More Italy picture spam!
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterPictures from Day 2 in Italy!
And this is the view from our hotel in the morning. My camera is not even close to capturing the colors or the light or the way the ocean sparkled. This is why everyone stopped breathing for a second when we first entered the lobby and caught sight of the view.
More view. I still can't believe that you could sit outside, eat food, and look at this.
That's where we had lunch on our first day! I love how the hotel doors are these tiny things in the alley, and then, in the back. there's all this.
Lemon tree!
Amalfi. Everything on the coast so far has been like this, stacks and stacks of buildings that somehow follow the cliff faces. I love the layers, the pastel paint, the shutters, the narrow walkways, everything.
Here's the Amalfi port, where we're waiting for our second boat, since I made everyone miss the first one.
Castle! Maybe? Alas, it does not move, but it is on a hill!
And the top of the Amalfi town church.
Everywhere you look, there are small alleys like this, leading to who knows where.
And then, after a street, you turn a corner, and there's a giant church!
Full view of the church front. I remember reading that there was some Isalmic influence on the art around this area. I'm not sure if that's what influences the geometric designs or if I'm totally making that up.
The inside of the church, right after Sunday Mass. I love that the church is used and not just a tourist spot.
The faces of some of the saints are all worn down and shiny from being touched so often.
I just liked the windows.
An example of the ceramics stores that we've been seeing everywhere! I ended up buying a plate with pictures of tomatoes on it to hold my tomatoes in.
Here's the town church for Positano.
The Positano beach. You can't see here, but right behind this are rows and rows of beach chairs and hordes of people, all on this tiny stretch of beach.
I like trees.
VEGETABLES! FRUIT! Mmmmmmmm! I am so sad that I didn't get to buy fresh veggies or fruit at any of the places we went to!
And here are the famous and extremely ugly lemons. They're about the size of my hand, fingers included.
Mmmm, lunch! The seafood here was delicious, probably because it was fresh. Here's an assorted seafood platter. The best part was the giant thing larger than a shrimp but smaller than a lobster, complete with tiny claws. It had the sweetest, juiciest, most tender meat in it, and I hogged up most of them. So, so good. They didn't add too much to the seafood, just cooked it simply, which was perfect. The seafood was so good anyway that it really didn't need much.
Calamari! Instead of the standard rings, these are itty bitty baby squid, deep-fried whole. They were tender and wonderful. The ravioli was really good too, but nothing beat the seafood.
And seafood risotto! There's a better look at the not-quite-shrimp sea creature of Utter Deliciousness.
Me! Well, the shadow of me. And my new hat, which was lacy and white and totally girly and made me feel like a movie star. A touristy movie star, but a movie star nonetheless.
More view of the bitty beach.
Cat!
A cave that we passed by on the boat back to Amalfi.
Really fat pigeon! (I like random animals)
1) Very lovely peppers 2) Very amusing sign
More streets in Amalfi, just because I love the look of them so much. You can't see here, but there were clothes hanging out to dry in the balconies as well.
Giant hocks of ham! Mmmmmm, pig leg....
The first of a few Fancy Dinners, courtesy of my dad and our family friends, all of whom are foodies (I am as well, obviously, but I cannot pay for this!). Lovely butter. Unfortunately, too cold. I hate it when butter doens't spread.
You can now see how Fancy the restaurant is (capital letter intended)! Here's artichoke heart tempura and what I think is a piece of fish on top of carrot puree. The carrot puree was really good, as is deep-fried artichoke. But then, I think deep-frying improves on nearly everything.
A wonderfully tender and delicately cooked scallop, still raw in the very center, with a scallop mousse to contrast and a small fennel salad to provide the necessary tartness for contrast. And all on top of a pretty blue pile of sea salt, which the waitress kindly told us not to eat. This is probably a good thing, as I would have tried to taste some (Blue!).
Spinach noodles wrapped in squid, complete with bits of ham and a very artsy line of squid ink sauce. I didn't like the noodles that much because they weren't al dente enough, and it was really hard eating them with the squid wrapped around it.
That black shiny pearly thing? That's fish skin deep-fried. I may have to take back what I said about deep-frying improving everything. The fish itself was very good though! But that orange thing that looks like a delicious peeled heirloom tomato? It is not a tomato! It is a giant cactus fruit thing with tons and tons of seeds, and I felt extremely betrayed!
Lamb. Oh, lamb. There's a small crust of something that tasted a little like mashed potatoes on top, complete with a teensy weensy sliver of truffle and these tiny fried bubble things that might also be potato. But oh, the lamb! Rich and juicy and nearly melt in your mouth.
Dessert! Well, dessert #1. It's some sort of hazelnut-chocolate napoleon type thing, done fancy restaurant style, and I ate every bit of it.
Dessert #2. This was really neat! It's a hard merengue, and inside is strawberry gelato with pistachio mousse, complete with a tiny drizzle of pistachio sauce on the side lined with strawberries. The sauce is a vanilla sauce with bits of pistachio in it. You're supposed to crack open the merengue and pour the sauce on top. I think I would have liked it a little better without the merengue, which was too sweet. But the pistachio mousse and the strawberry gelato were very good, particularly together.
And the little after dinner chocolates that fancy restaurants always seem to have, despite already serving 2 other desserts. Even though I was about to explode ("Just a wafer-thin mint!"), I gobbled down the dark chocolate and the merengue very happily. I did not, thankfully, literally explode.
And this is the view from our hotel in the morning. My camera is not even close to capturing the colors or the light or the way the ocean sparkled. This is why everyone stopped breathing for a second when we first entered the lobby and caught sight of the view.
More view. I still can't believe that you could sit outside, eat food, and look at this.
That's where we had lunch on our first day! I love how the hotel doors are these tiny things in the alley, and then, in the back. there's all this.
Lemon tree!
Amalfi. Everything on the coast so far has been like this, stacks and stacks of buildings that somehow follow the cliff faces. I love the layers, the pastel paint, the shutters, the narrow walkways, everything.
Here's the Amalfi port, where we're waiting for our second boat, since I made everyone miss the first one.
Castle! Maybe? Alas, it does not move, but it is on a hill!
And the top of the Amalfi town church.
Everywhere you look, there are small alleys like this, leading to who knows where.
And then, after a street, you turn a corner, and there's a giant church!
Full view of the church front. I remember reading that there was some Isalmic influence on the art around this area. I'm not sure if that's what influences the geometric designs or if I'm totally making that up.
The inside of the church, right after Sunday Mass. I love that the church is used and not just a tourist spot.
The faces of some of the saints are all worn down and shiny from being touched so often.
I just liked the windows.
An example of the ceramics stores that we've been seeing everywhere! I ended up buying a plate with pictures of tomatoes on it to hold my tomatoes in.
Here's the town church for Positano.
The Positano beach. You can't see here, but right behind this are rows and rows of beach chairs and hordes of people, all on this tiny stretch of beach.
I like trees.
VEGETABLES! FRUIT! Mmmmmmmm! I am so sad that I didn't get to buy fresh veggies or fruit at any of the places we went to!
And here are the famous and extremely ugly lemons. They're about the size of my hand, fingers included.
Mmmm, lunch! The seafood here was delicious, probably because it was fresh. Here's an assorted seafood platter. The best part was the giant thing larger than a shrimp but smaller than a lobster, complete with tiny claws. It had the sweetest, juiciest, most tender meat in it, and I hogged up most of them. So, so good. They didn't add too much to the seafood, just cooked it simply, which was perfect. The seafood was so good anyway that it really didn't need much.
Calamari! Instead of the standard rings, these are itty bitty baby squid, deep-fried whole. They were tender and wonderful. The ravioli was really good too, but nothing beat the seafood.
And seafood risotto! There's a better look at the not-quite-shrimp sea creature of Utter Deliciousness.
Me! Well, the shadow of me. And my new hat, which was lacy and white and totally girly and made me feel like a movie star. A touristy movie star, but a movie star nonetheless.
More view of the bitty beach.
Cat!
A cave that we passed by on the boat back to Amalfi.
Really fat pigeon! (I like random animals)
1) Very lovely peppers 2) Very amusing sign
More streets in Amalfi, just because I love the look of them so much. You can't see here, but there were clothes hanging out to dry in the balconies as well.
Giant hocks of ham! Mmmmmm, pig leg....
The first of a few Fancy Dinners, courtesy of my dad and our family friends, all of whom are foodies (I am as well, obviously, but I cannot pay for this!). Lovely butter. Unfortunately, too cold. I hate it when butter doens't spread.
You can now see how Fancy the restaurant is (capital letter intended)! Here's artichoke heart tempura and what I think is a piece of fish on top of carrot puree. The carrot puree was really good, as is deep-fried artichoke. But then, I think deep-frying improves on nearly everything.
A wonderfully tender and delicately cooked scallop, still raw in the very center, with a scallop mousse to contrast and a small fennel salad to provide the necessary tartness for contrast. And all on top of a pretty blue pile of sea salt, which the waitress kindly told us not to eat. This is probably a good thing, as I would have tried to taste some (Blue!).
Spinach noodles wrapped in squid, complete with bits of ham and a very artsy line of squid ink sauce. I didn't like the noodles that much because they weren't al dente enough, and it was really hard eating them with the squid wrapped around it.
That black shiny pearly thing? That's fish skin deep-fried. I may have to take back what I said about deep-frying improving everything. The fish itself was very good though! But that orange thing that looks like a delicious peeled heirloom tomato? It is not a tomato! It is a giant cactus fruit thing with tons and tons of seeds, and I felt extremely betrayed!
Lamb. Oh, lamb. There's a small crust of something that tasted a little like mashed potatoes on top, complete with a teensy weensy sliver of truffle and these tiny fried bubble things that might also be potato. But oh, the lamb! Rich and juicy and nearly melt in your mouth.
Dessert! Well, dessert #1. It's some sort of hazelnut-chocolate napoleon type thing, done fancy restaurant style, and I ate every bit of it.
Dessert #2. This was really neat! It's a hard merengue, and inside is strawberry gelato with pistachio mousse, complete with a tiny drizzle of pistachio sauce on the side lined with strawberries. The sauce is a vanilla sauce with bits of pistachio in it. You're supposed to crack open the merengue and pour the sauce on top. I think I would have liked it a little better without the merengue, which was too sweet. But the pistachio mousse and the strawberry gelato were very good, particularly together.
And the little after dinner chocolates that fancy restaurants always seem to have, despite already serving 2 other desserts. Even though I was about to explode ("Just a wafer-thin mint!"), I gobbled down the dark chocolate and the merengue very happily. I did not, thankfully, literally explode.
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 09:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 10:29 pm (UTC)I want to go back too! Venice and Milan next!
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 10:39 pm (UTC)And the food... oh man... all I can say is, I'm glad I'm meeting Jody at Clementine in two hours.
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 10:54 pm (UTC)You should have seen us taking pictures at the fancy restaurants! At least this time, I didn't feel so embarrassed because I was taking pictures of every dish, our family friends were, and so was my dad. So I think I will end up getting three different pictures of every dish in every meal. My food pictures are especially bad because I was attempting to stealthily and quickly take pictures (albeit with flash) while the waiters weren't staring at me.
That way, I would not sully the name of Taiwanese or Japanese tourists everywhere ;).
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 10:56 pm (UTC)My reaction to the stacked buildings was and remains: Amalfi is GONDOR!
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 11:39 pm (UTC)My reaction to the stacked buildings was and remains: Amalfi is GONDOR!
HEE!! A pastel Gondor!
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 11:00 pm (UTC)::sigh::
Oh, and the scenery's pretty, too. *g* Apparently I should try to make it to Italy at some point.
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 11:41 pm (UTC)I get sick of taking pictures of scenery after a while (my mom has endless fun posing people in various combinations in front of the same piece of scenery though). But I never get sick of pictures of food!
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 11:02 pm (UTC)Italy's good like that. :)
Great photos. And now I know what Amalfi (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345457875&view=excerpt) looks like.
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 17th, 2006 11:41 pm (UTC)Also, cool! I didn't know where your username was from before this!
(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 01:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 10:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 06:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 12:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 06:11 pm (UTC)The blue salt was very fascinating.
(no subject)
Wed, Oct. 18th, 2006 08:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Oct. 19th, 2006 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Oct. 19th, 2006 04:56 pm (UTC)That looks like a fantastic trip.
Man I have GOT to get out of my office cubicle.
(no subject)
Thu, Oct. 19th, 2006 06:04 pm (UTC)