How we started our journey – L’inizio del nostro viaggio
I’m Laura and my Italy adventure began in 2000 when I visited Lake Garda with my mum for a two-week holiday. On our first night in Gardone Riviera I remember looking out over Lake Garda and not quite believing I was there, in such a beautiful place. During our stay we visited Verona, Venice and a large part of the lake and were completely taken with the food, people, language and scenery. My love of Italy took me on to a four-year languages degree, including 5 months living in Verona as an Erasmus student, where I learned never to drink cappuccino after 12pm and to always remember to put a little olive oil and vinegar dressing on my salad to avoid any funny looks! When I was ready to leave the UK for Italy again in 2008, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to return to Lake Garda, where it all started. It was here, whilst working as a campsite courier that I met Giordano, the lovely security guard with the orange car, and the true adventure began.
During our travels around Italy – and I will tell you more about those in later posts – we discovered more about the variety of beautiful food available and I learned a lot about how integral these different dishes are to an Italian’s cultural identity. We’ve eaten capunsei in Valeggio sul Mincio, borlenghi, tigelle and gnocco fritto in Modena and ribollita in Florence.
When we were ready for a change of scenery, we got to thinking about how great it would be to bring some of our favourite Italian food back to the UK and start up a food business there. We decided against opening up another Italian restaurant as we felt the UK already had plenty and that the majority of them offered very similar dishes. We also thought there was another more effective way to tell everyone just how much more amazing stuff was out there. With a catering van, we weren’t limited to one town or city – we could go anywhere we wanted. You can read more about this on our blog – How We Got Our Vanstaurant – or on the website.
What we do
We do delicious, honest Italian street food for everyone to enjoy. We want to tell you our own story of Italy and bring you some truly delicious food at the same time. We want you to come to Italy with us.
Laura