Tuesday, October 1
Verona, Verona, Veneto
Highlight: Fabulous lunch with lardo
Lowlight: Gray skies signaling much future rain
At 7:30 a.m., school kids started pouring down the street en masse in front of our apartment. Packs of school kids are never quiet, nor do they take into account that others, perhaps having had a late night, might still be abed. Peeking out of the window onto the street, I couldn't see any sun, only gray.
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| It's a Gray Day on our Street |
This apartment is the first true B&B that we have stayed in; all the others have been Airbnbs. Our host, Marco, who speaks no English, laid out a vast breakfast complete with coffee in the hall outside our bedroom. We're not breakfast eaters, so we only took a small pastry each with our coffee. Sadly, Italians do not appreciate Americans' thirst for coffee, thinking that a tiny pot is going to do the trick. Fortunately, Marco also provided a quasi-espresso machine with which I could make a couple more espressos to help augment the pot of coffee.
After breakfast and eager to see the city in the daylight, I went for a solo walk, reluctantly leaving behind Ann who was not feeling well. Immediately outside, I looked up and it was clear that the sun was not going to make an appearance. It was a gray but dry day, albeit with high humidity, something that I am thoroughly unused to.
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| Scalone Castel San Pietro |
My first thought on being solo is that I would tackle the San Pietro hill behind the apartment for good views of the city. I'm in good climbing shape and hills are not an issue for me. a good thing because the way up involves a significant amount of stairs, called the Scalone Castel San Pietro. Behind the church, there is also a funicular to the top, but I wanted the exercise of walking up the stairs, many of which are a gorgeous pink marble.
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| Funicular up San Pietro Hill |
At the top, where both the stairs and the funicular arrive, sits the Castel San Pietro, a modern building by Veronese standards dating to the mid-1800s. From the piazza surrounding the castle, I had marvelous views of the river and town just below me. I can only wonder about how splendid the view would have been on a sunny day.
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| Relatively Modern Castel San Pietro |
After going down an alley (vicolo) we turned into a small pedestrian-only cobblestone street with a bunch of tables against the wall of the building opposite the restaurant. The place looked busy and we had to wait for a couple of minutes before the hostess seated us. Although it was a cloudy day, the weather was nearly perfect for sitting outside at a table and having a leisurely lunch.
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| Seated in the Alley Opposite the Restaurant |
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| Bougainvillea at La Greppia |
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Alley Where La Greppia Sits
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We had a marvelous lunch, starting with a plate of
soppressa and lardo with grilled polenta for our antipasto. Soppressata in Toscana is called soppressa in the Veneto. I loved everything about this plate including the mâche and slightly sweet pickled yellow pepper garnishes, the grilled polenta, the soppressa with its beautiful fat, and finally, the lardo.
The lardo was unlike any I have had before and was a revelation. Heretofore, I have always been served thinly sliced cured fatback. This version was more akin to the cunza that we had in Modena. The fatback was ground, mixed with garlic and rosemary, then formed into a roll that was thinly sliced yielding a product that is so much better than butter.
Lunch proper was plates of pasta, both bigoli, one with a duck ragù and one with leeks and speck. Both were really good, but the leek and speck version was head and shoulders better. One of the plates was on the menu and the other was a special of sorts. The guys next to us clued us in that there were two versions and our server, Basilio, asked if we would like one of each. But of course.
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| Soppressa and Lardo with Grilled Polenta |
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| Another Amaro New to Us |
Our waiter Basilio was awesome; our food was great; the wine list was great; and the experience was exactly what we were looking for in Italy. We decided on the spot to explore more of the menu at dinner and so we booked a table with Basilio for the evening. This was a good idea because the restaurant was packed at dinner and they were turning people away left and right, but that's a story for later on.
After lunch, we left the tranquility of a back alley off a back alley and returned to the crowds (though not so busy as Sunday in Bologna) to stroll down to the Arena which sits on Piazza Brà. I cannot stress how impressive this arena is. Built 2000 years ago in the year 30, it was designed to hold about 30,000 spectators. Today it holds 22,000 people; the stage that hosts at least four operas per year takes up the remaining seats.
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Arena di Verona
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Storefronts on the Piazza Brà
Tourists Swilling Aperol Spritzes |
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| I Portoni della Brà: the Gates of Brà |
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| Atlas Cedar in Front of Palazzo Barbieri |
From the Piazza Brà we walked due east to the river and and back north along it to our apartment across the Ponte Pietra, taking in the scenes along the river.
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| In Window Box, Potato Vine, Solanum laxum |
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| On a Balcony: Lemon, Potato Vine, and Plumbago |
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| Annie in Front of Castel di San Pietro |
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River Side of Osteria Ponte Pietra Risorante
We Could Have Sat on Middle Balcony Last Night |
Back at the apartment, we laid down for a while before getting ready for dinner. When we went out again, it was much calmer in the
centro storico than during the day. At La Greppia, they do not seat outside at night and reservations are pretty much required. Unfortunately, the inside of the restaurant is blindingly bright, supremely loud, and frantically busy; it was not the calm, laid-back spot we were for lunch.
When we arrived on the very early side of dinner for our reservation at 7:30, it was already quite busy. It would reach a crescendo at 9:15 to 9:30, the prime dinner hour. We weren’t seated for two minutes before Basilio came by the table with a bottle of Prosecco and poured us each a glass as a welcome while we looked at the menu and wine list.
Rather than choosing ourselves, we asked Basilio to pick a favorite local wine for us; he chose a Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore. In the typical ripasso technique, the grapes are added to the leftover pomace from making Amarone and the two are co-fermented. Add Valpolicella to the list of light red wines that we like: Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Tempranillo, and Nebbiolo. Unlike this list, Valpolicella is a wine name, not a grape. The three principal grapes are Corvina, Rondinella, and Corvinone.
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| Culatello di Zibello |
We started with culatello di Zibello, a rare 24-month-old ham from Parma. The leg is deboned and reformed before curing. It was a beautiful ham.
For dinner, we skipped primi which we had at lunch and went straight to secondi. We had beef cheeks (guance di manzo) served with celery root purée, which Basilio told us is called sedano di Verona or sedano rapa (“turnip celery”). We also had roasted octopus which was not as good as at Ponte Pietra the night before.
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Beef Cheeks with Celery Root Purée
Good Although Not Much Effort Spent on Plating |
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| Roasted Octopus |
After dinner, Ann and I took a leisurely walk back to the apartment, marveling at how beautiful Verona is in the dark and how much calmer, after the tourists have gone for the day. We had a few raindrops here and there, a hint of what tomorrow would bring.
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| Scaliger Tombs at Night |
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| Another View of the Tombs |
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| Lamberti Tower Uplit |
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| Statue of Dante, Piazza dei Signori |
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| Random Streetside Dining |
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| Passageway Neatly Lit in the Dark |
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