Viewing:

Volterra views

It’s the weekend! Why don’t we go for a drive? Our destination: the medieval Tuscan town of Volterra.

On this drive, getting there is as important—and stunning—as the destination itself. With the vineyard- and olive-topped hills of Tuscany rolling out for miles in every direction, perhaps the point of this journey is not to arrive.

Driving to Volterra1

The only reason you may want to rush: the impatient Italian speed demons honking at you from behind, giving you the evil eye as they overtake you on a winding, two-lane mountain road. Pay them no mind as they zoom past; their eyes might be immune to all this beauty (or they might need to pee very badly).

Driving to Volterra2

We’re seeing all of this for the first time, and have license to linger.

Driving to Volterra3

Are you Asian, like me? You might have a hard time inconveniencing other people and “looking bad.” This may prevent you from pulling over to take pictures of the spectacular countryside through this red circular frame that suddenly pops up out of nowhere. I did, and I regret it. What great pictures those would have made.

Red circle near Volterra

Do you get the heebie-jeebies at the thought of Twilight? I did, and almost skipped Volterra because it figures prominently in the series. But I’m glad I ignored my creepy crawlies and went anyway.

Volterra rooftops

Because the views from Volterra are simply breathtaking. I could have stayed at this hilltop lookout for hours.

Volterra view1

Tuscany lays at your feet, all dappled sun and green velvet.

Volterra view2

As sunset approaches, the sky grows luminous, fighting for your attention. It’s a competition where everyone wins and we’re all happy.

Volterra view3

I know I will keep the views from Volterra with me forever. I may not be heading somewhere very green, sunny or lush this weekend, but it will be amazing all the same. Onward to Iceland!

9 Comments
Posted on June 29, 2012
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , , , ,

Scary statues in San Gimignano

As much as I liked my night visit to the medieval hilltop town of San Gimignano, there was another reason why braving the daytime hordes turned out to be worth it.

And it has to do with rust-covered naked dudes waiting just around the corner to surprise you.

San Gimignano sculptures by Antony Gormley

If there’s anything that could make me glad to be surrounded by a busload of tourists, it was the sight of a naked man slathered in red in the shadows of a deserted medieval town. Believe me, it was far more reassuring in the daylight than it was at midnight!

These rusty naked men are part of an exhibit called Vessel by sculptor Antony Gormley. Beginning with 39 interconnected box structures in the Galleria Continua, the exhibit spills out into the streets of San Gimignano with six identical figures by Gormley—all of which are casts of his own naked body. Iiiiinteresting.

I saw only two of the six figures placed around the town, although I didn’t see the sculpture that was atop one of San Gimignano’s famous 13th century skyscrapers. A similar shock factor was involved in Gormley’s first exhibit of public art in New York, called Event Horizon. He perched 31 figures on rooftops and on the edges of buildings in Manhattan, freaking out passersby who thought they were seeing suicides in the making!

As public art goes, I would put these into the categories of striking, eerie and haunting. What would freak you out more: seeing a potential jumper on your way to work, or seeing a naked man covered in red in an empty street at midnight?

4 Comments
Posted on June 28, 2012
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , , , , ,

San Gimignano: Night vs day

Confession: I wasn’t looking forward to our trip to San Gimignano. Although I’d heard that this medieval hilltop town was beautiful, I also knew it was tiny and bound to be overrun by busloads of tourists, being a wildly popular destination for day trips from Florence.

This problem was neatly solved by making our first visit to San Gimignano at night. After driving up from Florence, getting lost and checking into our B&B, we arrived in time for a late dinner at 9pm. All the day trippers had gone home, and the town was empty, silent and haunting.

We had San Gimignano practically all to ourselves. I loved it.

San Gimignano by night1 San Gimignano by night2 San Gimignano by night3

When we returned the next day, the place was mobbed with day trippers.

Tourists in San Gimignano

I was not loving it, but we stuck it out. Soon, my patience was rewarded. I discovered the one thing that makes San Gimignano in the daytime worthwhile: the fact that the Gelateria di Piazza is open for business.

[Read more...]

2 Comments
Posted on June 26, 2012
Category: Food & Drink, Wanderlust · Labels: , , , , ,

Strawberry basil sorbet with balsamic syrup

To bid goodbye to his (soon-to-be) old job, Marlon and I decided to use his employee discount one last time to purchase one household appliance. After I exercised my wifely veto against the giant noise-canceling earphones, electric toothbrush, air fryer, and blue light (“…but you get so sad when it’s cloudy!” he protested), we finally agreed on one thing: an ice cream maker.

That was how, while I was sick in bed last weekend, my amazing kitchen demigod turned this…

Strawberries and basil

… into this.

Homemade strawberry basil ice cream with balsamic syrup

These photos were taken with hubby’s new Olympus PEN EP3… loving the color saturation from this camera! Special thanks to my mom and her good taste for the lovely vintage tablecloth.

Using fresh, in-season strawberries (only  €1 for half a kilo!) and the basil we are now attempting to grow at home, Marlon combined a recipe for homemade strawberry sorbet from The Joy of Baking with the idea of using whipped egg white as a binder from BBC Good Food.

1/3 cup (80 ml) water
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
 500 grams fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg white
handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped finely

Make a simple syrup using equal parts water and sugar. Dissolve the sugar in water in a saucepan over low heat; bring to the boil for about a minute. Remove and place in the refrigerator to chill.

Puree the strawberries in a food processor. Add chopped basil and lemon juice. Chill in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, whisk the egg white (the recipe says lightly, but my eager ice cream man whisked them until stiff).

Once both the strawberries and syrup are chilled, combine them with the egg white and transfer to the ice cream maker. Set to churn however your machine works; ours churned it for about half an hour. Watching it turn into ice cream was so exciting!

For the balsamic syrup, simply boil balsamic vinegar (we used the good stuff, aged for 8 years, from Florence!) with sugar to taste until it thickens into a syrup. Drizzle over the sorbet to serve.

We really should have put our sorbet in a container to freeze first. But we just couldn’t resist and had it straight out of the ice cream maker. Yum yum. Oh, and I’m feeling much better now… I’ve been healed by strawberry basil sorbet!

6 Comments
Posted on June 25, 2012
Category: Food & Drink, House & Spouse · Labels: , ,

Countdown to Iceland

Please don’t hate me: this time next week, I’m going to be in Iceland.

Looking at these stunning images from the equally stunning French blog Griottes, I can hardly believe it. One of my ultimate travel dreams is about to come true in just seven days.

Images by Emilie Guelpa for Griottes.fr

I’ve always wanted to go to Iceland. It’s one of those places that Marlon and I would be least likely to visit if we ever moved back to Asia, and will be the farthest I’ve ever been from home.

This trip was totally unplanned and unforeseen until a month ago. I’m so grateful for the turn of events that opened up this opportunity to take a week to go and tick a major destination off my life list.

This weekend, I’m gathering inspiration from Emilie’s beautiful photos of Iceland (above), as well as these links:

What are you looking forward to this week?

8 Comments
Posted on June 24, 2012
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , ,

Florence eats: on & off the tourist trail

My most memorable meals in Florence were in two very different restaurants. One was a huge, wildly popular restaurant in tourist central; the other was a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall that we wouldn’t have discovered if it hadn’t been just a few doors down from our apartment. What they had in common was simply great food.

A short walk from the big tourist draws of the Uffizi Gallery and Ponte Vecchio, Il Latini is written up in all the major travel guides for its fun, family-friendly atmosphere and famous steaks. It has two seatings each evening: at 7:30pm and at 9:30pm. What I’ll remember most about Il Latini, though, was waiting amidst a throng of hungry diners outside its doors before the first seating began. I’ve never seen a crowd outside a restaurant like that. It was slightly insane.

Il Latini at the door

This is was the scene at the door: a crowd waiting to get in, the affable host keeping the chaos to a minimum with an authoritative but friendly manner, names being shouted out to gain entry, all while Signore Roberto Downey inside calmly carved up plate after plate of prosciutto and salami.

Il Latini starters

Everyone with a reservation got seated, but as walk-ins, Marlon and I waited for an hour. Still, we felt incredibly lucky just to get a table—especially when the specialty of the house was served.

[Read more...]

3 Comments
Posted on June 22, 2012
Category: Food & Drink, Wanderlust · Labels: , , , , ,

Essential Florence: 6 Sights You Shouldn’t Miss

Florence is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited. The entire city is a work of art, and completely brought the Renaissance to life for me. We stayed in a great Airbnb flat a short walk from the Centro Storico, where most of Florence’s cultural jewels are concentrated.

After just four days, I feel like I barely scratched the surface of this amazing city and wish I could’ve done more off the tourist trail. Having said that, the “tourist circuit” is deluged with visitors for a reason, and is truly worth every bit of time and money. Here’s my list of must-sees in Florence:

The Uffizi Gallery. Home to one of the largest and oldest private art collections in the Western word, the Uffizi Gallery contains masterpieces amassed by the powerful and wealthy (understatement of the century) Medici clan.

Uffizi Gallery1

Works by the who’s who of Italian art, such as Titian, Caravaggio, Giotto and yes, all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all reside here. The true revelation for me here was Botticelli; though I felt as if I’d seen The Birth of Venus a hundred times in pop culture, nothing prepared me for the impact of the real thing. (Plus: you can get a lot closer to Venus than you can to Mona Lisa.)

Uffizi Gallery2

Top tips: book tickets ahead at the Musei Firenze website to skip the queue, which can stretch for hours. The site is slow, but totally worth it. Allot at least three hours to soak up the full wealth and wonder of the Renaissance. Be prepared for Stendhal syndrome (as I experienced at the Vatican Museum); it’s best not to schedule anything visually heavy before or after. You’ll need your eyeballs rested for this one.

Also, the Uffizi Gallery has the best, biggest museum bookshop I’ve been in—not just for art and architecture, but also a great selection of kids’ literature, fiction and nonfiction.

[Read more...]

16 Comments
Posted on June 21, 2012
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , , , , , ,

Amsterdam’s front door gardens

Living in Amsterdam, it helps to have a short memory. That way it only takes a day or two of warmth and sunshine to forget three weeks of drizzle and gray. When the sun is out, all is forgiven and everything is transformed. Over the weekend, I spent some much-needed time in the sun and rediscovered some of the little things I love about living in Amsterdam.

Front door gardens are one of them. Flowers are abundant and cheap in the Netherlands, but growing your own flowers is how locals get them even cheaper. Apartment living doesn’t stop Amsterdammers from gardening; thus the presence of gorgeous blooms on doorsteps, where they have the best chance of catching the sunshine they need.

StepsFlower pots Purple

It’s June and all the front door gardens are in full bloom. A walk around the Jordaan shows an abundance of bright green spilling over gates…

Green

… of colors cascading over doors, and roses tumbling down over windows.

Cascades

Where does your garden grow? Out of brick walls, crates, buckets… even old wooden shoes, apparently.

Hanging on brick walls

I have a despicably black thumb (Paisley Parsley, Alexander Coriander and Rosemary Gil all died prematurely), but my weekend walk inspired me to give gardening another try. Have you had any success growing plants at home? Any tips for a newbie apartment gardener?

7 Comments
Posted on June 19, 2012
Category: Life in Amsterdam · Labels: , , ,

G&T’s Really Really Nice brunch

Brunch used to be a weekly event back in Singapore. Every weekend would find us at places like Wild Honey, PS Cafe (my tried-and-tested brunch favorite), Riders Cafe or Food for Thought. Our wallets didn’t seem to feel it back then, although our waistlines sure did.

Because the Dutch don’t seem to be all that into brunch, and because we’re trying to have all these European adventures on a single income, brunch has been demoted to a quarterly event. (I know, sad.) So when we do brunch, I like to make sure it’s at a really, really nice place…

… like G&T’s Really Really Nice Place, an ex-brown cafe in the always charming Jordaan.

Brunch at G&T's Really Nice Place

True to its name, Canadian-run G&T’s is a really really nice place: warm, cozy and eclectic, with an expat-friendly air that may have to do with the surfeit of English-speaking customers dressed in very hip clothing.

I’m serious about the hip factor. Take this conversation overheard between a female diner in a rockabilly-nerd chic getup and her friend, who entered the place in a plain navy blue sweatshirt:

Rockabilly Chick: Hey! *exchange of pleasantries* What are you wearing?

Sweater Girl: *stares for a second, as if not believing what has just been said* Oh, that’s right. I’m not cool enough for this place. I should go. *mock-steps out the door*

Rockabilly Chick: Oh! I didn’t mean— *giggles nervously* Don’t be silly! Hahaha!

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. That simply means you’ll see people who look really really nice, in surroundings that are also really really nice. The little old lady in me loved the repurposed gin bottles and flowery old china—it’s the kind I’ve always wanted to hoard from flea markets, and the kind that receives the husband veto.

Gin bottle and old china

Brunch would have been really really great… if not for a 30-minute wait and a wrong order. My challah French toast with bacon and maple syrup arrived as a breakfast burrito, which was not very nice. Marlon had to eat most of his eggs Benedict alone while I waited for the kitchen to rush out the correct order. Eating alone is Marlon’s pet restaurant peeve and not really what you’d expect at a place that seems to promise North American levels of service (i.e. better than the average Dutch eetcafe).

Thankfully, the fantastic (but rather pricey) bloody Mary took the edge off the wait. And the French toast, when it came, was indeed really really nice. So was the fact that they wrote it off the bill.

Bloody Mary and French toast

Also really really nice about this weekend’s brunch: not being the only one behind the lens.

Bumping into a Pinay friend at brunch meant a rare picture of the two of us, and Marlon finally buying himself an Olympus PEN EP3 meant proper documentation of my brunch outfit. Yay!

G&T’s Really Really Nice Place
Brunch Saturdays & Sundays 11:00-16:00
Goudbloemstraat 91 hs, Amsterdam

Do you brunch? I’d love to know about the best brunch places in your city.

7 Comments
Posted on June 18, 2012
Category: Food & Drink, Life in Amsterdam · Labels: , , ,

Oranje boven! Please?

The Euro Cup fever has penetrated even my thick, football-immune, self-protecting bubble. It’s hard to ignore, because here in Holland, football fever wears such a loud color.

Orange banderitas

Orange is the national color, after the royal House of Orange-Nassau. The rallying cry is “Oranje boven!” which translates to “Orange above” or “Orange on top”, kind of like saying “Orange is the best!” These days, orange is everywhere: in the streets, on heads, in cars, you name it.

Orange hat

Orange lions on a car

Here’s how I, a football-clueless girl from a football-clueless country, understand what needs to happen: Holland needs to win against Portugal today, and a bunch of other people need to lose, so that Holland can qualify for the Euro Cup and all this oranje fever can continue.

I’ve never been into football; I’m ashamed to confess I don’t even know the rules. But the sheer enthusiasm of the Dutch makes me want to get into it. It makes me want to put on my orange feathered tiara and shriek along with the rest of them… just because they make it look like so much fun.

Dutch flag in the Jordaan

If Holland loses today, there will be no more omnipresent orange banners, no more silly orange hats, no more crazy orange outfits, and no more packed bars for this curious expat to invade. The oranje fever can’t end, because I haven’t gotten into it yet.

So, in the interest of fun … I’m rooting for you, Netherlands! Oranje boven! Tuloy ang ligaya! HUP HOLLAND HUP!

5 Comments
Posted on June 17, 2012
Category: Life in Amsterdam · Labels: ,