August 2018 Newsletter from Elizabeth
august 2018 newsletter
It's August in Italy and like every August things slow down to the point of shutting off. Stores and restaurants close, families head to the beach and the country - more or less - takes one giant holiday. I feel like I didn't get my god-given Italian vacation last year. All of June and half of July 2017 I was traveling around Italy working on my books. And while that may look like a vacation, and is in fact fun, it was 100% work. And then, once the heat really hit, by mid July, I was in my kitchen in Todi testing recipes non stop for about 6 weeks. All this to say: during this summer of 2018, I'm taking the vacation thing more seriously.
The problem is that I love my work, and so it's hard for me to physically pull myself away from something I enjoy doing. But last month I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Ponza. My friend Gillian was already there and I thought that nothing sounded better than escaping the heat, heading to an island and having a girls week. I had no plans and didn't even know where I would be staying until I got there (Gillian had taken care of that thank you very much). I relied on Gillian's island know-how, and we mostly just beached, drank, ate and did face masks. It was heaven. Will I be writing about it? Probabaly. Eventually. But for now I feel no rush to get anything out there since, well, August. (in the meantime see Gillian's posts)
One of the other things that has made me decide to slow down, or at least take vacation time seriously, is the unexpected loss of a friend and colleague Jonathan Gold. Domenico also lost a good friend, last month, and both deaths were sudden, sad and completely sobering. I know we all say 'life is short' but this type of event puts things in perspective in a very sad, yet urgent, way. Anyway, we are both trying to do more fun things and take things easier. Spend more time with friends and family. Do things on the spur of the moment. (Like go to the James Taylor concert last month!). So while my 'to do' list is as long as ever, I'm trying to let it grow this month, and not worry about checking things off every day.
what's new
I know I just finished saying I was tuning out and taking vacation serious, but….Sophie has been up in Umbria with us the past week, and we've been driving around Umbria a bit, visiting places and people we've long wanted to see and meet. Mostly farmers, but also restaurants and even a few museums. Yesterday, for example, we visited a textile museum that is located within a 15th century church and where they still weave traditional fabrics on 18th century looms. To answer your question: yes, eventually (remember, August!) all of this will be making its way into my app Eat Italy. And we are also trying to work in some of this into our Week in Umbria tours.
Our Week in Italy tours are completely full for the rest of 2018, and even 2019 is filling up fast l. So far I've posted 7 tours and there are only a handful of spots left.
Here is what we still have available:
A Week in Umbria October 20-26, 2019: 5 spots left
A Week in Rome March 17- 23, 2019 4 spots left
A Week in Puglia, April 7-13, 2019: 1 spot left
A Week in Rome November 10-16, 2019: 5 spots left
Send me an email if you'd like more details.
The tour I'm doing with Evan Kleiman in May 2019 filled up in about a minute and a half. I'm so sorry if you didn't get a spot on that tour, but we are already talking about 2020 so stay tuned…Also, I'll be posting about a special tour in early March. It won't be for everyone (it's a very particular theme) but I'm very excited about it!
Although most of my private market tours in Rome are full for the fall, Sophie still has lots of room on her small group tours. Send her an email if you're coming to Rome and know your dates. She would love to show you around Trastevere, Testaccio or Campo de' Fiori.
videos
I always wish I could walk around Rome like it was in the '50's and 60's. This video takes you back a bit further. (St Peters was still a construction site!)
If you're reading this newsletter then chances are you love Italy. If so, then you should be watching Kathy McCables Dream of Italy show. Here's a great article about how it came to be
As many of you know I've got a pretty active instagram account where I share daily life on both the regular feed as well as Stories. And over at YouTube. I post longer videos, that I've had time to edit. Now Instagram wants to get in on the YouTube action and has launched IGTV. Yes, it's another social media app. Oy vey. Anyway…rather than complain I've decided to embrace it and see what happens. I've posted a couple of videos so far, but just to be on the safe side? I'm posting them on YouTube too. As long as they're out there, I figure someone will watch them? Let me know what you think of IGTV and of course, let me know if there are any videos you'd like to see me do. For now I've decided to post videos of me cooking in my kitchen. They are very rough, but I'm having fun doing them.
what I'm reading
I tried to read The Immortalists, but while I found the writing to be excellent, the story was just too dark and depressing for me. Instead I turned to something a bit more escapist and beachy: The Flight Attendant. It's still pretty dark, but not quite as depressing.
Iris Origo's diary provides "a particular, multifaceted view of a country skidding toward disaster." Now seems a good time to read this.
Lisa Abend tackles the problem of too-many-tourists for TIME Magazine. I agree that some of Europe's best-loved cities are over run. But my answer to that is found in Eating My Way Through Italy, where I use food as a way to guide me away from the hordes. It's really not that hard, and it certainly is delicious.
To heat, or not to heat: Melissa Clark tackles the 'raw mozzarella versus cooked atop pizza' question.
Best Gelato in Rome, updated by my friend Elyssa.
What's open in August in Florence from my friend Georgette
and finally....
I did a bunch of radio interviews last month, to talk about Eating My Way through Italy. I chatted with Pauline Frommer on her travel radio show, and with Rudy Maxa on his. I also got together with Evan while I was in California and the segment we taped was on this episode of Good Food.
I also got a chance to chat with Everett Potter at Forbes, about all sorts of things.
In case you missed them, here are some recent things I've been cooking from the blog:
Swiss Chard and Chickpeas (although feel free to sub in any other legume or green)
Green Bean and Mozzarella Salad (again, substitutions accepted and encouraged).
We are currently drowning in tomatoes. Which is a good place to be. I've been slow drying them in the oven, and putting them up in olive oil. But I;ve also got gazpacho on the menu this weekend, and I'm sure to be making Tomatoes stuffed with rice as well as these pasta recipes.
What are you cooking these days? Are you totally over zucchini?
x,Elizabeth
