We visited The Villages near Wildwood, Florida. It is a huge retirement community geared towards retirees with an active lifestyle. It is also a golf-cart community where people don’t need to drive their cars very often, as The Villages are self contained with everything from restaurants and movie theatres to state of the art hospitals and of course, what it is famous for, it’s theme park-esque flavor. Imagine Epcot at Disney. Now imagine that instead of having China, Norway or Italy that they have “American Retirement Village”. This is The Villages. It is where people who live in central FL (and not necessarily at the Villages) can go to eat at a nice restaurant, play golf and listen to an outdoor concert where it is always happy hour. Continue Reading »

I heart Anthony Bourdain. He has been coined “the bad boy of cuisine”. His views and commentary is blunt and not at all glossed over. To me, he is kind of like my idol – what I want to be when I grow up. (Minus of course, the whole being a guy thing, and of course the smoking).
Continue Reading »

Prosciutto is a cured paper-thin ham. The most well known is the kind from the region of Parma in Italy. It can be used for sandwiches, in omelets, on pizza or in Antipasti (appetizers). In this recipe it is paired with fresh figs, a sweet, soft fruit found all over the Mediterranean region.
Serve this as an appetizer with some crusty bread and cheese, like a good parmigiano reggiano and a glass of wine.
Continue Reading »

I am a HUGE foodie. Food is as important to me as life. It is sustenance, it is delicious, it is beautiful and the right foods can be emotional as well. I am an emotional cook. I put love into my food. I grew up in a big Italian American family learning from my Grandmother and my mom how to cook. So essentially, I grew up cooking and to me, it has become second nature.

Continue Reading »

Well, one of the things I have been doing to get myself “travel ready” is I have been learning Italiano. Roberto was teaching me some words here and there which was fun, but he is not a teacher and so I decided that I needed to really do my best to actually learn the language. Especially because his family does not speak English, so when we go to Rome, I want to be able to have basic communication. Continue Reading »

Hi Everyone!

It is time to kick start this blog again. I have just moved and that process took all of my energy. A big part of deciding to move was to start my travel blog up again. I needed the time to devote to this, and to make it a big part of my life. Something I didn’t have the time I wanted before. Traveling is my passion. Not just going to another place, but by entering another culture and being a part of another people’s way of life for a while. It has always taught me so much about myself, and so I think it is invaluable to our world today. Especially because our world is becoming so integrated. It is essential to have respect for all people, and one way to do that is to understand people from human being to human being. One of the best ways to do that is to stretch yourself and your personal limits through travel. Going to a different part of the world helps you to be able to relate to many different kinds of people. The more you do it, the farther out of your comfort zone you desire to go to.
Continue Reading »