Best ot Italy...the meals

During our stay in Manarola, one the Cinque Terre, we ate dinner at Il Picciolino, under the watchful eye of the matriarch of the family that runs the restaurant. We had an appetizer, a caprese salad, tomatoes and mozzarella. Lynn opted for the the ravioli while I chose the spaghetti with clam sauce. That was the primi piatti, or first dish. If there's a first there must be a secundi piatti and here we both at sole. Sole that had been swimming in the ocean that morning, caught by one of the Manarola fishermen. Then we finished with cappuchino.

This was about nineteen days into our trip. We groaned during our walk back to the hotel, groaned because we had eaten so much we were in distress. We had our epiphany...essentially we had spent most of the past three weeks consuming two entrees at every dinner.

Here then, are our choices for the best meals we ate while in Italy.

4th Place...the aforementioned Il Picciolino. Family owned, fresh seafood, the never ending bowl of pasta.

3rd Place...Tre Scalini, Piazza Navona, Rome...A front row seat at one of Rome's liveliest piazzas, and home of Bernini's Four Rivers fountain. We ate a leisurely dinner and watched the circus that unfolded before our eyes. Lynn had ravioli and a veal piccata, while I ate rigatoni all' Amatriciana (a Roman sauce) and oso buco, veal shank. Dessert, coffee, wine and a maitre d' who did lines from the movie Barry Lyndon rounded out the evening.

2nd Place...Enoteca da Valigia, Venice...after stumbling out of this wine bar following a wine tasting, we asked if we could return for dinner. A hearty yes. Did we need reservations? An equally hearty no. When we arrived that same evening we were ushered to a tiny table for two. We were surrounded by native Venetians, a singing owner, and our irrepressible waiter, who insisted on plying us with free drinks (prosecco when we sat down, a palate-cleansing lemon sorbet--spiced up with vodka and prosecco, and a Bailey's Irish Cream to put an end to things.) Lynn had pennette with a pesto sauce, I demolished most of the mixed antipasto plate of Italian meats. Then we moved to John Dory for Lynn, and lamb chops for me.

1st Place...Cantina del Vecchio, Rome, Via del Coronari, 30...Run by an amiable British expat with an encyclopedic knowledge of Italian wines, we had our last supper in Rome at Cantina del Vecchio, the scene of an earlier wine tasting. We made reservations for the Friday night and entered a restaurant where every table was taken. Alan, who was delighted to see us, escorted us to our table and personally took our orders. We told him that we ha decided to try the house specialities he had mentioned during our earlier visit and that he had carte blanche to bring any wine that he felt would be paired well with our choices. We shared a risotto with guinea fowl and shaved Pienza cheese. Lynn had the turbot, stuffed with prosciutto, zucchini and potatoes, while I had lamb stuffed with bacon and plums. We weren't quite singing following the dinner, but one more sip of wine might have done it. Alan was a superb host and a restaurateur who takes a very different approach than most of his Roman competitors. Here's his website: http://www.cantinadelvecchio.it/default.asp. Obviously, our first choice for a meal when in Rome.

More later...