My Old Travel Blog
2009 trip to Buenos Aires
Dog whisperers of Buenos Aires. Dogs must love it here.
Another simple breakfast from Confitería Suevia.
Wish they had one in Portland.
Lunch for me was an empanada picante de carne cortada a cuchillo and this guisado de cordera con papas andinas y quinoa from La Paila in Palermo Soho. Very tasty. Met two college students from Washington here on an exchange program. One of them was staying with the owner of the restaurant.
June also had an empanada picante, and this locro or stew. It’s a traditional Tucuman dish which had white corn, butter beans, beef, chorizo sausage, onions, and a bit of squash with a salsa picante. La Paila specializes in dishes from Tucuman province.
Another sunny morning in Palermo Soho.
Buenos Aires restaurants seriously need portion control. I ordered Patagonian lamb for lunch as I was getting tired of beef. I got enough to last a week. $12 USD.
We found another bakery about six blocks from our apartment we like even more called Las Familias.
We bought pastries from Confiteria Suevia for breakfast. Total cost $1.75. Viva Argentina.
The sunset was spectacular. Afterwards we walked to dinner at our favorite parilla – Don Julio
Looking southwest from the terrace at our apartment, Palermo Soho looks quite tranquil at sunset.
Looking northeast reminds you it’s actually a bustling metropolis.
2009 trip to Mendoza
There was singing, dancing, folk theater, performers on stilts – all accompanied by drums, guitars, pan flutes, etc. We watched for more than an hour.
There was a festival in Plaza Independencia. Part of “De la montaña al mar”. Performers were from Escuela 4-064 Intendente Juan Kairuz de Palmira, Mendoza.
Lunch at La Bourgogne in town was braised lamb with ratatouille and aubergines and this excellent Malbec.
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I feel like I died and went to Big Rock Candy Mountain. Dulce de Leche ice cream with bananas topped by peach ice cream. A bit later … grapefruit, lime, and tangerine sorbet.
Appetizer for lunch at Azafran
2009 trip to Italy
Lugano
What I felt like after traveling from Portland to Lugano
We stayed at the Hotel Lugano Dante on the Piazza Cioccaro
The funicular dropped us off right at the entrance to our hotel
Small harbor seen from the train between Zurich and Lugano
Our hotel room in Lugano
Lugano hotels viewed across the lake from the city park
If you look carefully, you can see the funicular which goes up Mount Bre.
A funicular runs from the train station to the old city
Alba
We found a B&B that looks interesting in Alba called Villa la Favorita run by Roberta Giresole. Our friends from Nostrana suggested we eat at Osteria La Libera in Alba, La Contea in Nieve, Antica Torre in Barbaresco, and Cesare Giaccone’s L’Angolo del Paradiso in Albaretto della Torre.
About the latter, Patrica Wells explains: “Much of Da Cesare’s cuisine might be described as primordial, it is so earthy and rudimentary, like spit-roasted goat cooked in the corner of the restaurant over beech and oakwood coals, or his thick fillet of beef seared on a scorching-hot limestone rock. Yet other dishes - an ethereal guinea-hen mousse paired with roasted potatoes drizzled with grappa - seem to have come special delivery on the wings of an angel.”
Yumm! I can’t wait.
Bergamo
A few weeks ago, we discovered a wonderful Italian blue cheese called Rossini Erborinato. It comes from the Bergamo region of Italy. So after we leave the ESUG conference in Lugano, we’re heading to the Brembana Valley to see where it’s made.
We’ll be staying at a small inn near the Parco dei Colli di Bergamo called La Valletta Relais.