Sipping Espresso

That title will make sense soon.  Please, read on.  Unless you're a member of PETA.  Then, please stop and choose another post! "I'm getting out of here - I don't want to hear about bunnies for lunch!" You may have read HERE  about when our Uncle S. and Aunt Deborah came to see us last week and we enjoyed a very nice visit with three days full of wonderful food.  Well, the meal we shared on day three was truly blog-worthy! I don't think S. or Deb knew what to expect when they came; and so they came open for anything.  But since one of their good friends had been to Lake Como some time ago, he mentioned a few top sights and restaurants to consider.  One particular restaurant, Al Veluu  appeared to be unbelieveably perfect for us.   Al Veluu  sits atop a hillside in the wonderful lake town of Tremezzo, thus extending picturesque views of Lake Como (a town we wanted to show them anyway).  Their well designed and i...

When we first moved here, we noted that while many things are very much the same as the States… there are also many, many subtle (and no so subtle) differences.  Early on, I did a quick post about things being different  HERE  but didn't go into many of the specifics. Now that we've been here a while, it makes sense to go a bit deeper.  You know, the kind of "hard-hitting journalism" you've come to expect here at Sipping Espresso.  For this post we've focused on some of the differences that we find particularly charming, beneficial or just plain better. So here we go, with "All Things Are A Little Different"…  PARTE DUE (Part Two) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's start with the food.  If you've been a follower of this blog for a while (or read more than one post), you'll notice that many things here are cuisine related.  This i...

Last week, we received a visit from our Uncle S. and Aunt Deborah who were traveling through Europe on business.  They had planned a stop over visit us before traveling by train to their next destination.  We had also coordinated with Jen's mom, who was departing on the same day they arrived, which saved us a trip to the airport and allowed us to spend the day in Milano (never a bad thing).  Whoever said planning is overrated never had traffic and a two year old to contend with. Julia with her great-uncle S. Julia was sad to see her Nonna leave, but excited to have new visitors to play with.  She instantly recognized S. and Deb as they arrived through customs.  Since it was early evening when they landed, we took them back to our condo and had a " light " dinner of bread, salami, salami piccante (spicy salami) prosciutto, cheese, a cannelloni bean salad, acciughe in salsa verde (anchovies in green sauce),  insalata finocchio  (fennel salad...

Here is something my Mom, Greg and I all have in common…we love pizza.  And pizza in Italy is the best!  Pizza originated in Italy and they have continued to perfect the art ever since.  When my Mom was in town we decided to make our own versions of our favorite pizza’s at home. We had so much fun and Julia even got in on the action. Rolling out her dough When I told my uncle our plan to try to duplicate our favorite pizza’s at home he gave us a brief history lesson on the pizza.  As it turns out, pizza started as a flatbread consumed by many people in Europe.  In 16 th century this was a common meal sold on the streets to the poor throughout Naples.  It was an inexpensive dish that offered many different types of toppings.  Credit for the first Margherita pizza is given to pizza maker Raffaele Esposito of Naples.  The story is that in June of 1889 to honor the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, he created a “Pizz...