Last weekend during our stay at Aquabelle in Rye, we had the pleasure of lunching at Volpino’s Pizzeria & Winebar in Mount Martha. A scenic drive up along the beach saw us at the Mediterranean restaurant. Just a few days shy of its first birthday, with its right orange bar stools, natural light aplenty, and a view of the coast, it is not difficult to see why Volpino’s has so quickly become a hit with the locals. Add in their seasonal rotating menu with locally sourced produce and an in-house wood fire oven, the alluring aroma definitely made me une faim de loup (hungry as a wolf)!

We started our culinary expedition with an antipasto platter with (from left to right) jamón, a Spanish cured ham, marinated white anchovies, asiago, a soft cow milk cheese, radicchio salad, house-smoked chargrilled peppers, and garlic and fennel salami.

I’d been anticipating the famous wood fire over pizzas all weekend, and this “Little Boy Blue” sure didn’t disappoint. Composed of fior di latte (a cow’s milk Mozzarella cheese), gorgonzola, pear and prosciutto, the base was super thin so we could really savour the flavours.

No meal is complete without obligatory food-spamming on Instagram… with Lilli of Frocks and Frou Frou and Leeyong, Style Wilderness.

Another pizza we had was the Vegetariano. We had a lactose-intolerant member in our lunch party, so the head chef, Nathan, kindly omitted the cheese from this pizza. The fresh ingredients you see are tomato, eggplant, roast peppers and zucchini. I love a fully topped pizza. Oh, and there’s basil.

You can’t go past a side of radicchio and cheery tomato salad! Just looking at it makes me feel healthy. Guess attending Andi Lew’s “Eat Fat Be Lean” healthy eating book launch last week where she stressed the health benefits of eating raw foods really helped!

Wiston was eyeing off the salad too. Obviously, the health kick is contagious. Hubby here with Iolanthe, the brains behind our #aquablogger retreat and Alexia, of Pascal Et Al.

  The wood fire oven even has the Volpino stamp on it! The birth place of all of their gourmet pizzas!

Apple and sultana tart: it’s mainly fruit so it must be healthy!

Both baby and I had the pleasure of meeting the talented Alexia Petsinis, blogger, illustrator, writer, and fashion designer in the making!

 Funky Pants Day! Lilli and Alexia sporting some seriously chic threads.

Meet Head Chef Nathan! He’s also a gun at making home-made pasta. We gobbled up his linguine so fast I didn’t get a chance to photograph it! Now that’s saying something…

 Even though we were full from our 7 dish lunch, it was impossible to compromise on dessert: Chocolate Mousse, Tiramisu and the apple and sultana tart made our selection.

 Volpino’s also does a delicious dolce pizza with Nutella which sadly we didn’t get to try. My dream is to own one of these tubs of hazelnut spread one day…it comes handy for weights training!

And the pièce de résistance: the orange cheese cake with port jelly, my mouth waters as I type this. One member of our gastronomic team misheard it as “pork belly”. As absurd as it sounds, I did try a bacon flavoured cookie in New York last year. Maybe it will make it onto next season’s menu?

After lunch at Volpino’s, another indulgence awaited us back at our Aquabelle apartment. Elle Bodo, from Ellegant You came to give us an in-house massage Make up artist, massage and beauty/spa therapist, Elle hails from Germany and now calls Rye home. She provided a full body massage which not only relaxed me but also helped banish some knots in my back from baby-lifting. She combined a number of massage techniques including hot stone, which is always bliss. I was very impressed by the masseuse who comes to you!

 Elle specialises in Pamper Parties. Man, I wish I knew about her before I got married!

What are you up to this weekend? If you happen to be heading down to the Mornington Peninsula. Make sure you have a bite at Volpino’s! And if you need some pampering or a relaxing massage, give Elle a buzz, she’ll come to you!

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Chinese Translation (Click below to read)

[spoiler title=”中文版”]上个周末我们前往了Monrnington半岛去度假。其中的一个亮点是在Volpino比萨店和葡萄酒酒吧餐馆吃午餐。我们沿着海边开车到了餐厅。快一岁了，具有丰富的自然光，海岸的美景和亮丽的装潢，怪不得当地人都爱去餐馆吃饭。他们的菜谱随着季节更改，成分都从当地的农场采购的。的木火烤炉出来的比萨很著名，它的香味真让我饿得像狼！

吃完午餐后，我们回到了我们的Aquabelle公寓。Elle Bodo，从Ellegant You来给我们每一位全身的按摩。她是一位化妆师，按摩和美容治疗师。Elle来自于德国，现在住在Rye。她的全身按摩这不仅让我放松，也帮助了我背上的一点疼痛，从一直抱着宝宝来的。她结合了一些按摩技术，包括热石，好舒服！她不单单技术好，我觉得她的服务最棒的是她上门来！
这个周末你做什么？如果你碰巧后前往Mornington半岛。别忘记去Volpino吃顿饭！如果你需要轻松一下或喜欢按摩，给Elle打个电话，她会前来拜访你！

无论你在世界的哪个角落，祝你度过一个愉快的周末！[/spoiler]