This plate of grilled mixed vegetables was from Caffe Bolongaro, in Stresa, and I ate it while listening to the blues band play. Just the perfect thing for a warm summer evening.

Being summer, many of us eat more lightly than usual.

But of course I eat, so here is a selection of the photos I do have of some of my favorite summer foods and summer eating memories from this August in Stresa:

Illustrating once again the Italian attention to presentation, this beautiful sliced melon and prosecco with fruit juice was from a small restaurant in a parking lot where I waited for my return bus from Lake Orta to Stresa. It came with the nuts and chips, and I paid 8 euro for it all. By the time the bus arrived I was cool and very relaxed.

At a special restaurant we shared the prosecco risotto. It was served with a thin slice of edible gold foil on top. The risotto was creamy and delicious... the restaurant was Trattoria Vigezzina, in Masera.

Ah... Milano!! While eating our way through the city one day (definitely worth another post sometime), we stumbled onto Pescheria Spadari, a famous old seafood shop that, only one day a week, served a quick lunch to customers. All sorts of Milanese packed the small shop, eating fritto misto, mixed fried seafood, from cone-shaped paper cups, while leaning on the tall counters.

This is what I call the 'mountain of meat'... Italians call it affettati, slices. Served as a primo piatto, or as an aperitivo, here we have a selection of meats and salami. The mountain of meat is always a favorite of mine.

A very pretty cold dish, this is an eggplant and ricotta lasagna salad that I enjoyed for lunch on Ferragosto Sunday.

We didn't have any gold foil, but we did make our own version of prosecco risotto one day. It was every bit as wonderful, and the strawberries, they were better than gold.

Even simply like this, I find that it is always possible to find food that is fresh and delicious. You will too, by being adventurous a bit and trying all. Buon appetito!