My venture

Pecorino....the main cheese found in the Tuscany....produced from sheep milk....in fact the name comes because a sheep in Italian is called Pecora. Today was the day we decided to visit one of the factories outside Pienza where they make pecorino cheese. Giuseppe, one of the four brothers who ownes it, conducted the tour. He has a special personality and he definitely made the tour fabulous. You can just see the passion and the pride, which i thought was amazing. He took about 30 minutes to explain in detail how pecorino is made, it was rather interesting....let me summarize a little.... The raw milk is mixed with rennet (enymes) to curdle it. The curds sink to the bottom of the container and are scooped out to dry before being placed in a salt solution. The set cheese is then formed into rounds. These are then placed in a cool humid cellar. The rinds are periodically dampened, Fattoria Pianporcino use tomato paste...which gives the ride dish appearance. One can also use olive oil. F...

Beautiful setting...summer day...Sunday lunch....as i have written in a previous blog of mine, the food at La Porta was truely amazing...but that was a tasting menu....this time...we would order a la carte. We decided on a Sunday lunch....out on the terrace. My friend, Michelle, was with us from London...and unfortunately, Kim, was on the ship.... We arrived around 1pm and left around 3:30pm...what does that tell you, in short....we had a great lunch. First order.....a bittle of spumante....brut and white. Starters...we decided to share a taglieri and a steak tartar....let me share some pics.... Taglieri Steak tartar The taglieri was phenomenal, beautifully cut, the melon was sweet and tasty, the cheeses great and in fact quite a big platter when it says on the menu for two people, delicious. The steak tartar was unfortunately a let down, although beautifully presented, well cut, it lacked in flavour, it needed a lot of seasoning, it just lacked the umpf, quite sad about that because...

Another lunch out....this time in a little quaint village called Castelmuzio, the name of the place Casal Mustia. It is situated in the middle of the old town, there is outside seating as well as inside seating, not much though. We decided to sit outside on the little veranda as it was a beautiful summer day. Entrance and left and right is outside seating Inside Inside We ordered some acqua frizzante and waited to order mains as the kitchen only opens at 12:30. We studied the menu and i must say quite a few things were appealing and very reasonable pricing. I was debating the burrato caprese or the carpaccio.....in the end i decided on the carpaccio and a glass of prosecco. In fact, all of us had a glass and three of us ordered carpaccio while Mutti ordered the potato souffle. The service is not good, unfortuanately, prosecco was served warm, we asked three times for a baby chair and the answer was always "sure, right away", also when we asked for olive oil, salt and pepp...

As promised.....Split....Croatia...the three os us left the ship around 9:30...walked into the old town and strolled the city a little bit....a lot of it is car free which is fabulous. There was also quite a big markets selling clothes and fruits and vegetables....actually quite a nice atmposphere and some nice baby clothes. Of course there was also a cappuccino needed. We sat down in one of the squares and ordered two cappuccini. When we ordered i saw this beautiful apple struddle going to a table near us....so i had to call the waiter and ask what that was..he said it was their sweet breakfast consisting of a cappuccini, orange juice and an apple struddle....kim and i changed our minds and said we wanted one of those....and guess what....it was so worth it....beautifully presented and so damn yummie. The place was called NoStress. Cappuccino and orange juice Apple struddle After that....some more strolling and then Sofia decided to take a nap...so we thought, we sit down again and a...

So....let me combine a few cappuccino experiences.....first up...Koper, Slovenia. I have been there before and it is a small walking town. The great thing is that the ship docks right by the old town so literally a 5min walk...we had some lunch on the ship...so it was cappuccino and dessert time outside. I remembered this little chocolate cafe place so that is where we headed first....let me share a pic of the walking street as well as the cafe outside... Walking street Koper Chocolate cafe Of course, we cannot go to a chocolate cafe without having chocolate and coffee....me, my cappuccino, kim his macchiato.....i chose a walnut praline and kim chose a pistaccio praline...they were ok, not great, cause they were melting and thus the temperature of the chocolate was not great and hence the taste was not what it was supposed to be. The cappuccino was ok, a little bit weak and also not enough foam...in other words...i sadly would have to say, we would not run back to this place....let me...