Food, glorious food......

Of course, no trip to Italy wouldn't be complete without lots and lots of eating, and it's perhaps no real surprise that i've been happily embracing the tradition. Okay, so i havenb't been quite as bad as when Robert De Niro ate his way through the country in order to pile on the weight for the filming of 'Raging Bull' but there has been a lot of food availabler (in terms of variety) and so i've been quite happily trying it out. One of the more unusual things i have heard whilst being here is that the Italians don't really do breakfast and so they put out what they think other people want to have for breakfast. Given that the conference i was attending was very multinational, this led to their being a lot of stuff. The mainstay was a lot of breakfast cereal - surprisingly this was quite high sugar, so i guess they think we all have a sweet tooth. THere was, naturally, lots of coffee (good stuff) and then the usual fruit juice, yoghurt and fruit. On top of all that, though, there was a large amount of very sugary and sweet pastries, lots of prosciutto (cold cured ham), cheese and scrambled eggs. In short, almost anything and everything you could consider earting for breakfast. Except grits. Thank God.

For lunch and dinner, naturally, the Italians are little more at home, and there was also lots of good stuff to be had. To list it all here would be rather long winded and, quite frankly, would make me hungry. And probably you as well. Suffice to say, it was largely all pretty good - despite not being 'really italian' as our italian friends at the conference would have it. I guess this is mainly as it's made on a larger scale. However, none of us were complaining as it was pretty damn good. Suffice to say, i suspect i shall be hitting the gym when i get back. And certainly not eating pasta again for quite some time!!!