beautiful and intoxicating region. We’re glad someone else is paying attention to it and highly recommend you read Draper’s article, which captures the mood of the city perfectly.

Select Italy makes it easy to discover Trieste with these package tours:
Imperial Trieste and its Cafe Society
Trieste: A View from the Sea
Jewish Trieste: The Gateway to Zion

When I’m in Rome at the end of May, I always pay a visit to the City Rose Garden. Like most corners of my hometown, it has its own charm and fascinating history. Located right above the Circo Massimo, on the eastern slope of the Aventino hill, the area has been in fact a Jewish cemetery for centuries [from 1645 until 1950]. At the end of WWII, the Jewish community of Rome and the City authorities agreed to move the cemetery into an section of the Verano [Rome’s largest cemetery] freeing up the original site to recreate the Rose Garden, which had been destroyed during the war. [For your own tour of Rome’s Jewish sites, click here]

Visitors may not always realize that, as a tribute to its origin and as a thank you for the gracious gesture of the city’s Jewish community, a section of the garden is laid out in the form of a menorah, outlined by walking paths and flowerbeds. In the garden, there is a fantastic collection of more than 1,100 varieties of skillfully grown and preserved roses, each with its own history. The garden is, in fact a historical botanical archive that showcases in a single location “botanical”, “ancient” and “modern” varieties, the latter marking the beginning of the hybridization with the imported Chinese varieties in early 19th-century. I love to think that the passion for these natural beauties goes on and that the garden continues to welcome the latest creations, sent from all over the world. After two years of permanent residence in the Garden each rose becomes eligible to participate in the “Rome Prize” competition, a prestigious contest reserved to new varieties only. This is really one of “my” favorite spots to relax when I’m back home and I love to go there at sunset to enjoy the view of the Circo Massimo and of the Palatine hill, surrounded by so many blooming colors and scents in such a unique display of monumental history.

Depending on the time of the day, I then decide to walk up the Aventino hill up to another place I love, the “Giardino degli Aranci” [the “Orange Garden”]. I used to go there as a teenager with my first sweetheart to enjoy the romantic views of the city, overlooking the Tiber and the Roman skyline. Walking in the Aventino hill, one of the most quiet and historical residential neighborhoods of Rome, always gives me the feeling of something a little bit magical, for its quietness and sense of suspension over the bustle and noise downhill … Sometimes, however, I make it my morning walk and I inevitably end up stopping at my brother’s place who lives one minute from the garden. I know I can find there the best “white” Roman pizza [la “pizza bianca del fornaio”, an authentic and exclusively Roman treat] that he gets every morning at the local Testaccio master baker… Ahhh … irresistible “pizza bianca” … che buona!

More and more, these days, travelers to Italy are traveling on their stomachs: between slow food and celebrity Italian chefs, Italy is the top spot for gourmet holidays. It should be no surprise that in Select Italy’s Chicago office, there’s no shortage of Italophiles whose love for Italy is inextricably intertwined with their love of eating.

I’m a member of a Chicago-based food community whose website, LTHForum.com, is a gathering place for picky eaters from around the world. One of our members, Gypsy Boy - an inspired gourmet here in Chicago - just got back from a trip to Rome, where he spent seven days eating at an imposing number of the most authentic and delicious spots in town with mixed results. In his exhaustive report he touches on several topics that should be of interest to any buona forchetta (Italian for foodie).

#1 - Prices for restaurant meals are on the rise - an exchange rate at almost $1.50 to 1 euro makes even a simple restaurant meal a weighty investment. GB reports that a lunch at a simple trattoria regularly set him back $100.00 for two. But don’t let that get you down - Rome (and Italy in general) teem with inexpensive non-restaurant eating venues. Whether it’s a slab of pizza bianca at the Forno in Campo de’ Fiori, a panino di bollito at the San Lorenzo market in Florence (see below, the ancestor of Chicago’s Italian Beef) or a fried rice ball (suppli al telefono or arancino) from a Naples street vendor or the justifiably beloved Volpetti market in Rome’s Testaccio neighborhood, there’s no reason that the diminishing value of the dollar should keep you from eating like a Rockefeller.

#2 - Reputation is an unreliable indicator of quality - Gypsy Boy eats at some of Rome’s most well-known restaurants and gelaterie. In some cases, the wisdom of the crowds is right. Giolitti, the ur-ice cream shop just north of the Pantheon (a Select Italy fave!) gets high marks from GB, but Checchino dal 1887, the most famous hangout for Rome’s quinto quarto (variety meat) lovers turns out to be a big disappointment, delicious oxtail notwithstanding. That’s why there’s no subsitute for expert advice and on the ground experience when it comes to choosing a place to eat - common knowledge won’t always steer you right.

#3 - In Italy, pizza’s not just for lunch and isn’t always what you expect - Italy’s food culture is as complex and idiosyncratic as anywhere in the world - tourists that go to visit would do well to research a little and be aware of the different assumptions that operate in the places they go. Even though pizza is an all-day long phenomenon in Chicago, in Italy, many great restaurants serve pizza only in the evenings - it’s just one of those things. Pizza Bianca, one of Rome’s most authentic local specialties, isn’t even what most Chicagoan’s would consider pizza at all - it’s more like an eight-foot long foccaccia that you buy by the gram.

#4 - The best meals are the ones you least expect - you can spend months carefully plotting every morsel you plan to eat while you’re abroad, and it’s certainly time well spent, but in my experience it’s the nibble you never expected that ends up the most memorable of the trip. For Gypsy Boy’s wife, it was the discovery of spaghetti cacio e pepe (a dish so delicious that it’s hard to imagine that it has only three ingredients: pasta, cheese and pepper) that was the gem they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.

It was the same for me - when I lived in Perugia, every morning, I’d pay a visit to my neighborhood dairy (latteria) for a local delicacy that isn’t listed in any guide book. Even if I had read about it, I never would’ve realized that it was the one nibble I’d reminisce about for the rest of my days: a brioche (more doughnut than patisserie) sliced open, filled with fresh ricotta from a farm in the hills below the city and local honey from the dairy-owner’s hives in the country. Creamy cheese, grainy gamey honey and clean simple pastry - the best breakfast I’ve ever had. Paired with a cappuccino made with fresh milk, consummate care and real pride by Francesco and his father (below), it’s the one experience that inspires me to go back to Italy again and again.

Buon’appetito!

While flipping through the latest issue of Travel & Leisure, I came across one of their “Trip Tips” on Rome and Cinema, specifically the 2nd Annual Rome Film Fest.

For such a short piece (a single paragraph plus three bullet points) I was pleased to see that it was packed with familiar names and places. The single restaurant and one hotel were both places that Select Italy uses regularly.

In fact they are both at the top of our lists for 4-star hotels and wonderful restaurants in Rome. In further digging into the Rome Film Fest site, and T&L, I discovered that one of the Italian filmmakers featured is part of a group of filmmakers that I met on a recent trip to Puglia. Seeing as how they are all quite talented there are high expectations for the new film, both on my end and in the cinema art house world.

Which brings me to the idea that anyone interested in cinema should look into attending the film festivals. Outside of the Venice Film Festival, the Italian film fests make these movie makers much more accessible. This is in such contrast to the Hollywood mega-stars that we’re used to only seeing in magazines and on various YouTube clips. Filmmakers at these fests tend to be happy to discuss the industry and their work with the general public. Tickets are not price restrictive so the excuses for missing one of these events start to disappear. For every future trip to Italy I take, I will definitely be looking for the local film fests to add on to my itinerary or even to build an itinerary around.

Themed vacations are becoming more and more popular. If you’re interested in food, cars, sports, hiking & biking, opera, or shopping, it is easy to add a single service just for a taste of the Italian version or make that a focus of your trip. Select Italy has services that fit all of the above interests and more. We’re working on our Film Fest packages for 2008, but in the meantime we have options to explore many of the other aspects of Italian culture.

Keep your eyes out next week for an exciting new property and set of culinary packages. Not ready to release all the details yet, but here’s a hint:

- This stylish farmouse hotel is the ONLY place where you can tip a glass of wine filled with Taurasi DOC made from the only grapes that grow INSIDE the excavations of the ruins of Pompei.