About eight weeks ago, I was offered an unbelievable opportunity. My love of travel and passion for food melded into one beautiful adventure almost seamlessly. I had little time to prepare for my 3 ½ week trip.
I read about the history and culture as much as time allowed and took a crash course in the basic language. I learned the exchange rates for money. Finally, I packed a single 20” suitcase, loaded the camera bag with lenses and extra memory cards, grabbed my passport and boarding pass, one light jacket and embarked on an amazing journey.
My wonderful task during the last several weeks was learning about the regional foods of Italy. This journey took me to Northern Italy where we focused on the foods from Lombardy, Liguria, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, and Veneto. Due to the wide scope of Italian foods, this trip was limited to just five regions of the twenty regions of Italy. Thank goodness!
This eating adventure was fun from the moment we boarded our airplane! Seated in first class, we enjoyed a beautiful breakfast on the way to New York.
We had a 3-hour layover in New York that afforded us enough time to enjoy the Admirals Club, shower, grab a snack and send a few last emails before we were without Internet reception.
Our flight from New York to Milan was as smooth as silk. Our seats had multiple ways to adjust as you can see by the remote control here.
Once in the air, and comfortable in our spacious seats, we were treated to hot towels to refresh ourselves. We each received our own screen for viewing movies. The alcohol was free and offered frequently. Our dinner was a three course event!
My appetizer:
My salad:
My dinner:
The alternate dinner offering:
After dinner we reclined with our pillows and blankets and slept soundly until our flight crew woke us for breakfast. What a sight it was to awaken to the Alps in the morning sunlight!
We landed in Milan 20 minutes ahead of time, hit the ground running, got our rental car and headed south from Lombardy to Liguria.
More to come…
