Jamikins and Bikerscott in Le Marche and the Dolomites
Sep 29th, 2013, 02:28 PM
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Jamikins and Bikerscott in Le Marche and the Dolomites
Hello fellow Fodorites!
We are off yet again and have just spent the last week in Le Marche at our favourite place La Tavola Marche www.latavolamarche.com
Scott hasnt had time to write up his usual blog posts but thought I would share our photos:
The first 72 photos are from Le Marche:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7634528008046/
Highlights so far:
- Butchery course where we butchered a pig with a true Italian pic farmer and had lunch and spent the day with his lovely family
- Did a Gelato course, learning how scientific it is - made beer, tomato and basil, and fig sorbet and chocolate, vanilla and gorganzola gelato - YUM!
- spent the day canning tomatoes
- enjoyed great food and wine in the least touristed area of Italy that we have been to
- attended the Appechio seafood and beer fest
Loved every minute. We are now in the Dolomites in Ortisei and looking forward to a weekend of enjoying what this very different region has to offer!
We are off yet again and have just spent the last week in Le Marche at our favourite place La Tavola Marche www.latavolamarche.com
Scott hasnt had time to write up his usual blog posts but thought I would share our photos:
The first 72 photos are from Le Marche:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7634528008046/
Highlights so far:
- Butchery course where we butchered a pig with a true Italian pic farmer and had lunch and spent the day with his lovely family
- Did a Gelato course, learning how scientific it is - made beer, tomato and basil, and fig sorbet and chocolate, vanilla and gorganzola gelato - YUM!
- spent the day canning tomatoes
- enjoyed great food and wine in the least touristed area of Italy that we have been to
- attended the Appechio seafood and beer fest
Loved every minute. We are now in the Dolomites in Ortisei and looking forward to a weekend of enjoying what this very different region has to offer!
Sep 30th, 2013, 05:54 AM
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Two Weeks in Italy – Le Marche and the Dolomites
Le Marche
Our first week in Italy was all about relaxation and scoping areas to live. We returned for the third time in less than 14 months to La Tavola Marche in the remote hills in the middle (more or less) of a triangle formed by the towns of Piobbico, Appechio, and Sant Angelo in Vado. As we’ve spent so much time in this area recently, there wasn’t a huge amount on our list of things to do or see, so we didn’t keep a day-by-day record (mostly it would have consisted of something along the lines of “Went to a place for lunch, came back to the house to drink wine and relax, lit a fire in the evening, read our books). An interesting side-note – we’ve just worked out that we’ve spent more time with Jason and Ashley at La Tavola Marche in the last year and a half than we have with my family in the last 6 years…
The highlights of the week included, in no particular order:
A pork butchery course organized by Jason and Ashley. We followed Jason up into the hills behind Urbino and back into the 1800’s as far as we could see. We cut down a half pig into its parts, making sausages, salami, saving bits for various other types of preservation, chops, legs for prosciutto, etc. It was an interesting day, if a bit gory.
The farm itself was a step back in time – they had electricity but I don’t think used it that much, heat and hot water was provided by fires (including an ancient water heater in the corner that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the old wild west), cooked bread in a homemade oven in the back garden, and had pigs, cows, chickens, geese, dogs, and all sort of other animals running around. We had a beautiful lunch with the family on a little balcony they’d built on the hill overlooking the valley and farm – felt like we were part of an Italian family lunch.
A gelato course – Antonio from Maki Gelato in Fano bought a portable gelato machine and is going to be offering courses at La Tavola Marche with Jason, teaching the more scientific than expected method of making gelato and sorbet (FAR more math than I thought I’d ever have to do outside of school – Mr. Roberts, I guess you’ve had the last laugh on this one…). We made traditional favourites Vanilla Cream and Chocolate, but also experimental versions with fig sorbet that Jason paired with prosciutto, fresh tomato and basil (both from the garden) which was paired with buffalo mozzarella and more fresh tomatoes, gorgonzola ice cream (which I wasn’t a big fan of, but I’m not a big gorgonzola fan, it was Jamie's favourite!), and my personal favourite – beer sorbet (made with local beer) paired with peanuts and crisps. More here on Ashley’s blog: http://latavolamarche.blogspot.it/20...ss-gelato.html
A driving trip through a 2.5 kilometre tunnel to visit San Leo and Sassocorvaro. We discovered that we weren't huge fans of the countryside around San Leo, but loved the area around Macerata Feltria and Sassocorvaro – it seemed as rugged and remote as Piobbico and Appechio, but a bit more populated with slightly larger towns. I say slightly larger towns, but this isn’t actually saying much. Sort of like saying one very small grape is slightly larger than another very small grape, both of which are sitting next to a 15-kilo watermelon. The watermelon being Rome or Florence. Not a classic analogy, but it works I think.
A locally organized “How to Increase Tourism to Le Marche” night in Appeccio at which Ashley spoke – the town had organized a local beer and fish dinner (there are at least two artisanal breweries in the area, including our personal favourite La Collesi which also makes really good grappa). This may have been the highlight – I think the entire town was out to have a good time, with local boys “Pennabilli Social Club” providing music and all the little girls of the village providing dancing (the boys were busy setting things on fire or breaking things, based on what I was doing as a little boy while the little girls were dancing). It was hugely entertaining to watch the farmers dressed up in their best for the night out, and even more entertaining to watch what I assume must’ve been the out of town Italian women dressed to the nines with the highest of all high heels tottering around on the cobbles.
For us, Le Marche doesn’t have the big tourist attractions and events of nearby Tuscany or other parts of Italy, but that’s part of the draw for us. Every time we drive from Bologna down the A14 past Rimini towards Fano, turn off and drive into the hills, we feel like we’re coming home. We know every hill and turn from Acqualagna to La Tavola Marche, and love the quiet villages and towns of the area. We took the time on this trip to keep a special eye out for places we could settle, when the hustle and business of London gets too much for us – we’ve added a couple of valleys to our list, and will be watching the properties websites for deals.
Le Marche
Our first week in Italy was all about relaxation and scoping areas to live. We returned for the third time in less than 14 months to La Tavola Marche in the remote hills in the middle (more or less) of a triangle formed by the towns of Piobbico, Appechio, and Sant Angelo in Vado. As we’ve spent so much time in this area recently, there wasn’t a huge amount on our list of things to do or see, so we didn’t keep a day-by-day record (mostly it would have consisted of something along the lines of “Went to a place for lunch, came back to the house to drink wine and relax, lit a fire in the evening, read our books). An interesting side-note – we’ve just worked out that we’ve spent more time with Jason and Ashley at La Tavola Marche in the last year and a half than we have with my family in the last 6 years…
The highlights of the week included, in no particular order:
A pork butchery course organized by Jason and Ashley. We followed Jason up into the hills behind Urbino and back into the 1800’s as far as we could see. We cut down a half pig into its parts, making sausages, salami, saving bits for various other types of preservation, chops, legs for prosciutto, etc. It was an interesting day, if a bit gory.
The farm itself was a step back in time – they had electricity but I don’t think used it that much, heat and hot water was provided by fires (including an ancient water heater in the corner that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the old wild west), cooked bread in a homemade oven in the back garden, and had pigs, cows, chickens, geese, dogs, and all sort of other animals running around. We had a beautiful lunch with the family on a little balcony they’d built on the hill overlooking the valley and farm – felt like we were part of an Italian family lunch.
A gelato course – Antonio from Maki Gelato in Fano bought a portable gelato machine and is going to be offering courses at La Tavola Marche with Jason, teaching the more scientific than expected method of making gelato and sorbet (FAR more math than I thought I’d ever have to do outside of school – Mr. Roberts, I guess you’ve had the last laugh on this one…). We made traditional favourites Vanilla Cream and Chocolate, but also experimental versions with fig sorbet that Jason paired with prosciutto, fresh tomato and basil (both from the garden) which was paired with buffalo mozzarella and more fresh tomatoes, gorgonzola ice cream (which I wasn’t a big fan of, but I’m not a big gorgonzola fan, it was Jamie's favourite!), and my personal favourite – beer sorbet (made with local beer) paired with peanuts and crisps. More here on Ashley’s blog: http://latavolamarche.blogspot.it/20...ss-gelato.html
A driving trip through a 2.5 kilometre tunnel to visit San Leo and Sassocorvaro. We discovered that we weren't huge fans of the countryside around San Leo, but loved the area around Macerata Feltria and Sassocorvaro – it seemed as rugged and remote as Piobbico and Appechio, but a bit more populated with slightly larger towns. I say slightly larger towns, but this isn’t actually saying much. Sort of like saying one very small grape is slightly larger than another very small grape, both of which are sitting next to a 15-kilo watermelon. The watermelon being Rome or Florence. Not a classic analogy, but it works I think.
A locally organized “How to Increase Tourism to Le Marche” night in Appeccio at which Ashley spoke – the town had organized a local beer and fish dinner (there are at least two artisanal breweries in the area, including our personal favourite La Collesi which also makes really good grappa). This may have been the highlight – I think the entire town was out to have a good time, with local boys “Pennabilli Social Club” providing music and all the little girls of the village providing dancing (the boys were busy setting things on fire or breaking things, based on what I was doing as a little boy while the little girls were dancing). It was hugely entertaining to watch the farmers dressed up in their best for the night out, and even more entertaining to watch what I assume must’ve been the out of town Italian women dressed to the nines with the highest of all high heels tottering around on the cobbles.
For us, Le Marche doesn’t have the big tourist attractions and events of nearby Tuscany or other parts of Italy, but that’s part of the draw for us. Every time we drive from Bologna down the A14 past Rimini towards Fano, turn off and drive into the hills, we feel like we’re coming home. We know every hill and turn from Acqualagna to La Tavola Marche, and love the quiet villages and towns of the area. We took the time on this trip to keep a special eye out for places we could settle, when the hustle and business of London gets too much for us – we’ve added a couple of valleys to our list, and will be watching the properties websites for deals.
Sep 30th, 2013, 10:08 PM
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Thanks for the replies so far! It has been pouring rain here in Ortisei the last two days so havent been out much, but today dawned gorgeously so up onto the mountains we go!
As many of you know, we arent exactly the outdoorsy type - we even had to buy walking shoes yesterday to do these hikes, so this week should be interesting!
Wish us luck!
As many of you know, we arent exactly the outdoorsy type - we even had to buy walking shoes yesterday to do these hikes, so this week should be interesting!
Wish us luck!
Oct 1st, 2013, 02:28 PM
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Well we survived!! Beautiful day for most of it and the scenery was amazing!!!
I have started a Dolomites set of photos you can view here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7636058614266/
Trip report to recommence in the next day or so!
I have started a Dolomites set of photos you can view here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7636058614266/
Trip report to recommence in the next day or so!
Oct 1st, 2013, 05:39 PM
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Wow, beautiful! Glad you finally got some sun! If you have more time and sunny skies, another great trip for scenery is the Seceda lift out of Ortisei to the Odle peaks and then a mostly downhill walk to the Col Raiser lift, which takes you back down to the valley.
