How about Few Desserts from Italy

Hello, again!This is Alya, Sanaa’s daughter, again, telling you a little more about the food I ate during my journey throughout Northern Italy in August. If you missed my first post, you can read about it here.This time, I’m going to tell you about some of the sweet treats (excluding gelato) I consumed over 2 weeks. Anyone who knows me knows I have a huge sweet tooth. I’m a firm believer that your meal isn’t complete without dessert, and dessert tables are my vision of paradise.My will power was definitely put to the test this trip, and to be honest, it didn’t do too well. Which, depending on how you look it, is really not that bad of a thing. Just walking past all of the Italian bakeries, with their treats beautifully displayed against the window, it’s all just too much.Anyways, I’ll finally start actually talking about what I ate.1. Brioche - ComoIn the 8th grade, I had to bring a food typical of the European Renaissance to my Church History class. It’s situations like this I am particularly happy my mom is a chef, she whipped up a batch of this fluffy, sweet bread that captured my heart (and my stomach) upon first bite. She called it Brioche, and I’ve been in love ever since.I was walking around the picturesque Como when I saw this beautiful bakery out of the corner of my eye. The bread looked delicious, and it was swarmed with people. I walked in looked at all of the carbs, decided I didn’t need it in my life, walked out, decided I was being stupid and did in fact needed it, walked back in, bought myself the first slice of brioche I saw. I’m so happy I did.Sorry mom, but this may be the best piece of brioche I have ever had. It was so wonderfully light and fluffy. It must have been at least 300 calories, but it felt like I was eating the air of heaven. The light and fluffyness was contrasted with a perfectly crunchy crust: not too hard, but just enough to add a little bit of texture. All of this was complimented with a little honey drizzle that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.If you are ever in Como, I highly highly highly recommend you stop by Beretta. 10/10! 2. Polenta - BergamoPolenta was the last thing I was expecting to see in Bergamo, but it was everywhere. Apparently polenta is a very typical Bergamese food. Who knew?After two days of seeing these large cakes fill every restaurant display, I finally broke down and picked one up 2 hours before I was leaving this incredible city.It was interesting. Not was I was expecting, but interesting. It tastes like really really sweet cornbread coated with a sugar crust. Now, I’m not one of those people who ever says that something is “too sweet,” but this may have been too sweet. My first bite was great, sugar & carbs with a slight hint of Nutella?! What could be better?! However, every proceeding bite had a little less joy, and by the time I was half way done it I didn’t really want to chew anymore. Thus, I only had half.I’m not sure if I would order another dessert polenta again, but I’m happy I got it, and I would recommend trying it to anyone who is in Bergamo. Does that make sense? It’s not that it was bad, it was just very sweet and personally, not my perfect cup of tea. 3. Fruit Salad - VeronaYou’re probably looking at this and thinking, “fruit salad? Really?” I know it sounds ridiculous, but seriously, this was the best fruit salad I have ever had in my life, and I almost risked missing my train to go back and get another one.Upon entering Piazza delle Erbe, one of the main squares in Verona, you are approached with a wide selection of fruit salads. There’s one for everyone depending on your fruit preferences. I can’t express how good this tasted, maybe it was the jurassic contrast to all the pizza and pasta I was eating, maybe it was the heat, but the fruit was perfectly ripe and it was just so good.I’ll stop drooling over it now, because again, it’s weird to be talking so much about fruit salad. But oh my god, so good. 4. Pane del Doge - VeniceThere were more bakeries in Venice than typical. I’m not complaining at all, however, Venice particularly put my will power to the test. Obviously temptation won once again.I stopped into a small bakery and asked the woman working which pastries were her favorites. After a little bit of conversation, I settled on two.The first was the Pane del Doge, named after the Doges of Venice as well as the Doge’s Palace. What it is is a sweet bread, this one in particular, with chocolate.Again, like everything I ate, it was delicious, I high recommendation for all chocolate lovers. I must say, however, it was more of a cocoa powder type of chocolate feel rather than a chocolate bar type of feel if that makes sense. Regardless, it was delicious.5. Other Venetian Sweet - VeniceI’m so mad at myself I forgot to write the name of this sweet down because now I have absolutely no recollection of its name, and I can’t seem to find it on google. So, I guess I will just have to call it the “Other Venetian Sweet,” which is a shame because it was delicious and deserves to be called by its proper name.Again, delicious, ate it all in one seating. I feel like I can describe it as a dense croissant with the layers being filled with chocolate chips, and then all of it being dusted with powdered sugar.To me, this was one that kept getting better as I kept eating it. My first bite was pretty good, but after like 5 more bites I felt like the heavens were shining down on me. I think what is was was that it had been sitting out on display, thus it was room temperature and a little dry on the outside. However, I can only imagine what greatness this must taste like fresh out of the oven. Just thinking about it makes me a little emotional.So those are a few of the sweet treats I had on my vacation! Italy does food very well. I don’t know really what else to say besides that.Again, if you want to read my first post on the best meals I had on my trip, click here. I am also keeping a blog, just speaking about my experience abroad. So, if you would like to read more about my trip, or my life in Italy in general, you can check it out here.Keep your eyes peeled for one more most about the food on my trip!Thanks for reading,Alya