Turin

I was in Turin for work. Its a beautiful city. Turin was the home of the Italian royal family. Here is the front fence for their palace:

And lovely paving!

Turin is also the home of Nutella. There are lots of shops like this one with wonderful pastries, sweets and chocolates.

And when you walk along and see a park like this, with tables and chairs set up for lunch, why wouldn’t you stop?

Here are some of the delicious things Maurizio and I had for a delightful Sunday lunch in this square.

Prosciutto, focaccia and stuffed pepper

Carpaccio of salmon and another fish ( can’t remember its name..)

Seafood pasta

Roast beef

Dessert: Fig tart with zabaglione (front) and chocolate cheesecake (back)

Another day, another delicious meal. This time it was pasta with zucchini flowers.

The conference I was attending held the gala dinner at Fontanafredda, a winery in the very beautiful Langhe area. These were some of the buildings on the site and a view from the car park.

My last night in Turin was another reason to visit an excellent restaurant! This time, Maurizio, Matteo and I enjoyed:

Stuffed zucchini flowers

Stuffed baby peppers

Pasta with seafood. This was a special large tubular pasta that lost its shape and squashed flat when cooked. Of course it has a name, but I don’t recall it

Buffalo mozzarella ravioli. Yum!

And no visit to Italy would be complete without Campari.

Tarragona

Ancient roman city in Spain. Still a bustling university town today.

Great food.

Great roman ruins, too. This was the view from my hotel room. The scaffolding was from a recent concert held in the amphitheater

The Priorat wine region is close to Tarragona. It’s a very hilly region with most of the vineyards terraced. Hard to believe this region is still commercially viable!

It’s a great place to visit, and some of the wineries are particularly picturesque.