vegan diaries, jet wings dec 2011

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One of the many picturesque beach spots alongthe Amal Coastline. Hire an umbrella for 10 andupwards for that perfect Mediterranean tan.

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gan: On who sch ws anything thatcom s from an animal.Italy: Pizza, Parm san, mozzar lla, Parmaham, Bologn s

N v r th twain shall m t! Or so wthought.

As a soon-to-b -w d spagh tti-lovingcoupl , Italy was top of th list on ourhon ymoon c l sh t. W w nt throughbudg ts, Fromm rs, trav l ag nts, Lon lyPlanets and fnally decided on a ten-daytrip to Parm san Paradis to c l brat ourw dding. Th r was a catch though. Whilmy husband could at anything that mov d (if h was allow d to), I am v gan.

TexT riThika rameshdiari sVegan

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Below: The Colosseuma standing proof of both the grandeur andthe cruelty of theRoman world.

Bottom: Pastas in anunimaginable varietyof shapes and sizes at ashop in Rome.

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I was scared and with good reason becausethis is my typical night out at an Italian restaurantin Mumbai.

Id like a Pasta BlahBlah without the cheese, please. But maam, it wont taste good without the cheese Thats okay. Okay. I will inform the chef Sure enough, the chef cannot resist putting thecheese on top.But maam, its very little Im allergic to cheese, milk and butter. So if I eat that I will most certainly die Sorry maam, I will get you a new one

Imagine trying that in Italian. I left it all to mycheap English-to-Italian book which I started going

through diligently a whole two months before thetrip. Armed with simple things like latte = milk andformaggio = cheese, I was ready to take on thedairy ma a.

Rome wiTh a TwisTFlying is always fun for me and is another testof how vegan-friendly airlines are. I really dontknow why people complain about airline food.Its probably nuked 300 times till it gets to yourtray and is devoid of any nutrition, but it still llsyou up. I was pleasantly surprised when I got myspecially requested vegan meal complete withdessert and the husband ate off my plate ratherthan his not-so-special meal.

Our journey began in Rome and by the time wegured the way to our hotel it was dinner time. We

dumped our bags and scouted for restaurants. Most

restaurants in Italy, as is the case all over Europe,have their menus displayed out front and we justsettled at the rst sight of pizza and pasta. Our rstmeal was at a small restaurant round the cornerfrom our hotel. It was a beautiful meal of pizzamargherita and spaghetti alla pomodoro with somehouse red wine. And it took me only that rst mealto know that I was going home with a lot of excessbaggage, on me.

I had read up a lot about the food in Italy andeverything pointed to one thing: If you havent triedsome gelato, you havent been to Italy. There wasmention of a few gelateria boasting of vegan gelati,so I made it a point to add them to my To Do list.The rst day we were in Rome, we had to go to the

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Perhaps the Amal Coasts most fashionable resort, theancient village of Positano is famous for its stunningcliff-side location.

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limoncellothe original lemon gelato made withlocal lemons and you will never ever want to eat anyother limoncello.

From Positano and most other towns on the coast,there are day trips to the famous Capri Island.En route are many beautiful grottos or caves inbeautiful shades of azure where you can stop andtake a dip in to the cold deep sea if you dare. Theonly way to get the best out of the Amal Coast isto hire a bike and ride through the towns, stoppingonly to pinch yourself that you are actually there, inone of the most beautiful parts of Italy. We certainlycouldnt get over it and I dont think we still have.


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Nothing else will matter, not even the food. Thecoast takes the cake.

Vegans VeniceFrom there we reluctantly made our way to Venice.Reluctantly, because we did not want the Amaldream to end and also because it was the lastleg of our tr ip. Venice is a city stuck in time andhas no place to go. The city looks like it has beensubmerged in a ood and people just built their

lives around it. Everyone travels on boat and of course, there are the gondolas. We were warned notto even attempt taking one. I know its probablywhat everyone imagines you have to do in Venicespecially if you are on a honeymoon, but the watertaxi will take you through the same route for a tenththe price.

The gondolas are if anything, very badly madeboats. A slightly bigger boat passes by and thegondolier loses control. Im sure it used to beromantic at one time, but I think we were still quitehung over from Positano and didnt want to end upin the water.

Venice does have its own charm, mind you, and you

will get used to being surrounded by water by thesecond day. Being summer, Venetian markets wereripe with an amazing variety of lovely zucchiniswith owers intact, bell peppers, artichokes, rocketleaves, lettuce and endless berries. Gelateria andpizzerias abound here, but my personal foodmemory of Venice is the nut brittle (not unlikeIndias chikki) and you absolutely must bite in to ahazelnut brittle.

Clockwise from left: Nocciola Crocante or hazelnut brittle inone of Venices many dessert bars; Blu Ices vegan specialchocolate and hazelnut gelati; Amal s f amous ceramicwares with the infamous lemons. The most popular colourcombination is this cobalt blue background with brightyellow lemons.

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GettinG there Jet Airways has daily ights to Milan from Delhi. From here,Rome, Positano and Venice are all well-connected via rail, roadand air.

tipsMost restaurants, especially the ones in the touristy areas,have cover charges. They will charge you for cutlery,tableware, bread baskets and water. They would charge youfor breathing their air if they could.

Try not to eat Indian food. I know you can do it. If youneed spice ask for chilli akes. Most likely they will giveyou a box of akes thats made in India. I know because weasked for it.

AccommodAtion Rome, Positano and Venice all see a lot of tourists so ndingdecent accommodation is not a problem. Our picks: Hotel BestRoma in Rome; Villa Gabrisa in Positano, Palazzao Cendon inVenice.

For more inFormAtion Log on to www.italia.it/en/home.html

QUicK FActs

I also found a few stores selling vegan sausages,tofu, vegan cheese and lots of other vegan thingsthat added to our luggage woes. Since Venice wasour last stop, I shopped till I dropped. And for meshopping means food and kitchenware. We would

walk out of stores with two bags each, full of stuff looking like we were preparing for a holocaust.From olive oil, vinegars, canned tomatoes, driedPorcini mushrooms, olives, vegan puddings toyogurts, pastas and Arborio rice there are endlesspossibilities if you are like me. And wonderfullyenough, all of it squeezed into my luggage, with noexcess to worry about.

Italy is said to be a place you have to visit thrice inyour life. But in my case, even three is too few. n

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vegan diaries, jet wings dec 2011

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