I hate to admit it, but sometimes the temptation is too overwhelming. I have become one of “those” people. You know, the ones who endlessly snap photos of their plates of food so they can be posted on Facebook and Instagram.

But when you find yourself in Castel di Sangro, staying at Casa Donna and eating at Niko Romito’s three starred Reale, you HAVE to take photos.

These are just a few shots from the nine platings we had for dinner.

The spaghetti with oyster.

The tortellini with chicken.

The duck breast.

All of these were paired with the most amazing wines.

I really do need to practice my food photography if I ever get the chance to eat like this again!

So here we are in Abruzzo in this wonderful village of Santo Stefani di Sessanio. It is on the edge of the Gran Sasso National Park. The vistas are wonderful. The village itself has an interesting history. Almost destroyed in the 2009 earthquake, a Swedish investor (we got the opportunity to meet him) bought up most of the village and is having it restored using the ancient methods ( no concrete, local stones, etc.). It is beautiful and rustic. The tower completely collapsed in the earthquake and there are efforts underway to restore it to its original grandeur.

The Emilio Romagna region supplies a good portion of Italy’s food. You can drive for miles through farmland dotted with small towns and churches.

The courtyard of our hotel was home to seven peacocks. They are beautiful birds, but really LOUD.

It’s all about the culatello here, even the children’s play things have a pig theme.

Parma is the largest city in the area. It is a big university town. At one point in time the city apparently looked more like New York City with all of the towers, but these are pretty much the only two remaining.

It’s still pretty hard to beat the Tuscan countryside for its’ beauty.

The little town of Pienza is known for their pecorino cheese. There are so many to try! Of course, you are never short of a good local wine to accompany your cheese!

There really is no place better to start a food tour of Italy than in the Emilia Romagna region. Home of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, culatello, Lambrusco wines, balsamic vinegar, and the world’s best restaurant, one could stay for weeks and still not sample everything the area has to offer.

Our home for the first few days of our trip has been an old customs house on the banks of the River Po, halfway between Milan and Bologna. That’s Eric waving from the tower window (only kidding). It’s wonderful to be awakened each morning to the lowing of cows in the distance, the cooing of doves in the rafters and the incredibly loud squawk of the peacocks in the courtyard.

We made it to FICO Eataly in Bologna. It gets mixed reviews, but for those uninitiated to all the delicacies Italy has to offer, it’s a great place to find out more. We did eat Ragu Bolognese in Bologna and also shopped for my favorite designer there (hopefully I will be able to fit into those clothes after this trip).

Some of our interesting side trips have included a tour of parmigiano reggiano producer, a culatello producer (who also owns the hotel and restaurant where we are staying), a local winery, and a balsamic vinegar producer.

The story behind how you make parmigiano reggiano is fascinating. It gets aged a minimum of twelve months. We were able to visit the local producer, Censi. The photo below is just one of the rows of the cheese they have aging. It’s interesting to see just how much of the production is done by hand.

The area is still very much known for it’s
Parma ham, but everything is very localized. It’s
probably produced about twenty miles from here, but that doesn’t stop one from have a bit of Parma ham curing nearby.

He real story here is the culatello. Our hotelier is a key producer. He even has a museum on the premises. A classic meal here will include a sampling of culatello’s aged for different intervals. One of the aging cellars (below) is just three floors below our room. I believe his grandfather used to cure culatello for Verdi who lived about 15 miles from here. The cellar has names of people and restaurants around the globe that it’s reserved for. I believe we can get it now in the US, but it wasn’t available until the end of last year.

Will send more when I take a break between food and drink stops!

What a lovely city. Aside from the Old Town, there is a dynamic warehouse/design district filled with young people.

And we couldn’t have asked for better weather!

Country 69 together!

They have statues honoring the Sputnik chimp (we think).

How they advertise “fine dining” is worrisome.

And the night sky at 8:30 pm is still very blue!

What a pleasant surprise!

Vilnius certainly has earned a thumbs up from us so far. Trying the regional foods tonight.

This is country 67 together!

Just a few pictures to give you an idea how lovely it is here.

And country number 66 together! Norway. It is truly a beautiful place. Miles of unspoiled shoreline. So glad we get to see it from the water.