Victor Sizemore's Blog

A while back some friends and I got inspired by some “Old World” traditions which lead to our Fete du Cochon. The photos are a little sensitive to post on the blog so I’ve never shared. During our research we found acclaimed chef Fergus Henderson and his first book ‘Nose to Tail Eating’. Fergus has a restaurant in London called St. John so while in town last week I had to check it out. Rachael and I really enjoyed it! We ate at the bar where the menu changes daily. Everything was amazing, I even got a signed copy of the first book!

Armagnac Ducastaing XO and a English hand-tap beer. The bread was amazing.

Rabbit and cheese flavored with Guinness and spices on toast.

Artichoke heart salad with shrimp and soft boiled egg

Venison and arugula salad

Aperitivo normally refers to before dinner drinks or cocktails that warm up your appetite such as Campari or other herb brew liqueurs. However, I found in Rome many people use the word for having cocktails in the evening before or after dinner. Either way is fine with me… Here are some of the unique drinks I brought back from Italy. Also, the degree (°) below stands for the percent of alcohol the drinks contains.

Amaro Centerbe 30° – Ai Monasteri, Rome, Est. 1890 (Talk skinny neck bottle in the back, it’s an herb brewed digestive drink)
Elixier di S. Bernardo 27° - Nonaci Cistercensi, Certosa di Firenze (This is the short bottle with the monk’s photo, it’s a digestive drink great for after dinner)
Gocce Imperiali 90° – Nonaci Cistercensi, Certosa di Firenze (That’s not a typo, it’s 90 percent alcohol! The small bottle with yellow liquid, that’s why it’s only 200 ml.)

I stocked up with 5 bottles. The monk who was working warned me they were 90°. I replied, “I know that’s why I’m here!” It was a trip being in the Monastery. It sits on a big hill in Certosa outside of Florence. You can tour the ground but it was closed that day due to rain. I really just wanted to hit the gift/liquoer shop!

The other two bottles in the front are Grappa which is an Italian liquor distilled from the must and pomace left over from the wine making process. That includes mostly grape skins but also stems, seeds and left over juice. One of the most popular grappas is Nonino. The taste of grappa comes from the type of grappa, distillation process, and type of aging.

Here are a couple bottles of wine and a grappa from two places we really liked in Tuscany. The regional wine is Chianti Classico which must be made from at least 80% Sangiovese grape. A Chianti may bare a picture of a black rooster (known in Italian as a gallo nero) on the neck of the bottle, which indicates that the producer of the wine is a member of the Gallo Nero Consortium. One of our favorite places was called Casaloste located between Greve in Chianti and Panzano in Chianti. They have a cool little B&B, tasting room and grounds. You can see some of those pictures in an earlier post. However, one of the things we loved was their story and how they link their personal lives to the wine. The bottle “Inversus” below was named and the finger print label was designed after the oldest son. He was born with a rare medical condition where all his inside organs are reversed in order. Perfectly working but backwards!

Even though it poured on and off throughout the day we pressed forward. We had a lot of ground to cover. Not the best situation but the luggage ordeal through off our schedule a bit. We worked our way over to San Gimignano, the medieval town with 14 towers originally there were 72! The stormy weather made for some dramatic lighting at times, but not so great for driving. Good thing I’m used to the windy back hollow (pronounced holler) roads of Southeastern Kentucky. We finally ended up in Siena a beautiful walled town in the south of Tuscany. We had dinner at a small locals place and a coffee on the Piazza del Campo before heading back late that night.

So it poured all night, but we woke up mid morning and decided to continue with our plan to drive through Chianti and do some wine tasting. It continued to drizzle off and on, but we managed to stop at four different wineries.  The favorite wine from the region is the Chianti Classico. The label with the black rooster. I think we picked up a bottle from every place we stopped. It’s quite nice. And not expensive.

On our tour through the Italian country side, the rolling vineyards of Tuscany, we drove through many quaint little villages. One of them was literally a town built inside a castle on a hill. Castellina in Chianti. There were others like this, but each one unique. Of course we had to pull over and explore every time. Walking through these castle towns makes one feel transported back to medieval  times. I would love to bring my kids back here. They would really enjoy the make-believe of Knights, and princesses, friar-tucks and peasants.

It’s crazy going half way around the world then running into people you know. I saw my clients Sean and Ghazal, they were married last fall at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas. They were on their delayed honeymoon. While staying in Florence they were driving through Chianti on the same day, wine tasting in the same village as us. Wild!

Florence has to be one of the most beautiful cities I’ve visited. I love a city that has a bird’s eye view, it really let’s you appreciate the architecture and full scope of the city. Prague is another favorite of mine! We got an early start and took the train into town from Figline Valdarno. Our first stop was lunch at an awesome little deli, where we bought some sandwiches. They were made fresh to order, slicing the proccuitto from the leg, salami toscano from the log, aged cheese from large blocks! The panini bread was fresh baked that morning as well. We took our picnic and wine to a park along the river to enjoy under a shade tree.

Then we walked up the hill to Pizzale Michelangelo to get a great view of the city. It’s sort of a tourist area so you have all the guys selling fake pursues, wallets and etc… So we hiked on up the hill to a church for an even better view without all the tourists. We went back the San Lorenzo leather market to check things out on the way down before heading to dinner. We hit a small place suggested by my buddy James called Osteria del Chinghale Bianco. I had the best wild boar pappardelle ever! It was an amazing meal!

Some how when I travel I wake up at 5:30 or 6AM local time without fail. It’s uncanny really… So stepped outside the villa and photographed sunrise. It wasn’t particularly colorful but the fog and rolling mountains were majestic! Then the went back to sleep and got up for breakfast around 8am before heading into Florence for the day. The morning was absolutely amazing. I love the European breakfast: salami de toscano, brie, aged cheese, Nutella and toast, hard boiled eggs and more… We sat on the back terrence ate and had espresso.

Here’s a quick sneak peak photo from Margie and Ale’s engagement session in Rome. The photo below is one of the last we took finishing at St. Peter’s in Vatican City.

We arrived from Rome by train and took a taxi about 10 minutes into the Chianti region of Tuscany to our villa. This was the view around 9:30 PM local time when I stepped out the backdoor.

We had an amazing day shooting and hanging with my clients around Rome. They took us to a tiny Italian seafood restaurant outside the city center. We had the most delicious meal then we stopped for gelato. At this particular place they give you three flavors on a cone then dip with chocolate and nuts finally toping with whip cream. The whip cream is so thick and rich over here!

It was a long day of shoot and so this morning we slept in… We went to Campo di Fiori which is a great outdoor market with produce, veggies, flowers and art. We grabbed some coffee. Rach had a croissant and I had a mortadella con pizza for breakfast. This was the largest mortadella I’d ever seen, it had to be at least 18-20 inch in diameter. So on day three we sat in the square writing this post and still no LUGGAGE!

Next we saw the Pantheon again to see if the light beam was an more intense and we scored. This place is an architectural marvel! Then we visited the tourist packed Trevi Fountain. We each tossed in a .10 Euro coin to ensure our return to Rome. The legend goes toss in one coin to return to Rome, two to fall in love with a Roman, three to marry them. I made sure Rach only had one coin piece on her…

After rising super early for sunrise I went back to the flat to change and get Rach before breakfast. We found a tiny cafe in a back alley to grab a Cappuccino. The Italians never order Cappuccino after 10am, then it’s only espresso. The espresso is so cheap and AMAZING over here. I wish it was so readily available at home. We decided to walk to the Colosseum  first then work our way back before the photo shoot. Even though we didn’t go inside the Colosseum the outside was so powerful! Coming from America where our history is somewhat short considering a global scale. The thought of home ancient these structures and ruins are is mind blowing. Then to ponder how they built them using hand tools and labor, crazy!