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| Civita di Bagnorigio, La cantina di Arianna |
Before I even start talking food, if you haven’t
visited Civita di Bagnorigio on your visits to Lazio in Italy, you really must
go. What a beautiful place this is with the most spectacular views, it’s as though
time has stood still…bar the tourists that is.
After a very steep walk up to the dying town of
Bagnorigio, we stopped at a little eatery just passed the main square called
“La cantina di Arianna” recommended by Rick Steves, (a well known American food
and travel writer). It promoted “Slow Food”, so we knew the ingredients were sourced
as locally as you could get. Sometimes it’s the simplest and freshest prepared
food that taste the best, isn’t it?
That’s what we got when we visited Bagnorigio for the
afternoon. It was far too hot a summers day to even contemplate eating anything
cooked, so we decided on a crostinni each and a sharing platter of locally
cured ham, salami and mountain cheese. What a treat it was! The crostinnis
arrived, mine coated in a thick layer of black truffle paste and the other with
the most freshest looking artichoke hearts I’ve ever seen, both lightly
drizzled with great quality local olive oil. After consuming the crostinnis in
the most quickest but enjoyable way possible, we moved on to our now arrived
sharing platter. The quality of the ham, although not aged Parma ham, was certainly
as good as and the flavour was beautifully salty and sweet. The salami was, to
be expected, equally as tasty. A far cry from the crappy water filled ham and
cured meat you see back in the supermarkets in Britain.
As I mentioned before, this part of Italy embraces
the “Slow food” movement so you can be guaranteed that the produce you eat
comes from the surrounding local area.
After many years this is something that has been
adopted back in Britain, however not quite as prevalent as I would like and I
think most British foodies may agree.
I wish the British supermarkets would listen more to
what we want and stock more locally produced foods and support local food
suppliers and makers. We could really learn a thing or two about how countries
like Italy appreciate what they produce.
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