Aielli & Benevento

“The last decade has seen a slew of high-end gelaterie open in Rome. The first, and still one of the best, is Il Gelato de San Crispino, set up by gelato revolutionaries Giuseppe and Pasquale Alongi. These brothers take things back to basics, carefully sourcing the hazelnuts that go into their nocciola flavor or the 20-year cask-aged marsala that makes their zabaione flavor so unmissable. A new Pantheon branch gives you even less of an excuse to miss out on the San Crispino experience. However, a new contender, the Gelateria al Teatro, located in a tiny cobbled cul-de-sac between Piazza Navona and Castel Sant’Angelo, is winning converts with its organic approach and unusual range of flavors, many of them based on Italian pastries like cannoli. Chocoholics will also be knocked sideways by the 85 percent cocoa cioccolato puro option. Over in Prati, north of the Vatican, Mirella Fiumanò, the owner and founder of Al Settimo Gelo, is a volcano of creativity. Devotees swarm here to enjoy inventive, gluten-free flavors such as hot chili–spiced chocolate, honey and sesame, cinnamon and ginger, and Greek ice cream (goat-milk yogurt, honey, and pistachio). But some of the capital’s more traditional gelaterie are still well worth checking out, from Giolitti, the multiflavor cathedral of Roman ice cream, to lesser-known stalwarts like Alberto Pica, which does a knockout riso alla cannella (cinnamon rice), in which the risotto is so perfectly al dente it’s almost crunchy.

Hours:   Il Gelato di San Crispino open Wednesdays through Mondays. Gelateria del Teatro open daily. Al Settimo Gelo open Tuesdays through Sundays. Giolitti open daily 7:30 am to 1:30 am. Alberto Pica open Mondays through Saturdays.    (Source: Concierge.com)

Actress, singer Jennifer Lopez performed at the 2010 Sanremo Festival Saturday.  The photo here shows 40-year-old looked stunning as she performed her latest single, What Is Love?, at Italy’s most famous music Festival.   As background note, the Ariston Theater hosts the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a very popular song contest held in the city since 1951. This festival inspired the Eurovision Song Contest, which started in 1956, and for years the Sanremo festival selected the Italian entry. The internationally notable song “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu”, also known as “Volare”, was performed at this festival for the first time by Domenico Modugno in 1958. The festival is so popular amongst Italians that it is often referred to simply as “Il Festival” (The Festival).

Portrait Italy is a turnkey touring experience created for busy executives. Designed by Aielli & Benevento, this touring experience is tailored 100% to the traveler so there are no fixed departure dates. Clients also choose among a variety of luxury hotel properties.  We handle every trip detail… A week before departure, the client will receive a detailed, daily travel schedule outlining all trip contacts /reservations/ arrangements, ensuring a worry-free, hassle-free travel experience.    

What’s included*:

• Five star suite accommodations …the finest hotels in Florence, Rome and Venice.
• Michelin class dining experiences including a Roman feast at La Pergola and a seven course Venetian tasting.
• In Venice, a private boat our through Grande Canal ending up with gourmet luncheon at the world-renowned Cipriani Hotel.
• In Rome, an “after hours” private tour of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum +”Rome by Night” evening drive with chauffeur.
• In Florence, a special “best art of the Uffizi” tour .
• First Class EuroStar high-speed trains from Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome (city to city transfer by private sedan also available).

Private Guides/ Optional Services... customized IPODs, private photographer, personal masseuse.
Unlike recommendations from hotel concierges (whom invariably pick their friends based on a “business relationship”), we choose guides solely on the basis of reputation, years of experience and proven excellence.   Aielli & Benevento offers its touring guest a wide range of support services including passport assistance; GSM phone rental, customized IPODs, private photographer, personal masseuse, etc.  (*Based on 9 nights / three nights in each city.)

> Email us for touring details @ info@aiellli-benevento.it .

The paparazzi has made much of a recent Venice visit by: Famiglia Brangelina”.  If you wish to trace Brad & Angelin’s treks to a gelato shop and an enoteca. Here are the two  places previously identified in the media.

> La Gelateria Lo Squero
Simone Sambo makes some of the finest ice-cream in Venice. He’s hard-pressed to pinpoint a favourite flavour, but can happily rattle off those in in his current repertoire – which always depends on the freshest ingredients available. His mousse series (blueberry, strawberry, chocolate and hazelnut, among others) is so light and creamy, it’s served in a waffle cone so it doesn’t fly away.
Dorsoduro 989-90,
fondamenta Nani
Transport Vaporetto Accademia or Zattere
Tel # 347 269 7921

> La Enoteca Schiavi
992 Fondamenta San Trovaso, Dorsoduro
Tel # 041/523-0744
For lack of a better term this is a ‘wine bar/wine tasting’, in Venetian it’s called a ‘Bacaro’ where local Venetians stop in to “prendere un’ombra” which tranlates to “take a little shade”. What it really means though is to have a glass of wine and chat. Along with the wine they sell dozens of different ‘cicchetti’ at 1euro each. These are small slices of crusty bread with different toppings. These toppings can be as simple as a piece of local cheese or various salamis to ‘baccala mantecata’ and caviar.

For the gourmand in search of rarefied flavors, Sulleria is a worthy addition to the pantry.  This extra virgin olive oil comes from the Cannata family estate in Calabria. ( A family member’s firm built Giorgio Armani’s NY store.) Named after the estate where the olive trees grow, this single source oil is made from ‘Carolea’ olives, handpicked and cold pressed on the same day.

Not cheap:  $100. For four 500ml bottles. There’s no US distributor yet, so if you want a case, go to the source:

> Contact Eugenio Cannata at: ecannata@sulleria.com.

According to a few reliable sources, here are three of Chicago  very best Italian restaurants. (We welcome additional comments on our blog.)  We’ve added our thoughts at the end.

> Anteprima
For home style Italian cooking…where they call sauce ‘gravy’… “this sage-walled Andersonville trattoria. Spend a summer evening in style and bypass the small dining room with decorative window panels, wrought iron accents and ceramic touches in favor of the tiny, romantic, flower-frocked patio in back where one can happily munch on a complimentary bite, perhaps a dandelion green tart. Marty Fosse (Spiaggia, Carlucci) has a modus operandi that works here, particularly when it comes to the array of antipasto salads—from a chewy mélange of farro, roasted corn, wax beans and cherry tomatoes to tangy, buttery onions redolent with thyme. Pastas like the tagliatelle with a ragù of prosciutto and crumbled veal and pork are good, but specials such as the roast suckling pig with pancetta, braised kale and grilled scallions are better…”

5316 N. Clark St. (Berwyn Ave.)
773-506-9990

>  Campagnola
“This street-level trattoria—manned by chef Vince DiBattista—is one of the North Shore’s better Italian restaurants, thanks to its rustic tone and country-style cuisine. Try the wood-fired, bacon-wrapped radicchio and skirt steak with braised greens and onion marmalade. Other options include mussels in saffron-fennel broth and grilled duck breast with heirloom squash, garlic, pine nuts and currants. A favorite dessert, hands down, is the silky-rich vanilla panna cotta.

815 Chicago Ave.
Evanston, IL 60202
847-475-6100

> Coco Pazzo
Coco Pazzo, under executive chef Chris Macchia, is one of Chicago’s finest Italian restaurants, its seasonal cuisine a sight (and taste) to behold. Consider a simple pasta dish: gnocchi alla Parmigiano, in which homemade potato dumplings are dressed lightly and properly with a fresh-tasting tomato sauce accented with Parmesan. Well done in every way is the risotto with shavings of fresh white truffles (in season).

300 W. Hubbard St.
312-836-0900

*************A&B also recommends these stand outs…. Spiaggia (Chef Tony Mantuano was the original architect of this super-luxe Italian restaurant. Spiaggia is a restaurant for that special occasion or to impress a client. …. Prosecco ……And Cibo Matto.

Sardinian cuisine at a Roma ristorante.

Where is it that the locals go and the chances to find a tourist are slim?One such place in Rome is Ristorante Villa Paganini, located on a semi-hidden side street off the Via Nomentana and right next to the public garden holding the same name. This is a great place to go with family or friends, to enjoy the casual elegant environment, the appropriate room noise and an excellent cuisine that combines tradition and innovation with great elegance. There is also a certain element of surprise, since part of the menu changes daily based on market availability: octopus salad, fried whitebait and fish carpaccio are among the appetizers one may find, while Sardinian fregola with shellfish or spaghetti with sea urchins are popular first courses.

As you are seated, complimentary Prosecco and a particularly enjoyable bread basket materialize on the table to welcome you. A few minutes later, a competent maître d’ comes to describe the non-written menu of the day. Questions are welcomed and answers help to make sometimes not-so-easy decisions. Service is courteous and discreet, and plates are brought to the table at the right pace. The wine list is rich, specializing in Italian wines with a bounty to discover among Sardinian wines, all well-presented by the in-house sommelier. Desserts offer new pleasures to the palate and sampling plates are often the best choice. Reservations are recommended. Approximately $80-$100/person. (Source: Select Italy.)

RISTORANTE VILLA PAGANINI

Here are few places to eat/stay when you get to the Italian Alps (although their no so Italian). This information taken from NY Times article on Cortina d’Ampezzo.

“For a heady combination of low-key glamour, accessibility and the ability to ski right into some of its best restaurants, perhaps nothing quite compares with the resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the jagged Dolomites of northern Italy.

Set in a teacup-like Alpine valley and surrounded on all sides by slopes, Cortina has been attracting visitors for much of the past two centuries: one of its main hotels, Ancora, was built in 1826, and many others date from the 19th century. It became a hot spot for celebrities like Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn during and after the Dolce Vita era, earning the nickname “salotto dei famosi,” or “the celebrities’ living room.” Today, its clientele seems to come straight from the Italian gossip pages: actresses, models, Azzurri soccer players and superstars like George Clooney. With such rarefied company, perhaps it’s not surprising that the town of Cortina itself has several high-end restaurants, like the Michelin-starred Tivoli and a branch of the high-end El Toulà mini-chain.

The real culinary action, however, seems to take place not in town, but on the surrounding slopes, where a network of old mountain huts known as rifugi cook up what some food-minded skiers say is some of the heartiest and homiest cuisine in the Alps.

WHERE TO EAT

Though many of the rifugi lack Web sites (and street addresses), good English-language information can be found at www.dolomiti.org, a site set up by the region’s official tourism bureaus. Favorites include:

Rifugio Pomedes (Tofana; 39-0436-862061; dolomiti.org/rifugiopomedes) is located at the top of the Duca d’Aosta-Pomedes ski lift. Dinner for two, about 70 euros, $99 at $1.42 to the euro.

Rifugio Capanna Tondi (on the Faloria peak; 39-0436-5775; www.cortinadampezzo.it/virtualtour/rifugiotondi) serves excellent local pasta dishes with great Italian wines. Dinner for two, about 80 euros.

Rifugio Duca d’Aosta (Tofana; 39-0436-2780; www.cortinadampezzo.it/ducadaosta ) is at the top of the Rumerlo ski lift. Dinner for two, about 60 euros.

Rifugio Scoiattoli (near Cinque Torri, 39-0436-867939; dolomiti.org/ita/Cortina/laga5torri/ospitalita/scoiattoli) offers highly traditional recipes with a focus on regional ingredients. Dinner for two, about 70 euros.

Rifugio Averau (near Cinque Torri; 39-0436-4660; www.dolomiti.org/dengl/Cortina/laga5Torri/ospitalita/Averau ) can feel like paradise after a long day, with cooking that justifies an uphill snowmobile ride in the dark. Dinner for two, about 70 euros.

WHERE TO STAY

Modest but with character, Hotel Meublè Oasi (2 Via Cantore, Cortina d’Ampezzo; 39-0436-862019; hoteloasi.it) is not far from the Faloria gondola and has nice rooms priced by the week, starting at 320 euros a person during the high season, based on double occupancy.

Far more plush is the newly reopened Grand Hotel Savoia (Via Roma, 62, Cortina d’Ampezzo;39-0436-3201; www.grandhotelsavoiacortina.com) with has 130 luxurious rooms.  For a booking in late January, the hotel’s Web site offered doubles starting at 335 euros.

GETTING THERE

Most visitors from the United States get to Cortina d’Ampezzo by way of Venice, about two hours south by car. Delta flies nonstop from Kennedy Airport to Venice, while other airlines offer connections in Europe. A recent Web search found flights starting at about $700 for travel in January. Another option is the airport in Innsbruck, Austria, also about two hours away by car.

According to the 2010 Zagat Restaurant Guide, the best the Big Apple has to offer in Italian cuisine is these three Italian gems: 1. Trattoria L’incontro; 2. Il Mulino and; 3. Di Fara (pizza)…The noted consumer driven survey says this about these fine temples of ambrosia: Trattoria L’incontro ( Astoria Queens) is ‘as good as anything in Manhattan’…’fantastic menu’ and ‘wine bar next door eases inevitable wait’. Il Mulino (Greenwich Village) is ‘classic southern Italian food’… ‘crowed and noisy’.  Di Fara (Brooklyn) is a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ institution spinning ‘heavenly pizzas’.

************For those who don’t wish to venture beyond Manhattan we suggest Del Posto or Felidia’s, both pricey but well worth it.

With no shortage of views across one of Europe’s most beautiful lakes (Lago di Garda), the “Suite Life” can be truly savored at one of northern Italy’s best hotels: The Villa Feltrinelli .

Painted in gold and terra cotta colors, the Villa is reminiscent of a Venetian palazzo. But it is a classic boutique hotel that once hosted Churchill, DH Lawrence and Mussolini.

For the savvy traveler there’s also  La Limonaia (a private guesthouse) and The Boat House, set along Lake Garda’s shores, with a full kitchen, dining area, living room with fireplace & outdoor patio.