The Hill in St. Louis

I can't believe we've lived in St. Louis for almost a year now, and we've only just made our first trip to The Hill. What were we thinking? I'm sure this will be the first of many posts about this sweet little Italian neighborhood full of wonderful restaurants, bakeries, and markets.

There were so many Italian restaurants to choose from, but we had heard great things about Zia's. We thought we'd give it a try, and we're so glad we did. DELICIOUS.

I asked the server to tell me his favorite thing on the menu, and that's what I ordered: the spiedini proscuitto (minus the mushrooms). It was fantastic.

After lunch, we walked across the street to the Missouri Baking Company. You might remember the name from this post when our realtor brought us a big box of their beautiful cookies. I was so excited to stop in.

We grabbed a pound of cookies and barely made it through the door before Will was eating a "brown and green one." He picked out the chocolate peppermint cookies.
 

 We had our cookie fix, and we were off to Viviano and Sons to do a little shopping.

A few bottles of wine, cans of escargot, and bags of pasta later, we were ready to walk back to the car with our goods.

Of course, we had to stop by Vitale's Bakery on our way. It was right there, and we needed to grab a cannoli (or four). 

We had a fun afternoon and a successful trip.

 We can't wait to go back.