Vinitaly + Venissa | Day 1 | 3.23.12

Welcome to our 2012 Italian travel blog!  It is always our pleasure to take our foodie friends along on our delectable culinary journeys!  This tour will take us through the Lake District of Northern Italy, the largest Food and Wine Festival in the world, Vinitaly, in Verona, the exclusive Culinary Estate of Venissa on the ancient Venice Lagoon island of Mazzorbo, and the hearty, world renowned gastronomy of the southern boot of Italy, Puglia.  Our goal in sharing our experiences with you is not only to make your mouth water, but to also to share what we learn from this culture where food and wine are at the epicenter of life.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Ahhhh!  Twenty hours of travel to arrive in the picture perfect lake town of Como was more than worth it.  We had arrived back in one of our favorite Italian cities, tucked into the Alps of the Lombardy Wine Region.  Along with enveloping ourselves into the culture of one of the most wealthy regions of Italy, we were looking forward to enjoying the fresh fish of Lake Como paired with crisp and perfectly acidic white wines of the Lombardy wine region, within which Como is nestled.  This array of high quality refreshing white wines is epitomized by the local Trebbiano clone, da Lugana.  We also planned on enjoying the elegant light bodied red wines of Lombardy's neighboring region of Piedmont, where Barbera and Nebbiolo grapes thrive in the cooler growing climate.  Tired and road weary though we certainly were, we just used the long travel as a great excuse to start the vacation with a "hard-earned" Italian lunch.

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

We settled into a cozy booth and were greeted by an extremely professional and talented server.  This man represented the epitome of fine dining service.  He was very gracious, knowledgeable and efficient.  We ordered the fresh pasta with wild boar ragu along with a half bottle of 2006 Dievole Chianti.  The wild boar had been stewed and was perfectly seasoned, and the pasta was fresh as can be.  We agreed that even if we hadn’t been famished (which we were) we still would have been highly impressed with the dish.  It was buonisimo!

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

Dinner was at a quaint pizzeria in a happened upon square.  The Pizzeria was packed at 9:00 p.m. and throughout our entire meal, not one table went empty more than five minutes before being reoccupied with a new couple or family.  It took a good 15+ minutes to be greeted by a server, although he was very friendly once he decided to give us a few minutes of his time.  We ordered two pizzas, one with spicy salame and olives, and one with smoked salmon.  Both pizzas were very good and went great with the highlight of the meal:  two bottles of Wismar Beer, a local brew made in Como. This beer was deliciously wheaty, while being light bodied, crisp and refreshing all at the same time.  It was perfect with the pizza.

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

Upon return to our room after dinner, we found a nice gift in our room.  Apparently through our conversation with our lunch server, we had shared that we were in Italy for our wedding.  On the coffee table was a nice bottle of Villa Sandi Prosecco with a congratulatory card.  Another pleasant coincidence, as Villa Sandi is a familiar winery and favorite Prosecco maker of ours, as we had visited their vineyard during our visit to Valdobiadenne last year and feature a bottle on the wine list at jasoh!.  We decided to sneak the bubbly along with us for a late night walk around town.  We visited the beautiful creamy white granite duomo, walked along the lakefront, and on the dock out to the center of the lake where we took in a vista of the square and our hotel from a twinkling night perspective.

 

Up next is our tour of Italian lake country, and fantastic food+wine so check back for Day 2 of the Vinitaly + Venissa Travel Blog!