I am going to break up my day-by-day posts. . . and do a post dedicated to food.  Yes, I took a picture of everything I ate (other than breakfast, which was always bread-related). . . You may have seen some of these pictures. . . and may see some again to put them into perspective, but here is the overview.

You may ask. . . what city had the best food?  FLORENCE!  Hands down. . . but some of the places in Venice were *extremely* good, too.  Maybe we just had bad luck in Rome, but I think we all thought our food was just so-so there.

 

You've already seen this one. . .

 

Ravioli. . . I was not impressed with ANY of the ravioli I had, which was sad

 

Messy lobster spaghetti

Smoked cheese with mushrooms

Caprese salad with prosciutto. . . doesn't look great, but it was really good

This german spread had butter and cheese in it. . . we loved using this on our bread in the morning in Rome. Yummy.

Lasagna

A REALLY good cookie and a lemon granita

This was pasta with asparagus. . . a-freakin-mazing. You can see a bit of Liz' salad work of art in the background. This was Florence, baby.

Lunch at the winery. . . WAIT, I take back my comment about ravioli! I forgot about this meal. . . this stuff was great!

Okay, that night. . . we did a pasta TASTING menu. . . so we got to try five different kinds.  I died and went to Heaven.

#1

Sorry, no flash on this one #2

#3

#4

 

#5 (my fav)

 

My MEAL. . . Steak with aged balsamic. This was sooooooooo good. They had a blueberry steak everyone raved about, too. . . but settled on this and was not disappointed!

Liz's meal. . . This place knew how to plate. . . gorgeous

We are excited b/c they have this restaurant (for the above pics) in San Diego, too. . . AMAZING!!!  Aqua Al 2.

Then, onto Venice. . . 

This was just so-so. . . and EXTREMELY frustrating to eat. I'm not good at this type of pasta.

Yep, there was a little guy peeking out.

We had really good cannolis that night. . . which I didn’t take a picture of.  Boo!  :(

*This*. . . my friends, was AMAZING! Tortellini with prosciutto and mushrooms

Dinner that night. . . unimpressive ravioli.

 Seafood on Burano. . . 

Crab. . . not so good though b/c it was weird and had some pieces of shell. Sad.

This was SO FLIPPING GOOD. It must have been made with "love" because Liz and I could not understand how this tasted so good. Doesn't seem like much, but the flavor was incredible.

Another one of my favs. . . prosciutto and peas

Some other noteworthy things. . . If you don’t eat everything. . . which I normally did (which is surprising b/c I normally can’t eat much in one sitting). . . they say, “What?  You no like?”  ”Why you order this if you can’t eat?” “You will come to the back and wash dishes for not eating!”  (To Liz at one of our favorite places with favorite waiters). . . 

Tuscany is a place where the food is really simple. . . but the flavors are incredible.  I think they have superior ingredients.  I’m wondering if my skills would improve with their ingredients?

Um, I at pasta *a lot*. . . hey, I love it.

How my arse fits into my pants these days is beyond me. . .