Blog - L'amore Italian Restaurant

August 8, 2019 by Kim Abbott

5 Fun Facts about Italian Food

Whether you’ve grown up eating Italian food or you’re just discovering this famous cuisine, there are a few things you probably don’t know about Italian food – unless you’re Italian!

The next time you go out to an Italian restaurant or have friends over for an Italian dinner party, wow everyone with these five fun facts about Italian food.

1. The Main Meal is Lunch

While Americans say breakfast is the most important meal of the day and typically fill up on dinner after a “light” lunch, the Italians see lunch as the main meal of the day. Typically, pasta is the first course, followed by a meat dish, salad, fruit and dessert. You’ll need a nap after a lunch that size.

2. Morning Coffee Always has Milk

Italians don’t drink their coffee black, at least not in the morning. While traveling in Italy, expect to order a milky coffee like a cappuccino or latte with your breakfast meal.

3. Never Eat and Walk at the Same Time

If you’re in a hurry and expect to grab a meal on the run, forget about it in Italy. In fact, don’t even stand while you’re eating. The whole point of Italian food is to enjoy it. How can that be done if you’re walking down the road or standing on an overcrowded bus? Instead, do like the Italians do and take your time finding pleasure in your food and drink.

4. Pizza was Considered Food for Poor People

Most likely born in Naples, the first style of Italian pizza was called Neapolitan pizza. It was a flatbread that came with a variety of toppings and was sold on the streets to mostly the poor. It wasn’t until 1738 that the first pizza restaurant in Italy opened. It was called Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba.

5. Italians eat Special Foods on Special Holidays

Enjoying food is a big part of Italian culture. During the holidays, this love of food also serves as a symbol of the holiday being celebrated. For example, during the Christmas season, you’ll find many of the following foods gracing the table of Italians:

Cured olives and pickled veggies
All kinds of cheese
Cured meats
Roasted wild game
Lentils
Fish
Fennel
Fresh Fruit
Pandoro

Traditional Easter dishes include:

Lamb
Easter eggs
Salami with boiled eggs
Casatiello napoletano
Torta Pasqualina
Scarcella and Fiadoni
Fresh beans
Pizza di Pasqua

There is so much more to learn about Italian food that this list could be fill many pages. We hope it gets your appetite whet!

July 13, 2019 by Kim Abbott

Consider a Volunteer Vacation in Italy

Volunteer vacations are a popular way to travel, and it’s not just developing countries that need volunteers. In fact, there are plenty of opportunities for a volunteer vacation in Italy.

Read on to learn more about the options and which one is the best match for you.

Help Rebuild an Abandoned Tuscany Village

If you have skills in gardening, building, or general maintenance, consider a unique volunteer experience in beautiful central Tuscany right in the middle of the Casentino National Park forest. You can take part in turning an abandoned village into a sustainable community by helping with the greenhouse, vegetable garden, rainwater storage solutions, design improvements and more on a homestead hotel this spring.

Basically, in exchange for a few hours of work each day, you will be provided with a room and three meals a day. You also have the opportunity to take Italian lessons with the homestead’s neighbor. On your time off, explore the surrounding area, including swimming in the nearby river, going for hikes in the countryside, mountain biking and more.

Teach in Naples

Education is struggling in Naples, Italy. Many students opt to drop out of school to look for work. At the same time, the public schools lack resources for extra-curricular activities. When you volunteer as a teacher in Naples, you will help close this gap by helping out local teachers in public schools, organizing afterschool programs, and running workshops that help students learn English.

The age range you can choose to work with includes 4 to 18 years old. In order to teach English, you’ll need to have a TEFL certificate and pay the volunteer fee. If you choose to volunteer over the summer, you can expect to work with local children as well as newly arrived refugees in a fun, outdoor environment.

Volunteer with Dolphins

Do you love the sea and the creatures within? Then consider living aboard a dolphin research boat for a volunteer vacation to Italy. You will sail along the Ischia coastline on a historical sailing boat in the protected area of Neptune’s Kingdom.

As a volunteer, you’ll find yourself immersed in dolphin conservation that includes studying their behavior and recording bioacoustics and other data. Programs run from 1 to 3 weeks and include a single bunk. The program is open to those aged 16 to 70 with 6 volunteers serving at a time from mid May till the end of September.

Shadow Doctors in Italy

Spend 3 weeks over the summer with the Atlantis Fellowship that provides pre-med students with the opportunity to shadow doctors in international hospitals. This fellowship is AAMC-compliant and gives you a chance to live out your medical passion. You can plan to spend 20 or more hours per week in various medical settings as well as discovering the local culture.

June 15, 2019 by Kim Abbott

5 Tips for Visiting the Vatican

Situated in Rome, the Vatican is the smallest country in the world and one of the most visited. With so much to see and do in this ancient place in the heart of Italy, you’ll want to plan ahead to make the most out of your trip. Read on to learn about 5 tips for visiting the Vatican.

1. Book Your Museum Tickets Online in Advance

The Vatican Museum and Saint Peter’s Basilica are two of the most visited museums in Rome. While the Vatican is the home of the Pope and the Catholic Church, it also houses numerous art collections, including Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, which sees 4 million visitors a year.

Due to the tremendous popularity of these sites, it’s best to secure your tickets online well in advance. This way, you’ll avoid the long line to purchase tickets and be certain you’ll get in that day. You can buy your tickets directly at the Vatican website.

2. Visit Early or Late in the Day

You may have skipped the long line by purchasing your tickets in advance, but you’ll still have the crowds to deal with once inside. To avoid the height of the crowds, it’s best to visit the museums either early or late in the day when there are fewer people. Keep in mind that around 25,000 people visit the Vatican museum every day.

The museum opens at 9am and closes at 6pm. The last Sunday of every month is a free day so if you want to save money, you can plan for this day – but be warned – you need to go early as there will be a very large crowd this day and you’ll find yourself waiting in line for hours otherwise.

3. Go During Tuesday – Friday

To avoid the mass crowds, it’s best to avoid the Vatican from Saturday through Monday when it receives the most visitors. Avoiding the large crowds gives you more time to explore at your own pace and relax a bit while doing it. The last thing you want is to rush through the sites while trying to peer over someone’s head the whole time.

4. Visit During the Off-Season

If you’re able, consider visiting the Vatican during the off-season when there are fewer people and travel to Italy is generally cheaper. The off-season runs from mid-January to March and from November to mid-December. The weather will be mild and comfortable for a day of sight-seeing at the Vatican.

5. Dress Appropriately

You’ll need to be dressed appropriately to be allowed into the museum and Basilica. For women, this means covering shoulders, midriffs, thighs, and your neckline. Leave the shorts and tank tops at home and go for long dresses, skirt, or pants. Pack a shawl to cover your shoulders. For men, wear a long t-shirt or nice top with long shorts or pants. You’ll also want to pack light as all purses and backpacks are inspected before entry.

May 3, 2019 by Kim Abbott

How Many Different Pasta Shapes are There?

We all know about spaghetti, penne, rigatoni and other pasta shapes, but did you know there are over 350 different pasta shapes?

That’s right. You can choose from hundreds of different types of pasta for your next authentic Italian meal – whether dining in or out. Read on to learn more about the fascinating world of pasta.

Pasta Groups

Overall, pasta is classified into different groups. For example there is the long pasta group, the tube pasta group, the soup pasta group, the stuffed pasta group, and the special shapes pasta group. Each group has a number of different kinds of pasta attributed to it.

Spaghetti and angel hair fit into the long group, while penne is considered a tube pasta, orzo and alphabet are soup pastas, ravioli and tortellini are stuffed pasta, and fusilli and farfalle are considered special shape pasta. Not only are there many different shapes, but many types of pasta have more than one name. For example, farfalle is also called bowtie or butterfly pasta.

Pasta Shapes

So why are there so many different pasta shapes?

The answer is simple. Texture and sauce.

The way pasta holds a sauce is paramount to Italian cooking. In general, chefs use different pasta shapes and sizes depending upon what kind of sauce they want to cook. For example, if a chef makes a superior thin sauce, he’ll want to pair it with thin pasta like angel hair.

On the other hand, if he prepares a thick sauce, he will serve it with a thick pasta, such as rigatoni whose grooves will hold the thick sauce for optimum flavor. A cream sauce goes best with flat pasta, such as linguine while a traditional tomato sauce goes best with round shaped pasta like shells.

When it comes to stuffed pasta, ravioli, manicotti, and large shells are just some options. For soups, pastine, which means little pasta, is another great choice.

Why not make an effort to try a pasta shape you’ve never had before? Either choose something new from the menu at your favorite Italian restaurant or try your hand at cooking with a pasta shape you’ve never used.

There are multiple recipe books on the market that focus strictly on pasta shapes, how to cook them, and what sauces to pair with them. By experimenting with different pasta shapes, you’ll open a whole new world of Italian cuisine that you never even knew existed.

5 Fun Facts about Italian Food

Consider a Volunteer Vacation in Italy

5 Tips for Visiting the Vatican

How Many Different Pasta Shapes are There?

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