The Foodist Colony: Day Trip: St. Louis, MO

Yesterday, the three of us took a little trip to St. Louis. The main goal of the trip was to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden's Orchid Show, but we made a few other stops while we were in the area.

I am infatuated with orchids and their unique beauty. Apparently, my great-grandmother was an orchid growing pro. I, unfortunately, didn't get that gene! I found out about the Orchid Show a few weeks ago, and then my AD/HD took over, and I forgot about it. I realized early last week that this weekend was the last weekend of the show, and I just couldn't pass it up. So I did a little planning and away we went!

The first stop we made was in the small Italian-American neighborhood called The Hill. It's a wonderfully quiet neighborhood just west of the Botanical Garden, and it is home to some very delicious food! You all know I can't pass up delicious food...especially if it's Italian food!

So we planned to have lunch at Amighetti's. It is a bakery and restaurant, and they have wonderful bread and giant meatballs. (If you go, order a side portion of the dish, because a regular is too much food for a single human to consume!) I strongly recommend ordering the spaghetti and meatballs.

If you're a vegetarian, make an exception...you won't regret it. :) All the pasta dishes come with bread, so you don't have to worry about ordering it. The sandwiches are great as well. And having a Fitz's rootbeer with your meal is a must (I know, it's not Italian, but it's a local offering that is well worth the sugar intake)!

I also recommend stopping in the bakery (attached to the restaurant) and buying at least one loaf of bread to take home. I could live on their bread!

Waiting in the LONG line at Amighetti's & being cute enough that the lady in line behind us asked if she could hold her!

We then crossed the street to pay a visit to Gelato di Riso, where they serve gelato that transports me back to Rome, and it comes in a mind-blowing number of flavors. I could just stand at the counter and taste each flavor, but instead I chose a small bowl with two flavors. The lemon was a true lemon flavor with a creaminess that only gelato can offer. The blood orange was almost a trip down memory lane (think PushUps from the Schwann man, but with a more refined, intense orange flavor). The Man walked in thinking he was going to keep it simple and get a bowl of chocolate gelato (which is AMAZING, by the way!)...until he tasted the blood orange. In the end, he got the blood orange and vanilla. He said it was the best vanilla ice cream he'd ever had. (I had to correct him and tell him it's not "ice cream", it's GELATO!) LOL

We even shared with The Munchkin. She was a fan of all 3 flavors.

After stuffing ourselves full of pasta, bread, and gelato, we decided to walk off some of those carbs! The Munchkin had a blast toodling around The Hill!

After our lunch and walk, we hopped over to the Botanical Garden. We spent 3 hours there, and it was a wonderful time, and the orchids were phenomenal! I'll let the photos below do the talking. PS - there are lots of photos below! And please pardon the blurry ones...most of these were taken with a wiggly baby on my hip to accommodate the mommy complex she had going on when we got there!