Eating Again - Dinner at Hotel Torretta in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany

I can't help reporting what we have been eating at our hotel. The food here is so good that unusually miserable weather in early summer does not bother us much - as long as we have excellent food and wine, everything else is secondary....

To be honest, the weather has not been too terrible - ok, it is not warm enough to sunbath but we are not here for that anyway. We are staying at a lovely hotel, eating a lovely food and I now have Benneton's great rain jacket and cardigan - shelter, food and clothes - Maslow's hierarchy of basic needs is now satisfied that I have nothing to complain.

We had wonderful lunch earlier - perfect risotto and panna cotta, but before you know it's time for dinner. Feels like we are constantly eating - and in a sense, yes we are!

The dinner started with a bowl of minestrone soup - it is lovely with lots of sprinkles of parmesan cheese and black peppers.  I really love this soup but I had to forgo this so that I can eat the next two courses of my favourites. So this is the photo of what my husband had and I stole a few soup spoonfuls for quick tastes to remind me how great the soup is.

Next is spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce - just a simple dish but I just love the way the chef at the hotel makes - this is really delicious, and I am not kidding!  Tomato sauce is so sweet but not too sharp, hint of basil but not over-powering and of course, the spaghetti is perfect al dante.  I really need to try to make tomato sauce like this when I go home.

The Secondi is swordfish steak with herb sauce. This is another of my favourite to eat at this hotel for dinner. I don't eat swordfish back home at all but I really like it here.

After the main course, the dessert trolly comes out! Today's special is Sponge case with candied fruits, cream and ice cream (the pink one on the right), which is what my husband had while I had coffee ice cream with biscuit and hot chocolate sauce (the one in the front). The one in the left is baked apple, I think...

Sponge cake with cream and ice cream with candied fruits. This is a bit like Sicilian cassata minus marzipan and green colouring...?

Coffee flavoured ice cream with home made biscuit with warm chocolate sauce .... Mmmmmm

We then retired to the lounge area and asked Olaf (I hope I have spelt his name right...?) in my broken Italian for cafe macchiato (for my husband) and tea with milk.

You see, it is very difficult not to eat in Italy as food is so good and especially in this hotel the food is REALLY good. Can't wait what is for dinner tomorrow .... can you?

That's all forks!