Day 3. Como, Italy. 3/25/2012 [[posterous-content:pid___6]]
After catching up with each other to the tune of a couple cappuccinos, sharing battle stories of our last couple days in Italy, we decided to take a stroll to a close by restaurant for a nice lunch with a view. And what is VIEW it was! This restaurant (name?) offered a second floor patio, very similar in size and shape to our jasoh! patios, but without the enclosures. We took in views of the downtown neighborhood rooftops and a spectacular view of Duomo. With Sunday church bells ringing and sun shining, we ordered a bottle of Pinot Bianco, produced by a local winemaker with a German name, Joseph Hofstatter, not a surprising name with Germany being very close, and having enjoyed a locally brewed German style beer in the same town, Wismer, just two days before. The Pinot Bianco was a great pairing with our simply, but elegantly, prepared Freshwater Bream. Freshwater Bream is a common fish of the Northern Alps lakes and had surely been just caught in Lake Como. As said, it was very simply prepared, with nicely boiled vegetables and just some olive oil, but it was a very nice light lunch.
Pulling into a tight parking lot, and thankful once again for our little Yaris and AJ’s driving skills, we realized we had done nearly zero research or planning for where to eat dinner in this town. We had looked up a few restaurant , but had not made note of any addresses or names. We had, however, researched that the local specialty was Polenta and fruits of the forest (such as mushrooms and berries) so we knew we needed to find a Restaurant that offered those types of items. We decided to ask the parking lot attendant for a recommendation, figuring that if he gave us poor advice, he would have to deal with our wrath upon return to our car. The gentleman seemed friendly and also impressed with AJ’s Italian, and recommended an Trattoria just a half block up the road. With a few minutes to kill before traditional opening time of 7 p.m., we followed AJ to a famous Focacceria that had been etched in his memory from over eight years before. Peeking through the window of the Focacceria, we realized exactly why AJ had remember this place. With at least twenty different colorful Foccacias in the window, all topped with an array of delicious accoutrements, and a line out the door, we salivated as the attendants cut large chunks of Foccacia with scissors for lucky patrons.
After that, we were more than ready for dinner! We walked back to the tiny Trattoria where at least a dozen different types of Polenta were listed on the menu outside. This little spot had five tables and a kitchen the size of a smart car. This place was teeny tiny! A very sweet lady, obviously an owner-operator, greeted us and immediately befriended AJ, of course because of his Italian. We started with an order of Gnocchi -n- cheese, reminiscent of mac-n-cheese, and a bottle of Nebbiolo. We then ordered four different types of Polenta, one with mushrooms and a local young sheep’s cheese, (a specialty in the area). The most intriguing option on the menu was the DONKEY polenta, which we nearly ordered just to be adventurous, but finally decided that eating “Ass” just didn’t sound incredibly appealing...[[posterous-content:pid___4]]The items we did order were scrumptious, with our favorite dish being the polenta with the young sheep’s cheese. With our bellies completely fully, we surprisingly all were still able to squeeze into the little Yaris to complete our trip on the Autostrada to Vicenza. Feeling both accomplished and exhausted we settled into our Vicenza hotel, hoping for a good night’s sleep to recharge for what would be a BIG day. Tomorrow would be our first visit to Vinitaly in Verona, the world’s largest annual wine festival. We were excited as children on Christmas Eve, but we had NO idea what we were in for!
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