This is a picture of tè verde before breakfast in Monterosso, with my Serpico t-shirt. As you can see I have a cup of green tea for both the right and the left hand. My wife drank cappuccino.

Serpico was a great movie.

When we were on our bicycling tour through Tuscany, we stopped and parked our bikes and toured an olive oil mill. They explained the process of making olive oil, and let us smell and taste the difference between excellent and fair olive oil. And then they served us a spaghetti lunch out of a giant pot along with lots of red wine.

The place I enjoyed most on our trip to Italy was our first stop - Cinque Terre. We flew from Washington DC to Frankfurt, and then took a little propeller plane on a bumpy flight to Genoa, Italy. From there we took the train to Monterosso al Mare. The cool thing about Cinque Terre is that there is a path so that you can walk between the five villages along the coast. It was beautiful and a great place to start. Here is a picture on the path, leaving Monterosso and heading to Vernazza.

And a picture arriving at Vernazza.

We went the whole way - through all five villages (about 5 miles) - in one day, stopping for wine and pesto along the way, and then took a train back to Monterosso.
Here is a NYTimes article on Cinque Terre.

It’s almost unfair how much intense beauty, great cuisine and amazing aromas are jampacked into such a compact space.

We stayed two nights at Il Giardino Incantato - which I would highly recommend. The owner was kind, the rooms and location were great - and the breakfast in the courtyard was very nice.

When I was in Tuscany, one of the most delicious things I ate was acquacotta, which literally means “cooked water.” It doesn’t sound great, but it is. They refer to it as soup, but I wouldn’t call it that because you can eat it with a fork. I guess shepherds and charcoal burners in the Maremma part of Tuscany would toss whatever was at hand into pots of water and came up with this delicious meal.

Here’s a recipe:

* 4 Tablespoons olive oil
* 4 stalks celery, finely chopped
* 1 onion, finely chopped
* 1 jalapeno pepper or other small chili pepper, minced
* 1 pound spinach, torn into big pieces, with thick stems discarded
* 1 10-ounce can tomatoes, seeds squeezed out
* 6 cups water
* salt and pepper
* 2 eggs (for thickening)
* 2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
* 6 eggs (for poaching)

Undergarnish: 6 thick slices of coarse, dense bread, grilled or broiled

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven (you want a wide area for poaching the eggs at the end), then saute the celery, onion, and chili pepper over low heat until the onion is transparent. Stir in the spinach until it has wilted and glazed with the other vegetables. Stir in the tomatoes and let them cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour in 6 cups of water and bring to a boil–then reduce heat and let simmer for about an hour.

When ready to serve, beat the 2 eggs and the Parmesan cheese together, then stir into the soup. Let the soup return to a boil over medium heat. Break each of the 6 eggs into the soup on spots that are exactly where you see the soup bubbling. Simmer gently for about 3 minutes, so that the eggs are all nicely poached.

To serve, place a piece of grilled bread in each bowl. Top each one with one of the poached eggs. Then ladle the soup on top.