Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Schengen schmengan
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Ferries and food

On our way to the beach we couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy half a kilo of cherries for 1.83 Euro (~ 3 Oz dollars, yes, that's right $3, not our first born child). The beach at Grado is very long and divided into the paying section and the free section. You can probably guess which part we chose to swim in. We still can't get past the idea of paying to visit the beach, sure you get to sit in a row of people on identical beach chairs under identical umbrellas but the benefits seem to end there. Actually, I lie, the sign above is a warning for swimming in the free beach area, the English version reads "Danger - bathing not safe for luck of lifesaving service". No that's not my typo. We're not sure if this is an observation on the success rate of the life saving service but with the water only up to belly height for at least the first 100 metres, and not a wave in site, we felt that we'd be ok.
For lunch we chose one of the many fish restaurants. I demolished a delicious plate of spaghetti con vongole (clams) - I think I could taste the sea water, they were so fresh. Marito had calamaretti fritti - these were lovely and tender and fried in a very thin batter. We washed it all down with the vino bianco della casa.
Walking around Grado after lunch, we soon found ourselves at a gelateria. I usually take the Gelato Challenge (randomly trying a favour I've never heard of or tried before) when purchasing a delcious icy treat, however this time went for the never fail option of lemon and strawberry sorbets. We caught a ferry home from Grado (this also would have been a good option to get there, had it been on any of the tourism 'How to get there' sites for Grado). Putting into Trieste, we stopped near the Pelorus - Roman Abramovich's 115 m, $US 3 million yacht, sorry one of Abramovich's yachts...note the helicoptor parked on board...
For dinner that night we made a delicious insalata caprese with ciabatta on the side. With a high yummy to effort ratio, I suggest everyone makes this salad and eats it up (tomatoes - cherry tomatoes are good, fresh buffalo mozarella, fresh basil, a good splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar)...make it now!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Green Cheese
The past few weeks have been rather busy with my mother (Madre) and sister-in-law (Cognata) visiting and literally sleeping under the kitchen table (our apartment isn't very big!). While they were here we went to the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, Skocjan Caves in Slovenia, Val Rosandra in Italy and Valence in Budapest. We also visited the airport carpark in Vienna...stupid car hire rules...
On the first weekend with our visitors, Trieste kindly put on the event Piazza Europa, a festival celebrating all things European...mostly food! We sampled pork knuckle, pastries, cheeses, salami, biscuits, more pastries, breads, strudels...so many tasty treats. Madre and Cognata found this delicious pesto cheese - delightfully tasty and green.
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