italy Archives : Me, Annie Bee. https://meanniebee.com/tag/italy/ A not so serious blog about family, life & wine. Sat, 05 Mar 2022 17:19:40 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://meanniebee.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cropped-MABFav-32x32.png italy Archives : Me, Annie Bee. https://meanniebee.com/tag/italy/ 32 32 125685776 Visiting Tuscany with children. https://meanniebee.com/2018/07/09/visiting-tuscany-with-children/ https://meanniebee.com/2018/07/09/visiting-tuscany-with-children/#comments Mon, 09 Jul 2018 17:40:04 +0000 http://meanniebee.com/?p=6659 I have found only two downsides to getting married in secret. The lack of hen do. The lack of honeymoon. Obviously, neither of these are important at all but both would have been nice. I may have recently spent a little self-indulgent time researching a fake honeymoon – judge away – and I have found myself drawn to the idea of renting a beautiful little villa in Tuscany. I imagine Rory and I visiting vineyards, learning about how the wine is made and then, obviously, drinking it. We would spend time meandering around Florence, taking in the architecture. Given that the region is considered the birth place of Italian Renaissance, it would be entirely rude not to see Michelangelo’s ‘David’ in The Galleria dell’Accademia or visit the Uffizi Gallery, the home to Da Vinci, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Bellini and Uccello. It’s a former art students idea of heaven! We could then climb the 414 steps to Giotto’s bell tower, or drink coffee and people watch at Piazzo Santo Spirito. The conversation would be quiet and uninterrupted, we would visit Cascate del Mulino to bask in the thermal baths and spend our evenings sitting on the terrace drinking wine that we saw made and purchased locally. It would be perfect.  Unfortunately, we have children and so any honeymoon, or trip to Tuscany, would unfortunately no doubt include them too. Our holiday requirements, as a couple or a family, are simple. A nice place to stay, some good views, a bit of culture and food & wine in abundance is all we ask. Would visiting Tuscany with children be an option? Accommodation I’ve mentioned previously, that we prefer to holiday self catering whether the children are with us or not. Nothing makes me shudder as much as the idea of us all sharing one room for a week. I prefer our own place with our own pool, pretending to live like locals. I mean who doesn’t love perusing markets in small medieval towns? A trip to a foreign supermarket fills me with more joy than it probably should. Luckily, there are an abundance of rental options in the region. Whether you are looking for a small serviced apartment or a family villa with a private pool, somewhere coastal or somewhere rural. There is something for everyone. Food Tuscany is renowned for its inexpensive, good quality, simple foods. Local delicacies include Papa al Pomodoro, Ribollita and Lampredotto. However, if your kids, like mine, are adverse to munching on the fourth stomach of a cow (yes, really) many places offer pizza and pasta galore. In this region it seems that most eateries are very family friendly. Wine here includes Montepulciano, Montalcino and Chianti but, as with most wine-producing regions, you really can’t go wrong ordering a bottle of local ‘house’ wine. It’s usually considerably cheaper but no less tasty. What to do Whether you favour coast or mountain, it seems almost impossible to get bored in Tuscany, with or without children. With seven UNESCO world heritage sites, a vast and colourful cultural history, good food and wine in abundance, it ticks all the boxes. Florence offers more astounding architecture, art galleries and museums than you can shake a stick at. Many of these offer interactive exhibits and workshops for children. It’s also a compact city, meaning that there’s no need to rely on public transport to get around. At Pisa you can climb the leaning tower (or just take one of those hilarious ‘stop it toppling’ photos), visit the botanical gardens, stroll along the Arno and see medieval palaces. Visit the port city of Livorno with its canals, cobbled streets and, of course, Terrazza Mascagini. Built in the 1920s, 34,800 black and white tiles create the iconic checkerboard seafront boulevard. Where better to enjoy gelato before hitting the beach? Festivals As if all that wasn’t quite enough, the villages, towns and cities throughout Tuscany are often celebrating something with festivals all through the year. In March, Sagra delle fritelle is celebrated in Montefioralle, a weekend dedicated to the humble fried rice cake. Radda nel Bicchiere in May is a wine festival offering tastings of the best wines of Radda in Chianti. June sees Calcio Storico which is, as I understand it, is a hybrid of football and boxing that dates back to the 1500s. Monteriggioni Festa Medievale takes place in July, celebrating and re-enacting medieval events of the area. These are just a handful of the many festivals that take place. They celebrate EVERYTHING. Without a doubt, Tuscany looks to be the ideal place to immerse ourselves in culture and soak up local life and tradition on a honeymoon or as a family. That is hands down more interesting than sitting by a pool for a week.   This post is written in collaboration with To Tuscany.   

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]]> https://meanniebee.com/2018/07/09/visiting-tuscany-with-children/feed/ 1 6659 Weekly Winedown #41 Colpasso Primitivo https://meanniebee.com/2018/06/22/weekly-winedown-41-colpasso-primitivo/ https://meanniebee.com/2018/06/22/weekly-winedown-41-colpasso-primitivo/#respond Fri, 22 Jun 2018 18:17:44 +0000 http://meanniebee.com/?p=6603 Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review. Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro. The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy. Forgive me for I have sinned, It’s been three whole weeks since my last winedown. THAT’S how bad the English wine was! Even thinking about it now makes me shudder. For reasons unknown, I’ve barely consumed any wine over the last few weeks. My allegiance seems to have changed to gin, saying that I DID share a rather nice bottle of Zinfandel with a friend last Friday and it looks like my wine passion has been reignited! That and the fact I stacked it on the school run today which means it’s a need wine kind of a day. After weeks of lousy weather, we have a heat wave coming (allegedly), this teamed with the fact we are going away in a month makes me VERY happy and so sent me to Italy for my wine choice today. Let us say Ciao Bella to Colpasso Primitivo, an Italian red from the Puglia. Sounds exciting right? Let’s see! The Label I like the label, it’s cheery. It’s like the floor tiles you get in a Mediterranean villa or tavern type place. You know the lovely, rustic little local places owned by very old, very Italian people. Like I’ve seen on the TV. It’s a very attractive label, it’s creating a summer vibe and I’m sucking it up! The Blurb Primitivo has been grown in the region of Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, for hundreds of years. Colpasso Primitivo is the perfect combination of local tradition and modern wine-making, being robust at the same time as smooth and silky. Rich in fruit with a certain “savoury” feel, Colpasso Primitivo has an abundance of ripe, dark berry flavours and is the perfect accompaniment to rich, meaty pasta dishes.  Well, that sounds busy doesn’t it? Old and new, strong and smooth, fruit and savoury…it’s certainly hedging it’s bets. Let’s see if it is the glass of sunshine I’m hoping for! Hmm, so, when I pour it looks thin. A trait of an insipid wine. With an aroma of warm rubber and sweet fruit, it’s not the most appetising smell, especially as this has to go in my mouth. The taste is certainly smooth, I was expecting something a little more full bodied with a hint of spice maybe. It was more dark fruits and a little bitter. Using the benchmark set by the English wine THIS IS AMAZING. Using other wines as a benchmark, maybe not quite so. It’s inoffensive, not worth shouting about. If you want to spend £7.99 on wine, I’d suggest going to Aldi and buying their premium/prestige Zinfandel. I have popped the rest of this bottle in the fridge as I think chilled, it will lose some of that bitter edge and become a decent vin. Name – The Colpasso Primitivo Price – £7.49 Colour – A light red Smell – warm and rubbery Taste – Dark berries but bitter Goes well with – Hopefully a big fat curry Overall score – 3/5 – painfully average.    

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]]> https://meanniebee.com/2018/06/22/weekly-winedown-41-colpasso-primitivo/feed/ 0 6603 Weekly Winedown #39 La Deliziosa Pinot Grigio https://meanniebee.com/2018/05/25/weekly-winedown-39-la-deliziosa-pinot-grigio/ https://meanniebee.com/2018/05/25/weekly-winedown-39-la-deliziosa-pinot-grigio/#respond Fri, 25 May 2018 18:44:58 +0000 http://meanniebee.com/?p=6349 Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review. Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro. The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy Today is a doozy of a day isn’t it? We’ll start light… After relentless spamming of our inboxes, the new GDPR rules have come into play. I, for one, was looking forward to an empty inbox from today. How mistaken I was, the emails have changed from ‘Please don’t let this be goodbye’ to ‘Please read our new privacy policy’. It made me feel popular at first but now it’s just doing my head in. I’m also pretty bitter because I spent far too many hours yesterday creating my own privacy policy. I’m not getting that day back. EVER. Blogging wasn’t meant to be this HARD but I am now compliant. Or at least I’m quite compliant… This afternoon, Harvey Weinstein and his stupid, smug face handed themselves into police in New York. He has, at this moment, been charged with rape and other accounts of sexual abuse against two women. It’s the tip of the iceberg but hopefully gives every other woman who has suffered at his hands the hope that their voice will be heard and taken as seriously and he will be held accountable. Also, Morgan Freeman? FFS man! I thought you were a good guy! Today is also a massive day for Ireland who are voting on the Irish abortion referendum. This is a pretty big deal and we won’t know the results for sure until late into the night/tomorrow morning, so I’m not going to bang on about it. I will say that I truly hope that this doesn’t become Ireland’s Trump or Brexit. I hope that Ireland votes in favour of women being allowed to make their own choices and have control over their own bodies. I told you it was a doozy of a day! In other, not even nearly as important news, today is National Wine Day (in America) and tomorrow sees the start of National English Wine week! A whole week of celebrating English wine AND I ONLY FOUND OUT TODAY. It’s OK though because next weeks wine will be English to celebrate! This week, however,  we are going to enjoy an Italian Pinot Grigio, yeah you heard, this week is a white wine. I chose it because it was gloriously warm and sunny when I did my online shop. Obviously, the shopping arrived in the cold and rain so I’m not sure I’m feeling it now…. I’ll persist though, for YOU. Ciao bello to La Deliziosa Pinot Grigio, currently £6.99 a bottle. The Label Well, this is a fancy pants, two label bottle of wine. One label simply has the brand name surrounded by a silver doily effect. Then underneath is a second, green and white label with the type of wine and a little description. It’s very confusing. The top label looks like weddings and the bottom one reminds me of apples. The top one is aloof and doesn’t need to tell YOU anything, the bottom one panicked that you’d walk past so provided the information you required. The Blurb Enjoy on it’s own or with zesty salads and grilled fish *Picks the bottle up and looks closer* Yes, that’s literally all it says! Luckily the chatty label on the front gives us more of a hint. Pinot perfection. Freshly picked apple and ripe melon. Salute!  So yes, all signs are pointing to apples. I’ll be honest, it’s making my tongue go funny just thinking about it. When I think of apples I think of Granny Smith’s which I hate. However, I do usually love a good Pinot so let’s crack this one open! The nose is pretty subtle, fresh with apples. Not Granny Smith’s though – pleasant apples. The taste is not unpleasant, it’s not a connoisseurs wine by any stretch of the imagination but it is wholly inoffensive. It’s a still, crisp wine. Dry but not dusty. The biggest hit is almost pear like (melon?) with a citrus finish. This is the kind of wine I crave on a hot day, to say it’s raining it’s held itself well. Name – La Deliziosa Pinto Grigio Price – £6.99 (should be £9.99) Colour – Pale straw Smell – Fresh apples Taste – pear and citrus Goes well with – Probably anything Overall score – a decent 3.5/5    

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]]> https://meanniebee.com/2018/05/25/weekly-winedown-39-la-deliziosa-pinot-grigio/feed/ 0 6349 Weekly Winedown #14 Araldica Barbera D’Asti Superiore https://meanniebee.com/2017/08/04/weekly-winedown-14-araldica-barbera-dasti-superiore/ https://meanniebee.com/2017/08/04/weekly-winedown-14-araldica-barbera-dasti-superiore/#respond Fri, 04 Aug 2017 18:59:44 +0000 http://meanniebee.com/?p=4904 Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review. Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro. The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy. I’m back!! Is that a collective whoop of glee I hear? I choose to tell myself it is! We find ourselves in week two of the school holidays. Week one was spent in France, basking in temperatures of around 30 degrees, make up free with massive hair and drinking the most wonderful local red wines. Days were spent at the beach or in the pool, taking in spectacular views and wishing we lived there. Week two has been spent here in Leeds. Huddling in the house with the heating on, avoiding external temperatures of 15 degrees, face full of slap and hair ruined by the drizzle/rain/hail/wind (you choose) drinking lovely red wine but tasting the miles that have been put into them. Days have been spent at washed out activities, arguing, falling out and wishing we lived there. France, not here. Thank crunchie Friday is here at last because now I can drink wine with purpose. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! After drinking a LOT of good French wine I decided to opt for something different this week. I had a look at a wine from Israel. Luckily for the first time ever I checked the details and saw it was a dessert wine thereby avoiding catastrophe. We ALL know red wine should never be sweet or thin. I looked again and opted for an Italian red. Tonight I will mostly be enjoying (hopefully) Araldica Barbera D’Asti Superiore on offer at £6.74 at Ocado this week. I have decided to christen my wine for this evening ‘Babs’. Bargain. The word ‘Asti’ always makes me think of sparkling white wine. In this case I am assuming that D’Asti means ‘from Asti’ rather than fizzy. I HOPE that’s what it means. Today my brain cannot cope with fizzy red wine. And so, to the label! It’s one of those simple yet elegant designs, off white with red and black type and an embossed logo. Clean and straight to the point. It’s obviously tried really hard to look like it’s not tried hard. It works, I’m sucked in, it looks well expensive and feels like posh business cards. “Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my God. It even has a watermark.”   10 points if you got that cultural gem. Back to it….   The Blurb “…This is a soft, warm, mature red wine. It has been aged for at least a year in large old oak casks. Cherry and plum fruit character is overlaid with delicate smoky wood scents, a welcoming red that perfectly accompanies grilled meats, roasted vegetables or pasta dishes with tomato based sauces.” Since doing these Winedowns I have discovered that words like ‘warm’, ‘oak’ and ‘spicy’ usually point to a wine I enjoy. Something full bodied. I am hoping this is the case today though ‘Asti’ keeps playing on my mind. I’m getting a fear of sweet and fizzy. It’s OK though, it’s got ‘Superiore’ in its name that means the same in English right? Here goes….. The bouquet is plummy, it makes the back of my tongue go all fizzy, like it’s going to be a bit bitter. It’s not sparkly, hooray! The taste is interesting, there is a definite smoky after taste, one that you’d expect with a full bodied wine but this isn’t full bodied. It’s sweet, not too sweet but it is thin in texture. We all know I like a thick wine! It tastes more like a really good quality rose than a red wine. It’s a confusing wine but I like it. A proper wineventure (copyrighting this). With Seth’s insistence on waking between 4.20 & 5.20 am for the last two weeks and Aoife deciding that sleeping through the night is for losers, this has been a week of exhaustion. I KNOW some parents with babies are suffering worse than I. I know they are up four or five times in the night but you know what? We’ve done our share of that. We signed up for it and we got through it. Ours are 3 and 6, we should be the parents enjoying a full night’s sleep and telling those with babies that one day it will pass and they will be sleeping through! I should be smug mum not tired mum! The tiredness and the crappy weather has ensured that the end of my tether has certainly been close at hand this week. Next week can only get better right?   Name – Araldica Barbera D’Asti Superiore Price – £6.74 Colour – Rich Red Smell – Plummy Taste – Spicy but thin Goes well with – The anger I feel toward my technology. Overall score – 3.5/5 Salut 

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