Desserts in Cannes, France and Northern Italy?
I will be visiting the South of France in May. I'll be based in Cannes for most of the trip, but will also visit Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Vence and Monaco. I want to find the best bakeries and chocolate shops in and around those areas. I don't mind traveling a little out of the way for something truly amazing! Any suggestions?
I'll also be traveling through Italy (Asti, Venice, Ravenna, Florence, and Rome). If anyone can suggest some regional gems that would be a great help.
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PBSF
Mar 6, 2011 05:19 PM
Venice:
Desserts: tiramisu, budino, zabaglione (made with prosecco instead of the traditional marsala), sgroppino (a mixture of lemon sorbet, prosecco, grappa stirred together and served in a tall flute)
Because of the Austrian influence, there are Sacher Torta, strudels, apple cakes.
Other pastries: a crumb torte called sbriciolona or fregolata; a chocolate-nut torta called Dumont; Torta del Doge, a rococo filled sponge cake covered with a piping of marzipan, glazed and decorateded with candied cherries.
Venetians love creamy thing, therefore, lots of pastry cream filled cream puffs, corneti, krapfens. They are also very fond of cookes: busola, zaleti, buranelli, tozzetti, bacioli, ossi da mordere, biscotti of all types. Because Venice is famous for sugar work, there is croccante, a candy like brittle full of whole almonds. If one happened to be there during Carnevale, everywhere there will be a fried pastry called galani.
Venice is full of pastry shops and gelateria; even a flavor named ‘del Doge’.
A few places that I love:
Tonolo in Dorsoduro is famous for their cream puffs and krapfens. Foccacia de Venezia, a panettone like dome bread topped with very addictive crunchy almond sugar mixture. One will find this foccacia all over Venice but Tonolo makes one of the best.
Marchini is Venice most famous pastry shop. Their take out shop near San Marco is great for jewel-like pastries, especially those with the chocolate. Also cookies, candies and chocolates all beautifully packaged. Marchini Time is their standup café on Camps St. Luca toward Rialto. Here the pastries are simpler: cream puffs, krapfens, apple cakes, millefolie and corneti.
Didovich in Castello has great eastern European style pastries such as Sacher and strudels.
Vizio Virtu is a chocolatier near Campo San Toma; beautifully made chocolates as well as small selection of chocolate pastries and gelato. Her Easter egg display is amazing.
Venetian and Italian (Sicily might be an exception) pastries tend to be less fancy than those in France and Austria. Their simplicity let their ingredients such as mascarpone, ricotta, nuts, fruits, etc, to come through better. They are perfect with morning coffee or afternoon snack.›3 Replies-
re: PBSF
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re: PBSF
Sorry for the delayed response... Thank you all for such great and thorough recommendations! I'm really glad that I asked. I am so much more excited for my trip now. I was expecting good wine in Northern Italy, but now I have an entire list of sweet destinations and new desserts (Bunet? Torta del Doge? exciting!) to experience. :)
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The Piemonte region in Italy (especially the Langhe) is famous for its hazelnuts. As noted above, Torino (Turin) is famous for its chocolate shops. As a result, you will find many confections made with both. I still remember the wonderful roasted hazelnuts covered in dark chocolate I bought from a candy shop in Cherasco in the Langhe area.
You might want to pick up a copy of Fred Plotkin's "Italy for the Gourmet Traveler" as it contains many recommendation for bakeries and chocolate shops.
Here is a 2006 NY Times article on the chocolate shops in Turin:
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re: DavidT
Click on this link and scroll down to the bottom of the page to read about the "Choco Pass" available for visiting the chocolate shops of Turin:
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re: DavidT
Villasampaguita
Mar 6, 2011 08:54 PM
I think that the Choco Pass is a tourist gimmick, two days of public transport with coupons for one choco at each one of 15 chocolaterieres. I never saw anyone use them all. Better IMO just to visit one or two and have a full tasting treat (and be prepared not to eat for a few hours). The Torino+Piemonte Pass which comes in 2.3,4, 5 and 7 day versions gives you the local transport pass and admission to all museum's and galleries, a much better deal if you are staying in Turin
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Villasampaguita
Mar 5, 2011 09:27 AM
Turin is 30 minutes from Asti and famous for its chocolate houses, don't miss a visit, our favourites are Pfatisch (www.pfatisch.com) and Gobino (www.guidogobino.it)
Asti has many small pasticcerie all over the town, the most famous probably Pastecceria Giordanino – 256 Cso Alfieri. And Alba is of course famous for Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, although you can't visit either. BTW Nutella has very little real chocolate and hazel nuts in, but all good chocolateries make their own crema di cioccolata spalmare, night and day difference. We went to a tasting last year featuring 40 different types - tough if you wanted to judge them properly.
Classic deserts in Piedmont are Bunet (sort of a chocolate padding) which can be boring or sublime, panna cotta, and semifreddo which my wife makes the best!! Any good restaurant in the area will have great deserts.
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