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5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

If you’re a foodie who is planning a trip to Italy, you are in for a treat! While it is always a pleasure to experience the delicious cuisine and impeccable hospitality in Italian restaurants, you might find even more delight if you have your own kitchen during your stay.

Each region of Italy has its own specialty dishes that you can try to make in the comfort of your own home. Explore the local farmer’s markets and come home with some beautiful produce that you can use to make your own authentic creation.

Today, we are featuring some vacation rentals with stunning kitchens in five Italian cities. Andiamo a mangiare!

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1. Rome

5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

Get spectacular views of the Palatine, Roman Forum, and the Capitol from your rooftop patio in this stunning Roman apartment. It has a fully-stocked, beautiful kitchen where you can live out your culinary dreams, as well as an elegant dining room where you can share your creations with your loved ones.

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2. Amalfi Coast

5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

Stay in Villa Baroque, a sumptuous ten-bedroom retreat in the oldest part of Positano. Enjoy taking dips in the infinity pool with a full view of the sea, or relax in your beautifully-decorated bedroom with high ceilings and frescoes.

Believe it or not, this rental also includes a cook who will make all your meals, which is a great way to learn how to make Italian dishes. You can even request a professional chef who can come to your house and elevate your experience to new levels. Perfetto!

3. Florence

5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

If you’ve ever seen the movie Under The Tuscan Sun and have been dreaming of life in a Tuscan villa ever since, look no further than the Villa Rogai in the tiny village of Romola. You’ll be ten miles away from the center of Florence, yet you’ll feel like you’re a world away.

The villa was built in the late nineteenth century and is decorated with beautiful antique furniture. You can enjoy your meals on the terrace by the pool with a view of the nearby hills. We recommend buying several bottles of local chianti wine to taste, too.

4. Milan

5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

Experience the northern grandeur of Milan in a vacation rental that is as fashionable as the city. This luxury loft sets you up perfectly for exploring the city, and you’ll feel like a local in this small but comfortable space.

Fun tip: take a day trip to stunning Lake Como, and buy some fresh fish to bring back and cook for the evening in your little Euro kitchen.

5. Venice

5 Vacation Rentals In Italy That Have Stunning Kitchens

Plan a trip for you and your nine other friends or family members to the Palazzina Canal, a stunning property in Venice that is right on the water. You’ll have views of the whole city from the windows of your apartment.

The kitchen space is perfect for big cooking productions: you can spread out all of your ingredients on the large island and put people to work – or sit them down at the barstools, and give them samples of whatever you’re making.

Here’s Why Your Next Fine Dining Experience Will Probably Be At Home

From Hotel Chef To Home Cook, Alessandro Shares His Journey To Social Dining In Rome

It may come as no surprise that an Italian childhood is a childhood of memories strongly linked to food and cooking. Our self-styled “authentic Roman” host tells us that this was the most important gift that was passed down to him: “by my grandmother to my mother, and since the age of 4 years old, from my mother to me.”

From Hotel To Home Chef, Why Alessandro Embraced Social Dining

Alessandro, a trained chef and sommelier from Rome, still remembers the dishes of his traditional Italian childhood, which were classics like “homemade pasta, gnocchi, pizza, and Roman dishes.” From there, Alessandro became well-versed in the flavours of his country. The first dish he ever made? Classic homemade fettuccine in a tomato sauce.

Going pro

Rather than let his interest in cooking remain a mere hobby, Alessandro wanted to do something he loved for a living. He tells us how he first entered the food industry:

I worked and studied at the Marriott Hotel in Rome. There I underwent training to become the Chef of the Hotel. Once I had my chef’s diploma I looked into Sommelier qualifications and registered at the Worldwide Sommelier Association, becoming Rome Cavalieri Hotel’s official sommelier.

Being a hotel chef was a fantastic learning curve for Alessandro, but interaction with the people he was feeding was something he felt was missing. This skilful chef decided to take the plunge into social dining, and bring his professional cooking skills back to his own kitchen by opening a home restaurant with a stunning view of the Vatican.

From Hotel To Home Chef, Why Alessandro Embraced Social Dining

“I wanted to organise these social dining experiences where I could see my guests enjoying the fruits of my labour, and I could engage with them too,” he explains, which is something he did not get the opportunity to do as a chef in a hotel.

“I like the social aspect of these dining experiences, and I can get to know different people from all over the world.”

Alessandro now works full-time in his home restaurant. The success of his venture, he says, is owed in part to the fresh ingredients he uses in his dishes, allowing the flavors to speak for themselves. Because of this, he advises to-be hosts to “buy the best ingredients and the best wines; make sure your passion comes through your dishes.”

Putting people first

From Hotel Chef To Home Cook, Alessandro Shares His Journey To Social Dining

As any good host knows, the dishes are only the beginning. To make sure his guests feel at home (particularly important in a home restaurant), Alessandro emphasizes the use of people-skills, telling us to “take an interest in the lives and the experiences of the guests, as they have travelled from all over the world to taste the Italian dishes I grew up with.”

The best way to experience a new country is to taste the dishes borne of family tradition. Host Alessandro wants to help you experience the Rome with dishes handed down by his mother, and his grandmother, and for you to take a little taste of Italy back with you.

Alessandro’s favourite dish

My favourite dish is spaghetti with mussels. This is the recipe:

  • Clean the mussels, put them into a pan with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and chili pepper.
  • Cook covered until they are opened.
  • In another pan, put fresh tomatoes,  garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.
  • Cook covered for about 5 minutes, add the mussels and a part of their liquid, previously filtered.
  • Cook for another 3 minutes.
  • Cook the pasta in salted water, drain it al dente and toss in pan with the sauce, adding the remaining liquid from the mussels if necessary.

Over to you

Want to enjoy a truly Roman feast with a view of the Vatican City? You can book a seat at Alessandro’s home restaurant over here.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

Italy is well-known for its great wines. But most travellers aren’t equipped with the knowledge to fully enjoy the wide array of wines and food pairings at their disposal.

For this reason, we decided to hold a wine-tasting and food-pairing experience for our BonAppetour community. Hosting us was lawyer-turned-home-chef Alessandro – who just happens to be a certified sommelier as well – and his girlfriend Elena. The couple also runs one of the top-rated home restaurants in Rome, so we knew that we were in for a treat.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

True enough, we learned so much about the art of wine-tasting through this session. Here’s how it went down.

Wines for the day: prosecco, white wine, red wine, and moscato

By the time we arrived, the table was all laid out. 4 types of wines was set before us – prosecco, white wine, red wine and moscato – accompanied by foods that go best with each of them.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

Alessandro laid out the first rule for wine-tasting: Drink more wine. Everybody agreed heartily, and started on the first drink – the prosecco.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

Prosecco is a typical aperitivo drink in Italy. The Italian aperitivo – a bitter drink to be paired with snacks – apparently originated from Torino in 1786.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

The rule of contrast

Alessandro then introduced us to the second rule of wine-tasting, which is the rule of contrast. The idea here is to combine the right texture of food with the persistence of wine flavours.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

A common myth that Alessandro busted is that light-colored foods are best paired with light-colored wines, while dark-colored foods are best paired with dark-colored wines.

Enjoy the aroma

A critical part of wine-tasting lies in taking in the smells of the wine before drinking it.

We were told to take notice of the shape of the wine glass that the red wine was served in. The glass had a wider base and opening, which allows one to smell the wine while drinking it, enhancing its flavors.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

Finally, we finished off with the moscato – a lovely sweet wine – to be accompanied by sweet treats. The perfect way to end off any meal.

What We Learned About Wine-Tasting From A Local Sommelier In Rome

Special thanks to Alessandro for being a gracious host and opening up your home to us!

Over to you

Want to join our next exciting BonAppetour experience? One of the slots has your name on it – click here to book it right away!

Why Travel Is About More Than Clichés And Selfies

Why Travel Is About More Than Clichés And Selfies

Exploration has driven humans to expand to new frontiers for millennia. The pull of the unseen and the unknown has been enough to convince intrepid travelers to give up the comforts of home and set out for the great beyond.

The problem is, the great beyond now seems to be filled with selfie sticks and tour buses.

travel tourists selfie sticks

I stood in line for my first passport at the not-so-tender age of 19 because I could feel the idea of travel weighing upon me. But never having left my home country, that same idea felt completely out of reach. The passport booklet, filled with its 40 pristine pages, was the essential first step to seeing the world that lay beyond the boundaries of my hometown.

To break in my new found freedom, I booked a trip to Italy. The 10-day tour took us from the canals of Venice, through the Renaissance streets of Florence, and straight into the picture-perfect ancient mishmash of modern Rome.

Everything was new, exciting, and borderline infuriating.

travel tourists tours crowd

Here’s why: around every corner was yet another line for yet another monument. The sites themselves were stunning, but being forced to wait behind throngs of tourists destroyed some of the grandeur.

Our attempts at dining sometimes fared no better. White-aproned hosts beckoned to us with tempting English language menus, but we left the red-checkered tables unconvinced we had really been served authentic home cooking.

We walked the cobblestones streets wondering if this was really what travel was all about – selfies and social media check-ins.

travel tourists food pasta

Following that fateful trip, I have since moved to Rome and stood in line at the embassy to add more pages to that same passport. On a plane or a train nearly every two weeks, I have realized that there will always be other tourists.

However, I prefer to leave them to the bucket list sites and chart my own path in every new city.

Dare to say yes

Travelling has taught me that a lot of the experience is about taking a risk and saying yes. Yes to the plane tickets, yes to the off-the-beaten track neighborhood, and yes to the invitations to see sites that are off the beaten path.

That was why I said yes to the lunch invitation from the front desk girl at my hostel in Marrakesh. One hour and one horse-and-cart ride later, we were watching her brother’s wedding video, sipping mint tea and eating couscous with her entire family in their 800-year-old Berber home.

Able to communicate mainly through pointing and smiles, it was one of the best meals of my life.

travel tourists morocco

Wandering through countries and continents, I have learned that I prefer to skip the typical guidebook must-sees and take a seat at the table. And food is undeniably the best gateway into a new city.

The dinner table is where you go to be nourished, but also where you can learn the norms of a new culture, including how to fare la scarpetta (sop up the sauce) at the end of your homemade pasta dinner.

travel tourists home cooked food pasta

The flavors on the plate in front of you represent the history and traditions of a given place. At the same time, each meal is a chance to simultaneously make very new and very modern real-world connections.

This simple travel tip holds true away from the table as well. I have found that the best place to feel the pulse of a city is at the market rather than at a museum. While you will find few Romans waiting in line at the Vatican, I guarantee you will find every local sitting down for a meal each day. The next step is to be invited to join them.

Social media (and selfies) keep us connected to home while traveling, but it is the unpretentious of act of eating that makes the experience of escape more unique.  That’s why my FOMO (fear of missing out) has more to do with tracking down a rare craft beer than it does with a major monument.

travel tourists tours colosseum

Plus, everyone knows that the best way to see the Colosseum is from a private dining room table.

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Tired of doing the typical touristy stuff? Go beyond clichés and selfies in your travels by dining in a home restaurant instead. 

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