I am not generally a morning person.

But one thing that will get me out of bed in a flash is the prospect of a great breakfast.

For the best hotel breakfast with a view in Italy, my vote goes to the Grand Hotel Timeo in Taormina, Sicily. Sitting out on the expansive terrace, below is the sea and the lush gardens of citrus trees and bougainvilla, while the backdrop against the sky is the magnificent Mt Etna volcano, puffing like a steam train.  This is the same magnificent view the ancient Greeks enjoyed from their theatre (which is just behind the hotel).  The breakfast buffet features Sicilian specialties such as granita and brioche - a typical summer breakfast in Sicily – or refreshing almond milk, all fit for a Greek god.  It personally like to start with a plateful of tiny flaky pastries, and sip a cappuccino in the  captivating presence of Mt. Etna.  Join us here on our Splendors of Sicily walking tour.

In northern Italy, the Hotel Rosa Alpina in the town of San Cassiano in the Dolomites is my favorite place for the best classic hotel breakfast in Italy.  The moment you walk into the airy room overlooking the mountains you are enveloped in the yeasty buttery scents that are the essence of breakfast.  The first thing you physically encounter is a table laden with huge variety of homemade bread warm from the oven – I’m always tempted to just pull up a chair right there and do a high carb feast. 

But then I spy a fellow in a chef’s hat  ready to cook eggs to order, and I watch as he drops a big lump of butter into a sizzling copper pan.  The eggs have dark orange yolks and wow, they really taste of eggs.

All the Rosa Alpina’s breakfast ingredients are top notch and much is locally sourced – sweet butter from high alpine farms, jams thick with tart berries, huge bowls of creamy yogurt, fresh squeezed juices, perfectly ripe fruit, paper-thin slices of smoky speck, and hunks of local cheeses.  There’s a selection of cereal for the fiber-fiends, hot chocolate for the decadent, and good coffee made just the way you want.

The serving staff is friendly without being intrusive, and after your first breakfast, will remember your preferences the next day.  “Will you be having your regular cappuccino (or herb tea or espresso doppio?)”  the waitress will ask, as if you’ve been having breakfast there for years.  Tablecloths are pristine linen and seats have comfy cushions, inviting a long leisurely breakfast.    It’s a great way to start the day before a beautiful hike on our Wildflowers in the Dolomites walking tour.

One of the first autumn wildflowers in Italy is the sternbergia lutea with its bright yellow flower that has a crocus-like shape. In fact, it is often erroneously referred to as Autumn Crocus. It is actually more close related to the narcissus (daffodil) in the amaryllidaceae family.  The easiest way to spot the difference is by noting the number of stamens in the flower- a crocus has just three, while the sternbergia lutea has six.  

Soon after the the sternbergia is finished blooming, the lovely purple saffron crocus appears. If you are a patient person with a hankering for risotto alla milanese, you can gather the tiny amounts of saffron from the flower’s stigma.  

Autumn in Italy is also the time for beautiful walks, when the summer haze lifts to reveal splendid clear skies and far-reaching views. In my backyard in Sicily, the peak of the Mt. Etna volcano appears, while in the Chianti area of  Tuscany the craggy Appenine mountain range suddenly comes into view.  

And a walk is always a good excuse to taste.  Crisp autumns days in Tuscany invite the walker to explore pathways through golden vineyards, stopping in one of the delightful hilltowns in Chianti for a taste of the vino novello, the season’s new wine. 

In Sicily, its still warm enough by the sea to have a picnic, and I love to go to the Vendicari coastal oasis, and follow the ancient Greek road to a rocky overlook.  This is a good place to sit in the sun, watch the changing colors of the sea, and slurp up the juice of the season’s first oranges.  

Read similar stories about the seasons in Italy:

Have Sausage, Will Travel- Regional Food Exchange

Encountering The Magical Mandrake Plant

Autumn Traditions - Thank San Martino for Warm Weather

Top Places to View Wildflowers in Italy

The mandrake plant is a lovely autumn wildflower, but watch out.  Besides being poisonous, it’s said to possess strange and mystical powers.

My favorite mandrake myth is that the plant emits a horrible shriek when uprooted, causing madness and death to those foolish enough to have dug it up.  To solve this, medieval sorcerers advised that a dog should be used to uproot the mandrake plant, by tying a cord around the plant and the other end to the dog’s tail –  then the root collector makes a run for it.  The dog would die upon hearing the shriek, but the collector would be safely out of earshot.  I guess the idea of being man’s best friend is a one way street.

The root of the mandrake plant is said to resemble the human form, and in medieval times the root was highly valued as a magical talisman, endowing its owner with supernatural powers. I’ve seen the mandrake plant in bloom many times during my wildflower walks in Sicily, and enjoyed the bright purple blossoms.  But I’d never seen the root.  

On my way home recently, I spied a mandrake plant in bloom at the edge of the village and was curious to see the human shape of the root, and decided to dig it up.   I also liked the idea of being endowed with supernatural powers.  Armed with a spade, rubber gloves, and my camera, I briefly thought about wearing earmuffs, but decided it was too hot, and too strange – I must keep up appearances in the neighborhood.  Anyway, if I really believed that deadly shriek story, I’d just enlist the “help” of my neighbor’s odious dog, whose most endearing trait is barking incessantly from sunset to dawn. 

After digging for a few minutes, I had unearthed 3 inches of mud and gotten to the top of the thick root, which was, quite literally, firmly rooted.  After I’d dug down 6 inches, encountering several rocks along the way, I’d ripped holes in my rubber gloves, gashed my thumb and had thick mud oozing from under my fingernails. I was sweating profusely and my legs ached from squatting.  It was time to yank.

I positioned my feet on either side of the plant, gripped the top of the mandrake root with both hands and yanked with all my might.  There was a loud snap, followed by a piercing shriek – mine – as I fell over backwards in the mud, clutching the upper half of the mandrake root.

So much for appearances.

The mandrake root may or may not have a shape that resembles the human form, but I know longer cared.  My hopes for becoming an Italian Harry Potter dashed, I hobbled home to change my clothes, leaving my muddy shoes to dry in the sun.

Where to find the mandrake plant in bloom:

The mandrake plant (mandragora autumnalis) blooms from September to December in the south of Italy.  When walking in Sicily, it can commonly be found along the rocky seaside path at the Vendicari coastal reserve.

Read similar stories:  Antipasto: Delivering a Goat in Tuscany  or head further south and learn How Not to Restore a House in Sicily

The Tre Cime – Three Peaks - di Lavaredo, are some of the most photographed mountains of the Dolomites, and the surrounding walking trails offer beautiful hikes.  However, since this spectacular area is served by a good road and offers some easy walks, it can get packed with hikers.  Here’s how to enjoy this walk without the crowds along a medium difficulty trail with great views. 

Start early in the day before the crowds arrive, and you’ll be done your hike before the frequent afternoon thunderstorms.  Avoid Sundays, when the Tre Cime di Lavaredo area is overrun, though the people watching is astonishing: loud families with wild kids, super-fit climbers, pudgy walkers gasping for air, young Italian couples in tight jeans and high heels, and hoards of nuns in hiking boots.  All rather amusing but hardly peaceful.

Once you have found a parking place in the vast parking area (and paid the 20 euro per car toll/entrance fee) you can stop for a coffee at the Rifugio Auronzo before setting off on this loop walk around the 3 Cime di Lavaredo.

Walk to the end of the lower parking areas, and take the #105 trail (this overlaps with part of the Alta Via #4, one of the Dolomites High Routes long distance trails).  Follow this trail all the way to the Rifugio Lavaredo, which will take about 2-1/2 hours.  If you start early in the day (by 9.30 am), you will see almost no one on this trail and can enjoy the scenery in blissful solitude. Note the wildflowers, especially the yellow alpine poppies that favor this rugged rocky terrain. There is some steep up and down along the trail, but if done slowly, it is not difficult.  Along the way, you will pass some tiny lakes surrounded by wild rhododendron, and a malga, an alpine dairy farm, which may be serving cool glasses of fresh milk. 

The Rifugio Lavaredo is at an intersection of several trails, so it is often chaotic with wild-haired climbers and sweaty hikers.  Welcome back to civilization. At least you can enjoy a pit stop and refuel with Dolomitic portions of chocolate cake and apple strudel.  

You now follow the main wide trail #101 with breathtaking views and a bit of a climb up to the small pass that offers the best views of the 3 Cime as well as alpine climbers on the north face.  (Above you there is a narrow trail from a WW I battlefield, where there is a via ferrata, a trail equipped with fixed cables, but you keep to the main walking trail).  You’ll get to the Rifugio Lavaredo in about 90 minutes, which is a good place for lunch.  A hearty plate of polenta with goulash spiced with juniper berries is a traditonal food in this part of Italy and will taste oh-so-good.   

After the Rifugio Lavaredo you will no doubt find lots of walkers, but it hardly matters at this point because you have had such a great walk.  It takes another 20-30 minutes to reach the parking area of the Rifugio Auronzo where you started.  You will have seen an impressive number of Dolomite peaks along the way- the Cristallo, Sorapiss, Croda Rossa – as well as the beautiful blue lake of Misurina.  Now you know why this is one of the most spectacular walks in the Dolomites, if not all of  Italy!

My previous posts about the Dolomites include Gourmet Dining in Rifugi and a Via Ferrata Hike with Christopher Buckley on video.

We are based in Cortina when we do this walk on our Wildlflowers in the Dolomites walking tour, where we stay in the historic Hotel Ancora in downtown Cortina, or if you want to be utterly pampered in a luxurious spa hotel, the Hotel Cristallo Palace a few kilometers up the hill with a shuttle service into town. E-mail us as we often have specially discounted hotel rates at the Cristallo for individual travelers.

The gourmet hiker is in for special lunchtime treats in the Dolomites, where top chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants have created dishes using traditional ingredients for eight alpine rifugi or mountain huts .  It’s all part of the “In Vetta con Gusto”- Peaks of Gastronomy – initiative that makes hiking in the dolomites with lunch at a mountain hut a truly sublime experience.

The chef’s dishes, which feature many South Tyrolean food products of the Dolomites, are paired with a local wine, a great way to taste some of Alto Adige’s lesser known wines.

After a magnificent walk through alpine meadows full of wildflowers in the Dolomites, we lunched at the Rifugio Pralongià where I was too hungry to notice the gourmet dish, and opted for an immediate and steaming bowl of barley soup, but sharp-eyed hiker Robert Gardos went for the chef’s dish:  Fresh sheep’s milk cheese wrapped in warm Speck ham with mountain honey, served with an Alto Adige Sauvignon.

Other rifugi that are participating and are convenient for wildflower walks from San Cassiano (and the luxurious hotel Rosa Alpina, a Relais & Chateaux):

Rifugio Bioch:  Chef Norbert Niederkofler of the 2-star Michelin St. Hubertus at the Rosa Alpina, proposes a tortelli pasta stuffed with Speck ham paté and buffalo ricotta cheese on a bed of green beans, paired with an Alto Adige Bianco.

Rifugio I Tablá: Chef Arturo Spicocchi of the 1-star Michelin La Stüa de Michil suggests pork shank in honey and black pepper, with thyme-seasoned polenta and chanterelles accompanied by an Alto Adige Pinot Nero.

For more information about the Peaks of Gastronomy initiative, click here.

To learn more about where I go hiking and walking in the Dolomites, click here.

The farmhouse cook was in a tizzy because a group of hungry hikers had turned up unannounced for lunch and half-way through their meal had gotten wind of the furtaies that we had ordered in advance.  They wanted some, too.  The fame of this cook’s light and fluffy funnel cakes  had spread across the valley, and after a long walk through the wildflowers in the Dolomites, we weren’t into sharing.

Furtaies (and its diverse Ladin spellings and many Germanic names – fortaies, strauben, stràuli, stràboli ) are a specialty of the Val Badia in the Dolomites, and are strongly linked to the traditional Ladin culture. The main ingredients – milk, butter, eggs, and flour – are commonly produced on the small farms, while grappa keeps the winter cold at bay.  Like many traditional desserts, furtaies in the Ladin area of the Dolomites are linked to a special occasion, the engagement of a young couple.  Traditionally, the groom-to-be goes to the house of the bride-to-be where the engagement is announced, wedding plans are discussed, and a huge batch of furtaies are made.  In the meantime, other young men, possible suitors of the bride-to-be, stealthily go about trying to steal the furtaies, which, the locals recount, is hilarious fun.  Perhaps you had to be there.

Furtaies have traveled far and wide, and not only when they were stolen. The Dolomites were part of Austria until after World War I, when the borders were redrawn in 1919, and they became part of Italy.  So, this sweet appears to have its roots in Austria and was also common in Switzerland and Germany.  When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th century, they brought this sweet with them, and it became known as a funnel cake in the Pennsylvania Dutch area. This has nothing to do with Holland, as “Dutch” was an apparent corruption of the word “Deutsch”, meaning German.

But enough about history- how’s the furtaies-making going?

The cook was frantically adding eggs and milk to the furtaies batter, mumbling about having to make 40 of them instead of 25, then added a glug or two of grappa.  She mixed and ladled the mixture back and forth, peering at it to determine when it was of the “right” consistency.  In the midst of this, I dared to stand at the edge of the kitchen asking her about amounts to try to get an approximation of a recipe.  I also saw that she had a special funnel with a long handle that was made just for furtaies and she took a moment to show it to me.  Then she shrieked when she realized the pan of oil on the stove had gotten too hot, so I wisely retreated to my table.  Making the cook nervous was putting all our furtaies in jeopardy.  

To stave off any further badgering of the cook, the waitress brought me a cookbook (in German) with a recipe for strauben. Fellow hiker Robert Gardos translated it for me and I scribbled the recipe on the back of a hiking map.  Once back home I compared it to other Italian funnel cake recipes on the internet, and found they were all very similar, though a few added some sugar to the batter and a couple had added baking powder as a leaving agent.  They all contained grappa or acquavite.

I admit that every time I’ve eaten furtaies in the Dolomites, I’ve been famished after a long walk on our Wildflowers in the Dolomites tour, which may make them taste better then they actually are.  To test this theory, I tried making furtaies at home after I skipped lunch, and while they were good, they weren’t as good as the ones I ate at the Ciablun farm. 

I used sour cherry jam as the condiment, rather than the red bilberry jam of the Dolomites, and that offered the right tart contrast, but my furtaies were crispy, while the ones I had at the Ciablun farm were a fragrant light dough, with a slightly chewy consistency.  I phoned the farm to find out if there was any leavening in the batter.  “Yes, a little” I was told.  Further quizzing resulted in finding out that the leavening was fresh yeast (not baking powder), but “a little” was as precise an answer as I could get. 

So, the next time I make furtaies, I’ll add a little yeast.  For my crispy furtaies, try this funnel cake recipe.

Farmhouse furtaia with marmellata di mirtilli rossi, red bilberry jam

My crispy furtaia with marmellata di amarene, sour cherry jam

The hay has just been cut in the fields surrounding my house in Sicily, and lies in straw-colored piles drying in the sun.  At first glance, it looks like the colorful wildflower season is done.  But if you look closely at the edges of the fields and rocky sections too rough to plow, you’ll find wildflowers still reign.  A short walk through my backyard on the first day of May revealed a great variety of wildflowers to pick and choose from in making a  wildflower bouquet. 

Tips on Making a Wildflower Bouquet

• Pick a variety of shapes and colors.
• Add some white flowers – this brings light into the bouquet.
• Poppies are pretty, but they wilt almost immediately, so I usually just enjoy these in the fields.
• Some wildflowers open with the sunlight and close in the dark.  Put your vase of wildflowers in a sunny spot in the house so that the flowers will be open during the day.
• Pick something feathery to fill out the edges of the bouquet.  Arrange the bouquet with some of the shortest flowers near the base.
• Tie the bouquet together with a twist tie, trim off any foliage below the water line, and cut the bottom stems the same length before placing in the vase.
• Since many wildflowers are short, they look best in a small vase with a narrow neck.
• Change the water in the vase daily and your bouquet will last longer.  

Here is a wildflower bouquet I picked this morning during a short walk in my backyard in Sicily.

Daisies, gladiola, tassel hyacinth, love in a mist (nigella), wild onion & carrot, mallow, fumitory, thistle, salsify.

My favorite place for a summer walking tour is the Dolomites, and now you can enjoy idyllic hikes, breathtaking wildflowers, and great food with these 3 special offers:

Luxury Perks Offer
Stay in our signature luxurious 4 & 5-star hotels (including the Relais & Chateaux Rosa Alpina and historic Hotel Ancora in Cortina) plus enjoy these complimentary perks:

Wildflowers in the Dolomites, July 7-13:
Enjoy a complimentary dinner at the 2-star Michelin restaurant St. Hubertus with a 5-course tasting menu.

Cortina Dolomites High Routes, July 13-17:
Pamper yourself with a spacious suite upgrade for all 4 nights.

Book both tours and receive an additional 2-night suite upgrade and a discount of $100 per person. 

Simply Italian Offer
Stay in simpler hotels and welcoming B&B, but enjoy all the same great meals & activities of our signature luxury tour.
Wildflowers in the Dolomites -Save $500 per person

Cortina Dolomites High Routes -Save $250 per person

Book both tours and enjoy an additional discount of $100 per person, for a total savings of $850 per person.

Only 2 rooms available for these offers: Call today- 1-800-462-7911

Solo Traveler Offer

No single supplement for our Wildflowers in the Dolomites walking tour (save $725) or Cortina Dolomites High Routes hike (save $530).

Book both tours and in addition you’ll receive a complimentary pre-tour hotel night in Bolzano. Offer limited to 2 single rooms per tour. 
Call today to book your Dolomites walking tour: 1-800-462-7911

For day-by-day itineraries of our Dolomites walking tours, click:

Wildflowers in the Dolomites  – July 7-13, a walking tour in 3 valleys

Dolomites High Routes - July 13-17, a walking tour from Cortina

More News from the Dolomites of Italy:

We’ve been organizing walking tours in the Dolomites for 18 years, and the New York Times recently discovered some of our favorite dining spots and hotels (Rifugio Averau and Hotel Ancora), except we go without the snow!  Read the NYT’s winter in the Dolomites article.

The long-awaited article about our Dolomites tour by Christopher Buckley is due to be published in ForbesLife in September, 2010. We’ll keep you posted.  In the meantime, see Christopher talking about his Italian Connection tour on video-he took the exciting via ferrata option, which I wrote about in this previous post.

Anita Iaconangelo, founder of Italian Connection, we’ll be leading both of the Dolomites tours.  She knows the walking & hiking trails of the Dolomites almost as well as she knows the best pastry shops.  Don’t miss out on the most spectacular mountains in Europe -the Dolomites are now a UNESCO protected area. 

Call to book your Dolomites walking tour:

Toll free USA & Canada: 800-462 7911 

Telephone Canada:  780-438-5712

Italy: (39) 0932 231 816

Last week I had the pleasure of leading a wildflower walking tour in Sicily.  A couple from London loved the stunning variety of wildflowers, as well as the absolute absence of the noise of motors and car traffic.  To hear only birdsong and bees buzzing, and oh yes, perhaps that was me panting as we walked steeply uphill.

On a walk near Modica, down the road from where I live, there is an old trazzera, a kind of muletrack between 2 stone walls, that leads up to a field with an abandoned stone hut in a lovely peaceful spot.  This is where we came across many orchids growing together, apparently thriving after a wet winter and a cool spring.  

The colors of the wildflowers were also stunningly wild, at times bordering on lurid.  As always in Sicily exaggeration is the norm.  Here a few wildflowers we saw during a morning of walking near Modica, Sicily. 

Our walk ended up at our house, where we toured the garden, and our walkers, apparently intoxicated by the scent of lemon blossoms, imagined that it was a wonderful project to restore a house in Sicily (I assure you it’s not.)  Then we had a long lunch prepared by Emanuele – local Ragusano cheese, fennel-spiced olives, fresh ricotta and artichoke pasta, early sweet strawberries, lots of red wine, and then things get a bit fuzzy.  Let’s just say that the Italian habit of napping after lunch was embraced by all.

Out for a short walk in the Sicilian countryside on the last day of February, I found this rather mysterious dark wild iris.  As soon as we have one warm gloriously sunny day, this flower pops up from the damp soil in the midst of tangled undergrowth. It blooms briefly, so you have to be on the lookout for it.  It has a fine delicate scent that is the essence of spring, and the lush velvety petals that invite honeybees for a rest.  This is the hermodactylus tuberosus, commonly known as Snake’s Head Iris or Widow Iris.  

In Sicily, many people call this iris Il Bastone di San Giuseppe, St. Joseph’s cane or staff.  San Giuseppe is often portrayed with his staff  topped with flowers, recalling the legend of how Mary’s spouse was chosen by collecting walking sticks of potential husbands, and Joseph’s alone burst into flower, thus identifying him as divinely chosen.  

The iris is supposed to bloom around the time of San Giuseppe’s feast day, March 19, a feast day heavily celebrated in Sicily, when breads are made in elaborate shapes including one that depicts his staff with this 3-petaled iris.  (Actually St. Joseph is often depicted with a lily blooming from his cane, not an iris, but I hesitate to be a party-pooper and go along with the Sicilian tradition.)  We learn how to make these festival breads at other times of the year on our Walking & Cooking Tour in Eastern Sicily.

In case you think I just happen to see a flower and say “Oh, isn’t that a lovely hermodactylus tuberosus,” I’m not being a dorky Latin show-off, I’ve been studying!  I’ve found the best guide book for wildflowers in Sicily and southern Italy: “Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean – A Complete Guide to the Islands and Coastal Regions, by Marjorie Blamey & Christopher Grey-Wilson. Since it’s a bit heavy (1 ½ lbs) to tote on a walk, I often take pictures of unfamiliar flowers and later use the book as a reference. It contains an index of English names as well as Latin names for flowers, and 2700 color illustrations, plus excellent descriptive text.  I purchased mine through Amazon UK for about 17 pounds sterling.