Italy Post No.2

Best Meal – Florence – veal with whole-grain mustard sauce and asparagus. Every single mouthful was followed by “oohhh” and “ahhh”. The meal that night was over $170 for 2 adults and 1 monkey, but well worth it.

Best Surprising Meal – Biella – a few hours before my mate’s wedding, a few of us stumbled around the little town looking for a restaurant. My mate walked into what an only be described as ‘someone’s living room’ but was actually a ‘restaurant’. The owner/chef/waiter could speak about as much English as we could Italian. So with no menus and a major communication breakdown, all 5 of us ended up in the kitchen pointing at what we wanted for lunch.

What came out were several different types of outstanding pastas. And cheap – cheaper than any Italian restaurant in Australia and much better. Oh yeah, the hardcore techno-music playing in the background was an added bonus…

Best Beer – Santa Margherita – a one-litre stein of Nastro Azzurro that cost me about A$24…. (and no, I didn’t even get to keep the stein…)

Best Wine – Rome – some Italian chardonnay that the waiter (an Aussie girl from the Hunter Valley) recommended. Was soooo good. And was very impressed when she ‘accidentally’ poured too much into my glass and gave me a big smile to go with it…