Sunflower Closing party – Florence, August 30th 2015

Let’s start directly by some pictures   

 

  

  

  

I thought it was like a Carnival party, but it’s more about music and DJs. It’s one of the few parties based in Florence, where you really can enjoy happy people, great DJs and whole day far from the regular city parties. 

Let’s finish with the line up! 

line up Sunflower closing party 2015
 

And the location, of course!

Manduca Florence
  
let the flowers start!
  
phillip and Cole, two popular DJs from Florence
  
  
Satoshi Tomie
  
  
Fabrizio Sala
 Let me say it has been an heavy day, but I wish to be still there… Dancing and listening to some great electro music #summerIsAlwaysOn

Lion’s Fountain: an Irish pub in the centre of Florence

I was hanging around, just off the office, so why don’t have a great beer-time in one of the best Irish pub of the city? 

Here we go: Lion’s Fountain is its name and it’s located exactly in the centre, in San Pier Maggiore square.  
 

Lion’s fountain Florence
  

Here you are its famous ‘fountain’:

 

Lion’s Fountain
 
inside Lion’s fountain
  

  
As you can see from these pictures, it’s one of the most international place because thanks to its position, its special beers and above all to the fact that it’s possible to watch Football matches, it has become very popular among the foreign students who live in the city. 

All the football supporters always go there.. before, during or after the matches, and this is its great fortune. 

Moreover, you can also choose to have a delicious brunch:

   

Their motto? #beLions !  
If you have the chance, enjoy Lions of Florence!

 

What’s cooking? How to prepare ‘Italian pasta with seafood’ 

Good morning! It’s my last day off after my vacation, and I’m in Naples, hence nothing’s better than celebrate with a good lunch with freshly made pasta with seafood  (it is very common in this city to eat seafood on Sundays).

I’m going to describe you each step for cooking a great pasta with seafood, or more exactly ‘vermicelli by De Cecco‘ with venus clams, swordrazors and hardclams.

Enjoy this recipe!

Step 1everything you need is: little tomatoes (The perfect ones are ‘datterini‘) and a few persil, garlic and little chili peppers, vermicelli pasta and seafood:

datterini tomatoes and persil – directly from the market
  
vermicelli pasta by De Cecco
 
garlic and little chili peppers
  
seafood: venus clams, hard clams, swordrazors

Step 2: while preparing the above-listed ingredients in a pan, you can put some water to boil in a pot.

Put the seafood, with a little salt, garlic, persil and tomatoes in a pan and let them cook for some minutes until their shells open: this means they’re are ready to be eaten.  

salt in the seafood
  

seafood with shells open
  
waiting for boiling water
  
pan and pot
 

Step 3: mix the seafood in order to have a colorful and flavored result. In the meantime, as soon as you can see the boiling water, you can add some salt in the pot and then add Vermicelli: 

mix seafood
  

put salt in the boiling water
  
add vermicelli pasta
  
cooking pasta for less minutes than it’s shown
 …you need to know a little secret: everytime you cook pasta, you have always to let it cook in its water for less minutes than it’s written in their packaging, and then cook it for the remaining munutes in the dressing you chose. 

In this case, thanks to this step, you could cook pasta for some more minutes together in the pan with seafood. 
The results?
😍😍😍   
 

Traditional food in Southern Italy

It happens when you’re back in those place where you have lived, and you find all those products that are so genuine, nothing but ‘bio’ or ‘organic’ or ‘eco-something’…just so natural

Let’s start from fried figs, they used to be one of the top dessert for our grandparents, and fortunately they’re still prepared and used by families:
 

Those are the popular red peppers: traditionally, they’re put at the sun because  they need to get dry. Then, the dried peppers can be used to have a sort of peppers-powder to dress pasta or prepare fried peppers:

red peppers of Basilicata
  
red peppers dying at the sun
 

And here you are a typical kind of pear named ‘pera signora‘ (in English it would be Miss Pear 😁) that is becoming even more important for its uniqueness: 

pera signora – products sustainability
  

pears, tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines
  
complete products line from pera signora: jam, marmelade, fruit juice, in syrup

Pera Signora is part of Slow Food project, see here for more details 

And this is a very giant bread made in Calabria – I think a family of 4/5 people can survive for a month also if eating only it:

giant bread – from Calabria
 

crunchy and giant bread made in Calabria

Finally, it is worth to mention pasta – more exactly it’s  ‘rigatoni‘ with bacon and eggs, or white-Amatriciana, and a little dessert made of choco-profiterols: 

white amatriciana with rigatoni pasta
  

choco-profiterols

If these pictures male you drool and you got hungry, well… enjoy your meal  😁

  

Japanese-style vs. ’50s-style wedding

Some weeks ago, I wend through these two completely different wedding parties: styles, menu, people, locations, deco and so on… The only thing in common? The amount of things to eat!!

The beginning: an unexpected Japanese-style wedding 😍 

wedding tree
    

sugared almonds and other cereals
  
location Visconti, Marconia – Basilicata coast
 
and some other Japanese deco and sushi: 
kaede table list
  

sushi and other menu
  
origami butterfly and sugared almonds
  
origami Japanese box
  

wedding gift – Japanese cranes symbols of happiness
 
And this is the ’50s: 
old and polka dot 500
  

love bicycle – wedding day at Garden, Matera
  
super big hall – Garden Palace in Matera
  
mohito sorbet and liquirice
  
magic gardens of ‘Garden’ in Matera
  
gardens of Garden Palace – Matera
  
heart sculpture in a tree
  
Ice sculture and infinite fruits buffet
 
That’s it! And everything ended with lots more weight 🙂