Santa Margherita Food Quest

I came to Europe without any concrete plan (I get stressed out with too much planning, and since every weekend is usually a new location/destination/adventure I don't like to think about any of my trips until the weekend/wedding I have prior to it has been completed and taken care of.) plus I knew that Mrs. Katie is the Queen of Guidebooks and would have an itinerary all mapped out for us that we could follow.

And I was right.

We woke up in beautiful Portovenere...it was a gloomy day...

But we hopped in the car and headed toward a little town called Riva Trigoso or something where Katie and Semmes had "The Best Pizza of their Life" while they were here on their honeymoon a few years ago.

In case you're wondering exactly where we are...we are here:

Unfortunately said pizza place was closed (we got a late start and got there around 3pm and in Europe if you try to eat anywhere between the hours of 2pm and 6pm they look at you like you are CARAZY). So anyway, they were closed...but we did find this delightful pastry shop with AMAZING desserty snacks!

Don't you just LOOOOVE this cute little cake?

We had this Vanilla Crunchy Cake that was TO DIE FOR.

Then we drove a little farther to Santa Margherita, the gorgeous little town just next to Portofino...

Soy pretty!

Awwwwww...

We LOVES being a professional third wheel!

We wandered around the town a bit...waiting for places to start serving dinner.

There were ham shops...

And pasta shops... teasing us with our every move.

Finally we settled on this cute little bar that provided us with Lambruscos (chilled sparkly red wine that AnneOnoue turned me onto) and lots of snacks.

FINALLY they started taking dinner orders and we had this DELICIOUS DELICIOUS pasta.

It looks like boring normal pasta...but the texture and the taste is honestly unlike anything I've ever found anywhere in the stupid USA.

Because we are major obeses and wanted to experience as much as possible, we ate not one but TWO dinners. Literally we finished our pasta dishes and walked up the street to another of Katie's favorite restaurants to have their weird raw seafood dish...

Their pesto minestrone (pesto was invented in the area, and it is AWESOME)...

And some PESTO PASTA that Semmesey loved almost as much as he loves his little baby...

EuroAdventure Leg 2: Off to the Cinqueterre!

Katie and Semmesey's arrival on Thursday the 18th (wow this is two weeks ago now) signaled the start of Leg 2 of this crazy EuroAdventure.

I was REALLY excited for their arrival and could barely sleep the night before, so I woke up early and headed to Milan airport to await their arrival. I even made them a cute little greeter sign.

We loaded up the car and headed off toward Portovenere, our home for the next 4 days. On the way we stopped in a cute little town of Piacenza for lunch at this fabulous restaurant Katie had read about that offered a 90 Euro set lunch. (TREAT YO SELF)

Turns out the set lunch was only like 45 Euro so we reeaalllyy treated ourselves and ordered some delicious lambruscos!

This was the stuffed calamari dish Katie ordered.

I thought it was scary looking but made her cut it into rings and then I was able to eat it. And it WAS tasty.

I had the steak tartare...

Oh and I LOVES the way the bread was presented...in a little sack, like some thief had snatched it from the breadmaker and secretly dropped it off for our enjoyment. Yes I came up with this whole backstory for our breadbasket the second it was left on our table.

I had this AMAZING Bucatini Amatriciana. It has Bacon. It was EPIC. SO SO SOOOO GOOD. The pasta in Italy is MAGICAL.

Semmesey had Squid Ink pasta. Looks scary but QUITE DELICIOUS.

He also had this calzoney thing. I told him it looked like a hot pocket and wasn't going to take a picture. But then he looked like his feelings had been hurt so I did.

YUM. Here's our menu.

This place was real cute.

Afterwards we walked around town looking at things. European towns are so pretty.

I taught Semmesey how to take pictures.

Aren't these two just adorbs?

But not as adorbs as ME and Semmesey! (Debatable)

A couple hours later and we rolled into Portovenere, the beautiful seaside village that would be our home for the next 4 days.

We got in just in time for sunset.

Katie and Semmes OF COURSE got the Presidential Suite which had the most epic terrace and view.

Night fell...and we met up with Chris and Tara for delicious dinner on a little island that could only be reached by boat.

Cheers!

The waitress asked if we would like them to just surprise us with dishes. We were like "sure". So they brought a FEAST.

This lobster/shramp dish was TO DIE FOR. 

Then came the linguine w/ fruitti di mare aka FRUITS OF THE SEA. After the apps the skinny bitches were like omg how will we eat these while I was thinking MORE FOR ME.

This was my favorite dish we had my entire 3 weeks in europe I think. The pasta was cooked to perfection. And I'm not usually a huge seafood fan but this was so fresh and so clean.

Tara was literally have a brain aneurysm from looking at the foods.

There were raviolis....

And scampi linguines...

I was soy excited to shoot this beautiful bride.

Her groom ain't bad either.

The drinking continued on our boat ride home.

A boat ride filled with love.

I love my job.

I love Italy!

I love Chris and TarTar!