Falanghina wine and Italian food matching

Today’s focus is on our new cookery holidays destination, Amalfi. The Amalfi Coast is located within the Campania region, an extremely popular and absolutely stunning Italian region.

Campania is home to an impressive array of locally produced specialties including wine, limoncello liqueur and gastronomic delights.

Our favourite wine of the region, is undoubtedly Falanghina – a white grape variety with a light and fresh taste. Its refreshing and energizing taste makes falanghina the perfect pair to a variety of Italian dishes.

Here are some of the best combinations for Falanghina wine:

PRESERVED SEAFOOD

FRESH SEAFOOD

          

  FRESH FISH 

 CHICKEN

Are you hungry yet? If are tempted to learn cooking these delicious dishes have a look at our cooking holidays in Amalfi.

And don’t forget to join our Facebook giveaway today and tell us what dish would you accompany with a glass of Falanghina wine - to be in with a chance to win a bottle of fine Falanghina wine!   

The Amalfi Coast of Italy

The Amalfi coast is Flavours new cooking holiday destination and we're sure it's going to be one of your favourite. The American writer Margie Miklas who just returned from Amalfi is giving us some travel inspiration. Let's read what she has to say:

I love the Amalfi Coast of Italy and would want to return there every chance I can. Even though I enjoy so many other areas of the beautiful country of my grandparents, I have to say the Amalfi Coast is a favorite place for me. The sheer beauty of the rugged, winding coastline and towns built high into the hills is reason enough to visit here.

 On my very first visit there, I stayed in Sorrento, which is sort of the gateway to the Amalfi Coast, and a wonderful city itself. From Sorrento, I rode the SITA bus along the cliff road which winds back and forth above and through the towns of the Amalfi Coast. This ride is not for the faint of heart, as the road is narrow and the drop-offs are steep, but the views are priceless. The skilled drivers know how to navigate the turns like pros and the ride is worth every penny of the €7.60 price from Sorrento all the way to Salerno. 

Amalfi is the main town, the town where the buses meet, and where I had to change buses to continue the ride to Salerno. Also from Amalfi, at the water's edge, is the ferry dock, and from here, you can take ferries to Capri, Positano, Ischia, Maiori, Cetara, Salerno, and other towns on the Amalfi coast.

Positano is probably the most well-known town on the Amalfi Coast, as many celebrities visit here, and because it has been featured in several Hollywood films, the most famous being Under the Tuscan Sun. Usually crowded with tourists, Positano is a beautiful place and worth the visit, although I would not suggest going in the summer months.

I prefer the smaller towns of Maiori and Minori, where I have access to Positano, but do not have to fight the large crowds. Maiori actually has the longest beach on the Amalfi coast, and also a promenade right next to it, where la passeggiata occurs every day. I stayed here right along the beach for five days a few years ago while I was traveling solo in Italy for three months, and found Maiori to be very relaxing. The people were extremely friendly, the restaurants amazing, and the shopping reasonable.

I could go on and on about the magnificent Amalfi Coast. Perhaps my photos speak louder than my words. I hope you have an opportunity soon to enjoy this favorite part of Italy as I have. 

Margie Miklas is an American writer with a passion for travel and I particular, Italy. She is the author  of Memoirs of a Solo Traveler – My Love Affair with Italy  .        

                                                                             

http://www.facebook.com/MargieMiklasAuthor

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http://margieinitaly.wordpress.com/

Amalfi Coast: Capri, Pompeii and more

The Amalfi Coast is breathtaking enough viewed from the mainland. But take a boat trip – to Capri perhaps, outstanding in its own right – and you also get the benefit of seeing the coast’s astonishing scenery full-face.

Capri lives up to its legend: an island of fabled beauty, glamour and hedonism, that has seduced everyone from Roman emperors to Hollywood stars, from Oscar Wilde to Gracie Fields. It’s the Mediterranean you expect from 1960s feature-films: upmarket piazzas and cafes – most notably Capri Town’s Piazzetta – with the rich and beautiful sipping cocktails and cappuccinos, discussing their designer-boutique purchases, surrounded by fabulous ruins and stunning deep-blue seascapes.

The twin centres, Capri and Anacapri, bustle with day-trippers and prices are high. But venture just off the tourist trail and you can quickly find the island’s unspoiled local charm. There’s some excellent hiking here, too; for the less energetic there’s a chairlift from Anacapri to Monte Solaro peak.

Li Galli, four small islands south of Positano, were known as the Sirenuse until the 19th century, thanks to its association with the sirens that lured Odysseus. The adventurous can head for them by motorboat – and swim in the crystal-clear waters between the crags. Organised boat trips here will take you via beautiful little coves and bays that are inaccessible by any other transport.

If all that coastal eye-luxury starts to get too much, the region has plenty of other complementary sights to see.

Pompeii (Pompei in Italian) is a short trip by road but a world away from the Amalfi coast’s glorious feelgood living. Destroyed almost instantly by a volcanic eruption in 79AD, the whole place – and its dead population – was preserved by pumice and ash. Wandering its almost intact shops, houses and streets now is an eerie and essential experience. It’s one of the world’s must-visit sights; but similar Herculaneum, further up the coast, is smaller, less crowded and easier to navigate, and some even prefer it.

Vesuvius, the volcano responsible for turning Pompeii into a time-capsule, is still simmering away. You can visit that from the Amalfi coast too, by bus or car. It’s a kilometre or so’s walk to the summit – you can do it in trainers – from where you can peer down into the smoking depths.

Salerno will feel like a bland workaday city after the Amalfi coast’s gorgeous intensity. But as well as big-town facilities there’s a historic centre to explore. It also acts as the gateway to the Cilento region – a change of feel from Amalfi, with its historic Roman sites, scenic shores, and hidden caves and grottoes.

Amalfi Coast: Eating, drinking, walking

If you're joining Flavours of Italy on an Amalfi holiday, you will no doubt taste some of the best local cuisine cooked by regional chefs. Fish and seafood are the specialities of Amalfi coast cuisine, as you’d expect, though on the menu you’ll also see rabbit stew – a favourite of the traditional peasant farmer – with white wine, garlic and peppers. And of course you can get pizza anywhere: Naples, where the concept was developed, is just up the coast.

Lemons grow in abundance on the steep south-facing terraces, with those of Amalfi being prized for their sweet, tingling flavour. They feature strongly in local desserts, and in limoncello, the local liqueur – you may well be served a complimentary one after a restaurant meal as a digestif.

For good eating on the Amalfi coast, you have to look past the humdrum lines of tourist cafes and restaurants – not always easy in most of Positano or Ravello, for example.

Amalfi is a good bet for casual dining, with lots of decent little trattorie and pizzerie down the side streets. For excellent food with a panoramic, romantic view of the coast, Eolo gets rave reviews from travellers, with the chocolate aubergine dessert specially recommended.

In Positano, just off the main beach, the family-run bar Bagni da Ferdinando offers straightforward Italian food and drink for very reasonable prices. For simple, cheap mozzarella and juicy tomatoes, with a glass of red wine or two, this seems to be the place.

Ravello has one of the best restaurants in the area: Il Flauto di Pan. High-class cuisine with fine wines and 

wonderful views over the bay, at a price – reckon on 100 euros per person – but for many it’s their best meal experience in Italy.

In Marina di Praia, in Praiano, you can enjoy excellent seafood by the beach at da Armandino. Rustic, handmade local food at its best – and as usual in Italy, it’s family-friendly too.

If you need to work up an appetite for all this, the area is great for hiking and walking.

The Walk of the Gods (Sentero degli Dei) is the best-known hike on the Amalfi Coast, a spectacular 12km mountain trail that will have you gasping – for breath as well as in awe – for six hours or so. It starts in north Positano at Via Chiesa Nuova, just north of the coastal road 163, and takes you to Praiano (where a bus will take you gratefully back to Positano) or the small town of Bomerano. The route is marked with red and white stripes and takes you through incredible scenery – nowhere more so than at Montepertuso, a cliff with a huge hole in its centre.

The town of Ravello is the starting point for numerous walks too, for example to Minori, or Amalfi via the ancient village of Scala. Enough to make anyone hungry...

Amalfi Coast: Must-sees and must-dos

Dramatic, intense, breathtakingly beautiful: Italy south of Naples is one of the world’s most extraordinary areas. Mount Vesuvius looms over it all: mainland Europe’s only active volcano, whose eruption in 79AD perfectly preserved the town of Pompeii in an ashen time-capsule.

But even if the volcano isn’t on fire, visitors’ hearts usually are. Because the Amalfi coast – the few dozen kilometres of the Sorrento Peninsula facing south into the Tyrrhenian Sea – is the sort of place people fall in love with. We here at Flavours have fallen in love with the Amalfi region as well, and so we are proud to announce Amalfi as our latest new destination for our Flavours holidays in Italy.

Until the 19th century, the coast was accessible only by boat or mountain paths, and its isolated loveliness attracted writers and artists. Now it’s available to anyone with a taste for beauty and adventure.

As you drive along route 163, the road which snakes 40km all along the Amalfi coast, it’s easy to see why it’s become a world traveller’s favourite. Every corner brings another stunning view of wild coastline, sapphire skies, creamy seas, and towns tumbling grandly down the hillside. Painters and artists – as well as digital-camera snappers – will be stopping to record their impressions.

Positano is the jewel in Amalfi’s crown: a dreamy town that climbs an abrupt hillside, whose traffic-free main street goes down to the beach through the heart of the old town. Be prepared for some steep walking. Its oldest houses are highest up: faded grandeur in peach and pink, with Baroque stuccoes. Further down is a maze of narrow stepped alleys, houses with vaulted roofs, terraces and tiny gardens. The beach at the bottom is a picture-postcard of fishing boats, bars and restaurants.

Amalfi is now a small, easily walkable visitor town, though centuries ago it was a powerful maritime republic, rivalling Venice and Genoa – a status put paid to by an earthquake in 1343. Its cathedral is wonderful, and the lovely seaside setting makes the place a great spot for lunch.

Ravello was chosen by Wagner as the ‘magic garden of Klingsor’, in his opera Parsifal. The refined, romantic tourist town indeed has superb gardens, and stupendous views. It’s a popular day trip from Amalfi, accessed via a precipitous few kilometres of road up the Valle del Dragone, but best enjoyed through an overnight stay.

Praiano, a ridgetop fishing village with a nice church, is worth a visit, as is the seaside resort of Minori, a more workaday tourist place popular with Italians. Furore is a quiet fishing off the beaten track; less so

Cetara, past the beach at Erchie, which is known for anchovies. Pleasant Vietri sul Mare, at the end of the coast road, is a ceramic centre.