Pedalling Wine: Introduction Part 2

It may sound strange, but very few foreigners know much about Italy, even if you consider how many foreigners visit here every year. Sure, there are streets in Venice and Florence where Italian is no longer heard nor spoken. And you can book just about any hotel room you'd like online any more, even see pictures of it first, with maps and even virtual tours.

But drop down even a couple of hours south of Napoli and suddenly things fall off the map. Yes, everyone knows that the big island is Sicily. And that Palermo is on it.... somewhere. And then....And then?

And then the rest of Italy is as vacant and featureless in the foreign mind as a brand new cue ball.There must be SOMETHING there...right?

Pedalling Wine: Part 1 of Introduction

No, I don’t sell wine. I drink it, read about it, research it, especially those of the sunny south of Italy where I live. And on March 26th I’m going to bicycle the wine route across the entirety of Southern Italy, from Marsala- the most western point in Sicily- to Lecce, the most easterly sizable city in Italy there is, and my home, where my staff will be waiting for me (no doubt doing something squirrelly). Yep, 28 days. Along the way, I’ll meet vintners, vendors, chefs, restaurateurs, farmer and writers, each with a story to tell about wine they love most.

And daily, I’ll be uploading my blog with their pictures and stories, their recipes, my tasting notes and travelogues, and maybe even woes of road rash, over-caffeinated Calabrian drivers and those big, black scorpions that will cross rooms just to sting you. I’ll talk about the food I find, the art and architecture and all the separate and disparate cultures that come together to form the south of Italy. Which roads will I end up taking? Who will I meet? Which wines will I find? What will I think of them? Have they changed since the last time I’ve been there? Will I fall down go boom?

Find out here, starting March 26th,, when I unpack my bike and corkscrew in Marsala, Italy, and hit the road. And then pop back in every couple of days to check in on my peddling and who and what I find along the way, travelling the tastiest, most captivating land ever to pop out of the dreamy blue Mediterranean.

Educated in the humanities in both the US and Italy, Silvestro Silvestori owns and operates The Awaiting Table Cookery School in Lecce, Italy, which he closes once a year for a major bicycle trip, usually inside of Italy. Last year it was 28 days, from Trieste to Lecce (the entire length of Italy) researching little-known fish and shell fish dishes of Adriatic. Featured on the American television network PBS, and in European and North American periodicals such as Italia!, La Gazzetta del Mezzo Giorno and most recently the Los Angeles Times, The Awaiting Table Cookery School in Lecce, Italy, celebrates its 4th year this September. You can find out more about his school at www.awaitingtable.com