What a Winter!

Ariel with the lucky boar of Florence

Jeff at the farmer's market in Florence

Nothing puts life in perspective quite like traveling. Jeff and I both love to adventure and so we jumped at the chance to take a trip to Europe this last January. We loosely planned our journey and set out with backpacks to conquer the land across the pond.

The first stop was Amsterdam. I must say that I was surprised at how much I liked the city! For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who were taller than me...even the women! Thank God the Dutch speak English though, because there was no way I was going to be able to figure out how to pronounce the language. Way too many achs and fhgjghjs.

After Holland we headed south, to Rome, then Florence, La Spezia, and Turin. The $5 Pizza Margherita officially ruined us for any knock-offs here in California. I think we went to a farmer's market in every town we visited and man, were they incredible! I thought that those of us in Northern California had a healthy appreciation for greens and unique vegetables, but the Italians put us to shame. We brought back a bunch of seeds and are planning on growing some incredible varieties of greens, basil, tomatoes, and peppers. And the cheese...don't even get me started. I think the most incredible thing about the food in Italy is that it isn't at all pretentious. They are so accustomed to high quality produce, cheese, cured meat, wine, and coffee that they don't feel it necessary to make a big deal out of it. For them, good food is a part of everyday life. I also felt that the Italians understand that oftentimes, the best food is the most simple food. We ate at a little place in Florence and befriended our waiter who had worked for a time at Tra Vigne in St. Helena. The waiter told us that he didn't understand why Americans liked Michael Chiarello and why we are so obsessed with the food network. He suggested that we make too big a deal out of simple things - like teaching classes on making sandwiches (his words, not mine). I think he is right, though. Some of the best things are wonderful because they are simple. Pizza Margherita, for example. Good crust, a little sauce, fresh mozzarella, and a sprinkle of basil. So basic, yet so good. Or, my favorite, pain au chocolate. Basic croissante dough and ordinary dark chocolate. So basic, yet delicious! Alright, I have to stop the food talk because it's making me hungry...

After Rome and Florence, we headed to the slow food capital of the world, Turin. I'm not going to waste much time on Turin, but I will say that I feel that we embrace the Slow Food movement here in a much more genuine way than they do even in Europe. In California, we understand eating local to be eating food from our town or county. In Italy, local is eating food from Italy and Italy is a pretty big place! The Europeans haven't embraced the organic movement nearly as much as we have either. Jeff and I couldn't help but laugh when we visited the pinnacle of the Italian Slow Food movement, a grocery store aptly named Eataly. Any of our local grocery stores put it to shame in terms of how many local, organic, artisan, and sustainably produced products are carried.

Next stop was France. Nice was nice, but rainy. I think I did the impossible and overdosed on Roquefort cheese. Apparently you can have too much of a good thing. We checked out the farmer's market in Nice and it was similar to those in Italy. The biggest difference was a focus on spices. I think I saw literally a hundred different interpretations of herbes de provence.

After France, we trained it to Barcelona, Spain. We ended up stuck in a wind storm on a train for 10 hours right outside of Barcelona. Since neither Jeff or I speak Spanish, we didn't know how to ask the people on the train with us what was going on or where we were, so we just sat there. After many hours, our fellow train riders realized we didn't speak Spanish and attempted to tell us what was going on. They couldn't believe that the crazy Americans had sat there for that long when we were so close to our destination. We finally made it to Barcelona, though, and we were so glad that we did! The city is everything people say it is: colorful, vibrant, energetic, spirited, ALIVE. Next time we go to Europe, we're definitely going to become better acquainted with Barcelona.

So that was our trip in a nutshell. We went, we saw, we ate, we conquered, and now we're back and so happy to live in Sonoma County. We truly are blessed to call this place our home.