I absolutely adore Tiptrees Loganberry Jam - its sooo good

The other thing I always ask my mum to get for when I'm home is Roses Lime Marmalade - on real wholemeal toast it goes down a treat
Oooh cant wait to go home (although train tickets for Paris for July are STILL not available - believe it or not)

I too love Roses Lime marmalade but it's not the same on bread here! I also love Bonne Maman Strawberry Jam the bestest!

thats true - bread here is good - but there are some things that are just better back home and wholemeal bread/granary bread is one of them

the bread here is good, but just in a different way and it doesn't work with butter and jam the same as it does at home iykwim!

Oh Indie - I wish you could taste real Guernsey butter - its as yellow as a buttercup and lovely and salty

I'll bid you goodnight now cos I have to get up for work in the morning - we havent finished yet unfortunately - I'm counting the days

Have you tried Pane Pugliese? When made right it it is one of the best breads I've ever had!! It's slightly yellow inside - the one my grocer sells is! Wonder if it is in Puglia??

I have had that but it does vary from bakery to bakery doesn't it. My fave bakery here is run by Neopolitans and their Pane di Campagna is my fave. They also make a pretty good ciabatta and some fabby, really soft bread with strutto but it's not the same as really good granary that you can get in the UK. I adore Cornish butter but for some reason that always tastes better when you're actually in Cornwall!

My fav is Pugliese too, apart from ciabata, havn't found anything else that tastes and looks like proper bread

By far the best present I have ever had in my life was from my brother two years ago - a breadmaker. You can get strong white flour (if that's your thing) from Lidl, but all our local supermarkets stock a bread mix called 'Pane Nero' that makes a very good nutty wholemeal.

I haven't yet plucked up the courage to ask our local baker if I can buy some of his 'farina integrale' as another approach.

EDIT: Forgot to say I love Pugliese as well, about the only Italian bread I like. Except sometimes we buy a standard white to use as 'scarpetta'

Couldn't agree more Serrano, bread maker is a life saver and I too get flour from Lidl's, just wish loaf didn't take so long to make and cook...may try doing overnight but then I'd be the size of a house

there is a bakers near me and the bread is fantastic, and the cakes, they made panetone at Christmas was great too, its easy too eat to much though

Our local bakery does wonderful olive bread with whole pitted black olives (pane di grano con olive snocciolate), the lovely "yellow" bread is made from Semola di Grano Duro (you can get Divella Semola di Grano Duro Rimancinata in the supermarkets here) and it's great for bread, focacce and fresh pasta making. Focacce is easy to make, you add loads of warm water to the dough until it is sticky and gluey, then put it on a greased tin and it bakes light and fluffy. A local olive bread here (near Gallipoli) is called La Mummia, a bit like La Puccia in other parts of Puglia but with olives. I really miss granary bread though.

The commissary at the British Embassy in Rome has plenty of British products. [email protected]

Agree with you Serrano, a bread maker is a wonderful thing. Not that we turn our noses at Italian breads-we have good bakeries that make lovely breads, but almost all are white and crusty. We rarely eat white bread. I usually get farina integrale from the big supermarkets which I then mix with farina di segale and get a lovely nutty rye bread.
I also get the packs of Swedish rye bread from Ikea which I mix with brown flour and a friend gets for us Granary flour from the FAO shop in Rome.
I offered sandwiches to some Italians yesterday made with our soft brown bread, cheese, ham and salad, plus mustard salad cream and they enjoyed them immensely.

At least somebody loves me..