On the Move - Italy (7 of 23) - Lazy Day
Sep. 7th, 2001 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetThis was sort of a "down" day, as we spent far too long trying to figure out how to deal with the laundry and reading our email and making lunch and getting gas. We finally left the house around four and drove up into the hills right near Il Doccio to see what we could find and explore some dinner options.
We drove up into the Prato Magno mountains, which reminded Jason of the Berkeley hills. The road we were on wound through vineyards and past small farmhouses, around switchback curves. It got narrower and steeper and steeper and narrower and then suddenly a parking lot widened out around the road, which turned into a forest service road leading further up. On one side of the lot was a board listing various trails...looks like we found the trailhead. Jason would have gone for a short hike there and then, but I was wearing open shoes and didn't relish pine needles between my toes, so we headed back down.
The town below was Loro Ciffuno, a fairly ancient town with many medieval buildings. Our hosts had recommended a couple of eating places in the town, so we thought we'd check it out. They were prepping for their annual festival and there were carnival rides just starting in one of the squares and a troupe of eight-to-ten year old girls practicing dance numbers on a wooden stage erected in another piazza. After some confusion, we managed to find the tourist information office, where we picked up a map of town that included more details than ours, but--sadly--not the street names. I had noticed a notation on a posted map for the "Ponte Romantico," which seemed worth checking out. It was nice enough, but not terribly romantic, so it made a lot of sense when Jason realized that they meant "Romanesque" not "romantic."
We wound our way up and down through town and identified a couple of recommended restaurants there, but neither really appealed. We went on down the road to the Osteria della'Acquolina, which was down a long dirt road into the fields. It looked and smelled wonderful, but was completely booked for the evening.
So we returned to the Ristorante Il Vecchio Torchio, which we decided to translate as "The Old Flame." This time we started with a pizza covered in mozzarella, prosciutto and mushrooms. We thought we'd ordered one with tomatoes, but they weren't detectable. In general, pizza here has almost no sauce. I stuck with the gnocchi sorrentina, but Jason was more adventurous and tried the tortelli neri con salmon, huge ravioli-like pasta made with squid ink to turn it black, stuffed with cheese and covered with a salmon cream sauce. That was okay, but got too salty pretty quickly and Jason was "not excited" by it. For mains, Jason had a plate of thinly sliced rare beef (tagliatelle) covered in arugula, which he enjoyed, but found overwhelming. I had the veal scalloppine marsala, which was okay, but not exciting. I think not being desperate for food made us less impressed with the Old Flame's offerings in general.
After dinner it was back to Il Doccio for the evening, feeling rested, but somewhat guilty for doing so little that day.
Next, our last day on our own for a while...
We drove up into the Prato Magno mountains, which reminded Jason of the Berkeley hills. The road we were on wound through vineyards and past small farmhouses, around switchback curves. It got narrower and steeper and steeper and narrower and then suddenly a parking lot widened out around the road, which turned into a forest service road leading further up. On one side of the lot was a board listing various trails...looks like we found the trailhead. Jason would have gone for a short hike there and then, but I was wearing open shoes and didn't relish pine needles between my toes, so we headed back down.
The town below was Loro Ciffuno, a fairly ancient town with many medieval buildings. Our hosts had recommended a couple of eating places in the town, so we thought we'd check it out. They were prepping for their annual festival and there were carnival rides just starting in one of the squares and a troupe of eight-to-ten year old girls practicing dance numbers on a wooden stage erected in another piazza. After some confusion, we managed to find the tourist information office, where we picked up a map of town that included more details than ours, but--sadly--not the street names. I had noticed a notation on a posted map for the "Ponte Romantico," which seemed worth checking out. It was nice enough, but not terribly romantic, so it made a lot of sense when Jason realized that they meant "Romanesque" not "romantic."
We wound our way up and down through town and identified a couple of recommended restaurants there, but neither really appealed. We went on down the road to the Osteria della'Acquolina, which was down a long dirt road into the fields. It looked and smelled wonderful, but was completely booked for the evening.
So we returned to the Ristorante Il Vecchio Torchio, which we decided to translate as "The Old Flame." This time we started with a pizza covered in mozzarella, prosciutto and mushrooms. We thought we'd ordered one with tomatoes, but they weren't detectable. In general, pizza here has almost no sauce. I stuck with the gnocchi sorrentina, but Jason was more adventurous and tried the tortelli neri con salmon, huge ravioli-like pasta made with squid ink to turn it black, stuffed with cheese and covered with a salmon cream sauce. That was okay, but got too salty pretty quickly and Jason was "not excited" by it. For mains, Jason had a plate of thinly sliced rare beef (tagliatelle) covered in arugula, which he enjoyed, but found overwhelming. I had the veal scalloppine marsala, which was okay, but not exciting. I think not being desperate for food made us less impressed with the Old Flame's offerings in general.
After dinner it was back to Il Doccio for the evening, feeling rested, but somewhat guilty for doing so little that day.
Next, our last day on our own for a while...
