Caio! I’m back from the Valpolicella wine region of Verona, Italy, where my co-host Demet Guzey and I hosted a sold out group of students from the U.S. and Ireland to eat, drink and write. It was our second writing workshop and we hope for more.
The grounds of our 500-year old Palladian villa. Not shown are a vineyard, carriage house, chapel, ping pong table, and pool. And Grecian statues. (Photo by Owen Rubin.)
We stayed at a gorgeous 10-bedroom Palladian villa in San Pietro in Cariano, a tiny town near Verona, about 1.5 hours’ drive from Milan or Venice. Even though we held the writing workshop there last year, I still marvelled once again at the villa’s marble floors, chandeliers and painted ceilings.
A fierce Jackalope displayed in one of the villa’s common areas. One of many stuffed animals and hides used to decorate the place. (Photo by Mike Vrobel.)
This year we met the villa’s owner, who turns out to be the hunter of most of the stuffed animals and hides displayed throughout the house. That explains the chair made of animal horns and the ibex head in the kitchen!
Here’s a look at what we ate and drank at our Food & Wine Writing Workshop:
Our first night we sat outside in the garden of Locanda Dal Nane, dining on beef cheeks and risotto, both made with the local wine, Amarone.
Later we visited the legendary family vineyard of Quintarelli, a favorite wine of Hemingway’s, where we tasted a flight of wines, with pours by the founder’s grandson in a dark tasting room. The winery’s signature wine is the local Amarone, a rich red wine that commands astronomical prices. Aged red grapes concentrate the flavors and sugars. That’s all of us enjoying the sweeping views from the balcony of the winery (above).
After a pasta-making workshop at Enoteca Della Valpolicella, we ate our tender tortelli, and several other delectable dishes, many made by hand. The tortelli’s filling included the young leaves of wild poppy plants, collected by local foragers.
Here’s the tortelli our class made. Lest you think we are this accomplished, two chefs assisted us and reshaped many of our tortelli. They have standards, since the restaurant specializes in pasta. (Photo by Mike Vrobel.)
Layers of orange sponge cake, chocolate, a thick pudding, and a liqueur we didn’t recognize made for a sensational dessert at Enoteca Della Valpolicella. (Photo by Owen Rubin.)
For lunch one day, we headed to a restaurant that specialized in porchetta, pork roast cooked on an open fire.
Roasted over an open fire and sliced thinly, this porchetta tasted like a cross between bacon and ham. Served with a slice of grilled polenta. (Photo by Jillian Fae.)
This year Demet added a new event. We visited a rice mill with an accompanying lunch at the restaurant there. In the more Northern regions, Italians eat rice three times a week, a guide told us. We sampled many kinds of risotto: a polenta-like rice dish, an asparagus risotto and a meat risotto. To our surprise, when we questioned the chef about how he made the etherial asparagus risotto, he said he cooked it in vegetable stock like ordinary rice, then added an “asparagus cream,” butter, and Parmesan. No stirring!
We visited this ancient rice mill to learn about the local rice, called vialone nano. It’s used specificaly for risotto. (Photo by Catherine Sinegal.)
On our last evening, we dined at Locanda ‘800, a Michelin Guide restaurant, and feasted on an all-seafood meal of grilled octopus and sea bass cooked in parchment.
Yes, there was a lot of eating and drinking at our writing workshop, as you can see. But there was also instruction on food writing technique, wine writing and education, writing exercises, and general conversation about blogging, feature writing, and cookbooks. The students shared their thoughts and best practices, which always makes the classes more valuable. I’m grateful to the students and to Demet for making this workshop not only possible but such an unforgettable experience.
See? We actually did to work while we were there. Here’s Demet teaching how to describe the flavors of wine. I taught writing techniques for describing food, trends in food writing, and both of us held private consults with the students about next steps. (Photo by Owen Rubin.)
Afterwards, my husband and I took the train for a week of sightseeing in Germany. Some of the students travelled to other parts of Italy and one went to Portugal. Coming to the workshop provides a good excuse to go somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit afterwards.
I’ve got more writing workshops coming up. I hope you might join me! Just subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter to find out what’s next.
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Read about the writing workshop in these blog posts from students:
- Jillian Fae’s Mustard Oil and Frequency Illusions
- Lori Definis: My solo trip to Italy. This line made me laugh: “Dianne was waiting at the door looking exactly how I picture all writers. Small and artsy, wearing overalls and a smirk that makes you feel like the two of you already have an inside joke.”
- Mike Vrobel’s piece: Road Trip: Italy Food and Wine Writing Workshop 2018.
A lovely summary of the workshop! I feel I gained so much from it. Thank you for sharing and for sharing my post!
Thanks Jillian. It was a pleasure to have you there. I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog posts.
Hi Dianne,
I was wondering if you ever bartered affiliate programs? I just started an affiliate program for Restaurant Raves and was thinking of creating a page for food bloggers. Any suggestions?
Loved reading about your Italy trip. I spent last October on the Island of Ischia, Italy off the coast of Naples. A tropical paradise where cooking with fresh ingredients is the standard, there are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere along the sides of the nooks and crannies of the roads and there are 100 Christian churches on the island. Can’t wait to return. Highly recommend the trip.
Thanks,
Terry
Hi Terry, I have not bartered affiliate programs. If I had an ebook or course I would set up a program f, it that’s what you mean. I’m sure if you search on how to set up an affiliate program, you will find what you need. Most food bloggers are recipe bloggers, however, so you will have a smaller number upon which to draw.
Ischia sounds fantastic. There’s so much of Italy to explore. Thanks.
Food with wine enhances the enjoyment. I love this kind of parties where friends and family members and friends get together. There is a big benefit of a party every person told us about our favorite wine brand. Through this way, we tasting the new kind of wine.
We drank a lot of wine at this workshop! Thanks for your comment. Maybe you’ll join us at the next one, Michael.