Spring has got to be the best time to visit Italy.
The sky is so blue, the countryside is so green, and the produce is so fresh -- it's hard to imagine that Italy could be any better than that.
Walking through the market in Rialto, Cory and I lamented to each other that we didn't have a kitchen. Spring's bounty was just too beautiful to a couple of foodies without a means to cook it all! It's a very strong possibility that a kitchen will be a requirement wherever we stay on our next Italian adventure. I was especially woeful that I wouldn't be able to read any of the cookbooks that could tell us how to take advantage of the harvest -- what a great reason to learn a language!
The markets that Cory and I went to in Florence and Venice really showed me that not only is an appreciation of food totally lost on Americans, we are also woefully lacking an understanding of how that food fits into our culture and the rhythm of our lives. I learned a new word when I was there: gastronomy. This is simply the study of a culture and its food. What have the Italians figured out that we're lacking? It's things like going to the market every day to get the freshest ingredients, it's using foods that are locally available and in season, and it's sitting down to eat a meal in courses, rather than wolfing it down all at once, and really tasting what you're eating. I can understand why Americans don't concentrate on our food -- frankly our food sucks because we haven't figured out what the Italians have and we don't have pictures like the one I'm showing today as everyday experiences in our lives.
