Desserts – Italian sweets are just as fabulous as their regular dishes, and gelato was a daily treat for me. My first (from a stand in the Termini station in Rome) was
cassata siciliana, chock full of candied fruit (like spumoni):
I found this amazing little cassata, called
Cassatina Siciliana, at a fancy bakery off of the Piazza della Repubblica. A thick sugar icing hid the creamy filling with candied fruit, possibly mascarpone cheese like in a cannoli, with a small wafer of cake on the top:
A few blocks from the Pantheon stands
Della Palma Gelateria (Via della Maddalena 20/23), boasting 100 flavors of gelati. My eyes were agog just narrowing down my choices:
Finally I settled on
Mousse Profiterol, which of course tasted exactly like the French dessert:
This was a deftly tart lemon sorbet served after the chicken & potatoes dinner:
Before we left Florence, I grabbed a pistachio gelato near the Piazza della Signoria:
While on the isle of Capri, I thoroughly enjoyed this
torta caprese (dense chocolate cake) and
cioccolata calda (bitter hot chocolate, made sweet by adding the packet of sugar on the saucer):
And for my final dessert in Rome, this tiramisù was unbelievably creamy and permeated with coffee:
Snacks – Taking several bus rides on the interstate, we always paused at Italy’s ultimate rest stop,
Autogrill. They take the ‘snack bar’ to a new level, offering fresh sandwiches, cappuccinos, and all manners of groceries for travelers, as well as books, CDs, clothing, gifts, etc.:
Italian (and many other countries’) Coca-Cola is great because real sugar is used, as opposed to high fructose corn syrup, but more interesting was Fanta Chinotto, a bitter cola made from herbs and the juice of the chinotto, a small citrus fruit found primarily in Italy and Malta. Chinotto is also the flavoring in Campari liqueur, and my tour guide was surprised to learn that the soda tastes very similar to the New England favorite, Moxie:
Hands down, my favorite Italian candy bar is Duplo, made by the Ferrero company. Each of the three-sectioned bar contains a whole hazelnut, surrounded by a Nutella equivalent in a wafer shell, covered with chocolate. The taste is, obviously, like a Ferrero Rocher, minus the crunchy topping. Here’s the limited edition dark version, which I’ve never seen before until this trip:
Potato chips taste great without the greasiness, similar to the higher-end chips found in the States (Cape Cod, Utz, et al.):
These Fonzies were particularly delicious, basically crunchy Chee-tos with bacon flavor—though the flavor powder stayed on the puff, not on my fingers:
A great comparison to American preservatives is reading the ingredient list from this Italian version of Lunchables. Only a handful of items were listed (water, flour, pork, etc.), and only one chemical that I recognized (dextrose), as opposed to the ridiculous amounts of chemicals in the Oscar Mayer equivalent. And the taste? Incredible! The salami was tender and spicy with just enough salt, and the round crackers were fresh and crunchy:
Airport Food – What trip would be complete without airport fare? Our first layover was in Frankfurt, Germany, and naturally I was determined to eat a frankfurter. This one had a pretzel as its bun and was covered with mild cheese. The chili & paprika ridged chips hit the spot, as did the Mezzo Mix (think Coca-Cola mixed with Orange Fanta):
The second layover was in Washington, D.C./Dulles, and my students—the chowhounds that they are—sniffed out Potbelly Sandwich Works within 10 minutes, located at the very end of the concourse opposite from our gate. Hailed as “Washington’s favorite sandwich,” every selection is priced at $4.19 plus tax. I ordered the tuna salad on wheat with Swiss, extra hot peppers (they also sell jars of this giardiniera variation at the register), Italian seasoning, and run under the toaster. Rounding out the meal was Utz Bar-b-q chips and a can of [Mr.] Pibb Xtra, the latter of which I hadn’t seen in a long time. The peppers were indeed hot, and the extra portion of them made my stomach warm for an hour afterwards:
Next student trip abroad: Greece in 2009! Thanks for reading,
Chris
