Sicily - Siracusa - Da Mariano

When inspecting the beach side properties of Dario in Cefalù, we happened to get onto the topic of our next destination, Siracusa, Dario insisted that we must eat at his favorite Da Mariano, we naturally made out to find it as soon as we arrived, never to give up the chance of eating well... we were welcomed by Mariano himself, who sat us at one of the outdoor tables that line the narrow street. The waiter arrived immediately with a plate of wonderful complimentary antipasto, then we ordered the daily specials, which were pasta with ricotta and almonds followed by grilled swordfish with a salad of orange and red onion that had a hint of chili.... Incredible! .. He doesn't serve coffee, however a wonderful homemade almond liquer is served after the meal with ginger and almond toffee. Mariano has been cooking in his Siracusa restaurant for 12 years cooking his innovative cuisine from the area of Monti Iblei near Ragussa. It was one of those meals that we felt had to be repeated the next day for lunch...
Highly Recommended

Umbria - Castello delle Regine - A Labor of Love

I visited a wonderful location in Umbria today, only an hour from my home in the historic centre of Rome - Castello delle Regine, (Castle of the Queens) a 400 hectare wine & olive estate, with restaurant, 17 apartments located in various locations over the estate, 3 swimming pools, tennis court and the tranquility and views you wouldn't imagine were possible only an hour from Rome. (soon to be on our website)

We were given a tour by the very friendly Alessandro, who spoke wonderful English and is responsible for the touristic side of the estate.

The brief history of this estate, is that it was purchased 20 years ago by an Italian family who have invested the past 20 years into this project creating a 400 hectare vineyard and olive grove that launched it's first wine to the public only 3 years ago, two of these wines have been ranked in Italy's top 20 most important wines by Gambero Rosso for the past two years, so they certainly know what they are doing.

The tour of the estate was fabulous, this is offered to guests along with the possibility of a half day of grape picking in season and olive picking as well. Alessandro was very knowledgable about the processes and the tour taught us many things about winemaking.

We then went down to check out the Chianina cattle that are bred on the estate, these magnificent creatures and cared for in spacious pens with doorways to the outside area, where they can roam free, the cattle are fed only the best quality feed that is mostly grown on the estate.

After the tour, we settled down in the restaurant, which has a beautiful atmosphere and would be an excellent location for a reception or wedding, they actually have a private room for up to 15 people and we decided on the spot to offer this as another day trip for our guests, as it would be an ideal day out of Rome, being only an hour away from the historic centre of Rome.

We were then joined for lunch by the charming and energetic Maruizio who had previously worked with Italy's oldest vineyard but is now in charge of the complete operations and marketing at Castello delle Regine , and Fabio who was once the head sommelier at Rome's famous wine bar Ferrara in Trastevere who now works for the estate marketing the wines in Italy, we felt quite educated and entertained from these two charming men, and we ate an extraordinary meal of which all ingredients were from the estate, first a beef carpaccio with olive oil that was merely a week old - it almost burned the back of the throat, it was absolutely amazing oil , magnificent warm crusty bread, followed by a ragu with pappadelle, then a very tender chianina steak. This was topped off by a heavenly warm chocolate tart and finally a glass of golden grappa, which was really quite smooth, not the rocket fuel I've tasted in the past.
During the meal, we sampled the wines produced by Castello delle Regine and were suitably impressed. We were given a gift of 6 bottles of wine including their grappa, and have already the need to return to restock, especially for that oil! When I purchased a bottle of my usual medium quality extra virgin olive oil at my supermarket, I felt cheated that it wouldn't be at all comparable to the oil I had tasted at the estate. Fabio explained to me that true, fresh extra virgin olive oil of such we were sampling has strong medicinal qualities and should be eaten daily for good health. I'm in - I have already made an appointment to return for lunch with Angelina from our office, who organizes weddings for our clients as she will just love this location it's really made for events, it's so elegant.