Bairdstravel has has now been to a few of the major tourist hotspots in Italy .One of the highlights is the food and drink . Thought I would let you know a few of our culinary tales .
Venice Had to walk right away from St Marks Square before we could find cheap Pizza. A Coke,Cappuccino and two toasties €18.30 Venice is not cheap where ever you go. The only cheap place to eat was McDonalds .
Milan Found it strange that if you stand at the bar it was four Euro`s for a beer and if you sat down it was six euro`s .
Outside the San Siro I ate my first pannini while talking to the local ticket touts.
A panino (pronounced /paˈnino/) is a sandwich made from a small loaf of bread, typically a ciabatta. The loaf is often cut horizontally and filled with A grilled panino is buttered on the outside and grilled in a press.
Pisa
My battle with Spaghetti has lasted for many years.
In Pisa we were in a restaurant [ talking to the owner] when I had the longest spaghetti in the world . I CUT IT UP ,TWIST IT ROUND MY FORK AND STILL IT FELL ON TO MY SHIRT .
My wife told me I should be using a spoon.
Though the traditional method of eating spaghetti in Italy is to use just a fork and twist it so that the spaghetti wraps around the fork, families around the world still consider it a sentimental pastime to take the end of a noodle and slurp it up.
Spaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it, from spaghetti with cheese and pepper or garlic and oil to a spaghetti with tomato, meat, and other sauces. Spaghetti is made of semolina and water. Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning "thin string" or "twine". The word spaghetti can be literally translated as "little strings"
Florence
We were attracted to a cafe near the Duomo that had a board describing the cost of the menu .
All meals 8 EURO`S .Later when we got the bill the drinks were more expensive then the meals.
The following day we sat down for drink . It cost us £10 for a beer and a Soda water
Be warned stay clear of tourist attractions when eating or drinking.
Please note
Although Italians are known throughout the world for pizza, pasta, and tomato sauce, the national diet of Italy has traditionally differed greatly by region. Prior to the blending of cooking practices among different regions, it was possible to distinguish Italian cooking simply by the type of cooking fat used: butter was used in the north, pork fat in the center of the country, and olive oil in the south. Staple dishes in the north were rice and polenta, and pasta was most popular throughout the south. During the last decades of the twentieth century (1980s and 1990s), however, pasta and pizza (another traditional southern food) became popular in the north of Italy. Pasta is more likely to be served with a white cheese sauce in the north and a tomato-based sauce in the south.
Italians are known for their use of herbs in cooking, especially oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, and sage. Cheese also plays an important role in Italian cuisine. There are more than 400 types of cheese made in Italy, with Parmesan, mozzarella, and asiago among the best known worldwide. Prosciutto ham, the most popular ingredient of the Italian antipasto (first course) was first made in Parma, a city that also gave its name to Parmesan cheese.
Beer One of the oldest and most popular breweries in Italy is Peroni, today owned by the SABMiller group, which is also owner of the worldwide brand Nastro Azzurro. Other notable breweries and beer brands are:
PRACTISE BEFORE ARRIVING IN ITALY
Pay,aim and shoot toilets