Christina Waters

Nope. Not Jean Genet. It’s restaurateur Paul Cocking (Gabriella Cafe) eating his way through Paris last month, one eponymous restaurant at a time. Blown away by what he tasted, Cocking and his traveling companion Jeannine Bonstelle sampled freely along the Left Bank, the Right Bank and everything in between.

The Ile St-Louis provided this gorgeous dish at a place called Mon Vieil Ami, 69 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile, 4th. Culinary researcher Bonstelle found the place in Clothilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris. The bistro showcases the cooking of Alsace’s Antoine Westermann - including this gossamer salad of lightly steamed vegetables in broth.

Here’s another reason why I love to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum’s restaurant invariably offers gorgeous lunch dishes for excellent prices.
This salmon tartare, served on a bed of transparent zucchini ribbons and topped with shaved fennel and a long wedge of house-made sesame cracker, was a knock-out with a glass of bubbly.

Our late September art walk through Rome included lodgings at the very old Palazzo Cardinal Cesi, a 15th century papal residence. Housed a few feet - literally - from St. Peter’s, we were able to stroll to a lifetime’s worth of great artwork, every day. (That’s me in the palazzo’s breakfast room, complete with barrel vaulting.) Just down the street and across the Tiber, we re-visited the Baroque masterworks by Borromini and Brunelleschi — the gold and marble interiors — and mannerist exteriors —that defined the 16th century during this gilded age.

After a long meditation inside the 2000-year-old Pantheon, it was time for a Campari — which, along with Fernet Branca, is our cocktail of choice this fall. Food, artwork, architecture, and the visually-dazzling tendency of Italians to be just that much more fashionable than anyone else - a remarkable trip. Our taxi drivers looked like they’d just stepped out of a Hugo Boss showroom. Waiters invariably resembled Caravaggios. Just too delicious.

Which brings me to the picture perfect bresaola appetizer at La Campana, in Rome’s medieval district. The marriage of cured beef and shaved grana is almost matchless.

But don’t take my word for it. Look down a few posts.

Worth a 13-hour flight, and then some.

The last day of September, we ended our trip in Florence, with dinner across the Arno at Mama Gina’s. Fresh porcinis were all over the menu, so we didn’t resist.

This beautiful plate of thinly-sliced, grilled beef was arranged across a bed of peppery arugula, topped with sautéed porcinis and fruity olive oil that seemed to find their way into so many of our dishes in Tuscany. It was possibly the finest layering of flavors I’ve ever eaten. So fine, that it obviously deserves another trip next year.

Entrees at la Campana followed an amazing salad of that curious wild celeryesque vegetable, puntarelle, bathed in an addictive anchovy sauce.

The magnificent Ristorante la Campana — so old that Caravaggio surely dined here — continues to provide clear, bold dishes amidst the narrow warrens of medieval Rome. We were overcome with the perfection of this buttery filet in balsamico reduction.

The meal ended with very tiny, almost fairytale sweet fragoline – served with only a light dusting of sugar and squeeze of lemon.

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