Today we woke up early and did a little minor exploring over by the Guggenheim museum before leaving. We came back, bought some prosciutto, pasta and onion and I made a little lunch with the chiodini mushrooms over the pasta. We made it safely to Piazzale Roma with our bags and sanity, which, if you’ve ever ventured over the bridges of Venice with rolling luggage, is almost impressive. Turns out the car comes with built in navigation which, if you know my family at all, is absolutely necessary. (I have a superb sense of direction but everyone else doesn’t always listen to my advice…) We still decided to use our handy little Garmin as a backup, just in case.
I love diesel. We made it on one tank of gas and even stopped over in a small walled hill town for a cappuccino on the way. We are staying in Bagnoreggio, near Orvieto at Locanda Romantica Pucci. It’s cute and Rick Steves loves it, which makes me like it less just because. However, Pucci, the lady who runs the place, is funny, entertaining and the first thing she said to us when we walked in was, “I hate my chef, I’m looking for a new one.” She took us straight to a restaurant called Il Frantoio (www.ilfrantoiolubriano.it). It was a great little neighborhood spot located in a nearby town called Lubriano. This kind of place is my favorite kind of restaurant in Italy: it’s like good old fashion home cooking. It’s also located in a hillside, underground where they used make and store olive oil. So that’s kind of neat to see also. Here’s our meal:
- Gnocchi con porcini e tartufo
- Polenta with pork ribs
- Tagliata con tartufo
- Bisteca Chinina
- Spinaci
- Arugala and Carrot Salad
- Coconut gelato
Let me elaborate. The gnocchi was perfectly cooked, served in a light tartufo cream sauce. The Polenta was light and very fine – perhaps white polenta – served under a very finely seasoned tomato sauce with ground pork spare ribs. The tagliata is steak and it was served medium rare with tartuffo. Yes, lots of tartuffo. The spinach was simple and so good, cooked in olive oil with pepperoni. Definitely go here if you are within 100 Kilo of it. I’m going back tomorrow for pizza lessons. Pictures from the meal will be in the next post.
The roads here are very windy and very dark and we have no idea what the landscape looks like because we can’t see anything except for what is directly in front of us. However, our headlights turn when the car turns, which is very handy. I haven’t been this full in a long time.
