La Terazza and the Grand Hotel Tremezzo

In our previous post, Elana mentioned that us Iaciofano's stayed in the town of Tremezzo on Lake Como.  Our digs during our visit was the stuff dreams are made of - The Grand Hotel Tremezzo; a heavenly lake side palace of glory, gorgeousness, and glam.  Serious, serious kudos to Marmo for hooking this place up. 

Upon arriving, I literally spent about 2 hours just casing the joint - scoping the various indoor and outdoor pools, their tennis court, a lakeside beach and their beautiful lake-facing terraces.  The place is just pure magic.  The hotel (and Lake Como in general) really had an effect on me; at times, even causing me to conjure up foreign, romantic/cheesy ideas - like coming back another time with a lady friend to participate in some candle-lit, terrace-chilling, hand holding.  Yikes.

The area of the Hotel I always looked forward to visiting every day was the Terrace.  There were two main terraces at the Hotel - one for drinking/relaxing and another, where their restaurant was located, known as "La Terazza." On our first night, the crew settled in for a sit down dinner and was thoroughly impressed.  The view and atmosphere were literally breathtaking; La Terazza is situated on the 3rd floor of the Hotel, with a straight up unfair view of the Lake, neighboring towns, and Mountains.  Just an absolute visual treat. 

La Terazza's veal meatballs were spicy and perfectly salty.  The sauce was wonderfully tangy.

Elana's lake fish was a de-boned in front of our eyes, and was buttery fresh.

I ordered a veal chop with foie gras and black truffle (below).  It was amazing - the veal was as tender as a filet mignon and the truffle flavor did not disappoint.  The spinach was served was raisins and pine nuts.  It all blended together seamlessly.

Dessert was a marscapone shortbread combination masterpiece.

In the a.m., La Terazza functioned as the Hotel's breakfast scene, complete with some of the greatest cappuccino and freshly baked croissants on Earth (and that same amazing view).

Leaving the Grand Hotel Tremezzo was a sad, sad day in my life - evoking post-Bucknell graduation levels of sadness and nostalgia, despite staying there only 3 days.  One of the finest hotels I've ever stayed at.  Who wants to accompany me for a return trip?

The Iaciofano's Go To Naboo, I mean Lenno...

Although we were sad to leave Verona, we were anticipating with much enthusiasm the adventures that awaited us in Lake Como.

Our fearsome foursome took up temporary residence in Tremezzo, one of the towns circling the lake. Travel from town to town happens by boat on Lake Como, so the Iaciofano's heaved-to and set sail for Lenno one rainy day.

Our main purpose in visiting Lenno was to see the Villa Balbianello, an impressive estate that you may recall from such films as Star Wars (I forget which – one of the new films with that Jar Jar creature), and Casino Royale.

In order to get to the villa, we had to trek through a couple miles of woodsy terrain. I very much enjoyed this, even in the rain, but The Box was not a fan. 

"Are we there yet?" He'd ask... and, "I'm turning around and calling a cab."

Needless to say I was not amused. I was, however, floored by the grandeur of Villa Balbianello once we finally made it onto the main grounds.

Impeccably manicured and coiffed, ivy coiled around the columns and the trees were manicured within an inch of their lives. We entertained ourselves for quite some time, until I got very cold.

Did I mention it was raining? So, we hailed a water taxi (one conveniently pulled up to the back door of the villa's grounds) and made haste back to the main center of Lenno, where in spite of the cold, we all had gelato at La Fabbrica del Gelato.

This wasn't the best gelato John had sampled – he much preferred the gelateria in Bologna. BUT it was very pretty, and they got extra marks for their display of tiny colorful gelato scoops.

Now I was REALLY cold. And the state of my hair in the rain...let's just say Marmo and I were picking up RAI Uno and RAI Due station feeds.

Also, we were hungry. Yes, we just had gelato, but gelato does not a meal make. What does is meat and cheese. And wine. So we headed back to Tremezzo and located a local wine bar, Cantina Follié.

Perched atop some bar stools, and wearing The Box's jacket for warmth, I commandeered the wine list. I selected the wine pictured below based on the label design. I do that. I'm a sucker for pretty design. Also, I was cold, hungry and out of patience.

Luckily, the wine proved to be delicious. Marmo and I started to calculate U.S. shipping as we devoured a plate of local meats and cheeses, included a personal favorite formaggio of mine: TALEGGIO.

Stuffed full of meat, cheese, wine and gelato, we headed back to our hotel for.... a NAP.

Hey, we needed to conserve energy for dinner. 

Verona and Osteria La Fontanina

On our final night in Verona, the Iaciofano crew made the short walk across one of the town's many beautiful bridges where, up a quiet stone side street, nestled an unassuming, small and fascinating restaurant named Osteria La Fontanina ("OLF").  Mom had done some homework before arriving to Verona on OLF; despite its almost hidden location, OLF's resume includes a Michelin Star.

I mentioned that OLF was fascinating - I cannot recall stepping foot inside a restaurant quite like this one.  It's a bit like an antique store, or an attic, or a trippy, slightly spooky, whacked out vintage furniture store or perhaps the love shack of an interior decorator and a hoarder. From everything to the plates, silverware, curtains and chairs - there is not a matching item in the joint. 

To say OLF is a bit cramped would be generous.  This place makes the coziest of Manhattan cafe's seem like a banquet hall.  I'm sucking in my gut just to walk to to my table.  But it's all so... cool.  Leave it to the Italians, of course, to generate such a magical atmosphere from a room filled with flea market type trinkets.  Waiting for my meal was never so entertaining.  Heck, I'd even say it's beautiful inside.

I recall the whole place only having about 8-10 tables, so while the 15 or so random, hanging tassles (among other things) provide an amusing atmosphere, OLF's prevailing tone is actually its intimacy.  It has a very private feel to it all.

And as for its food, it's really, really good.  Absolutely deserving of its Michelin Star status. 

Prior to the meal, OLF served up some wonderful and warm breads and foccacia.

Of particular note was my primi of scallops with a pumpkin puree and chopped mushrooms (seen above).  It was simply outstanding, like I was eating dessert.   Other highlights were Elana's baby pig ravioli, served in an insanely flavorful pear sauce; as well as her guinea-fowl coupled with an amazing potato cream sauce.

Service was also impeccable and warm, with the head chef himself shedding any potential "too cool for school" labels by serving us some of the dishes himself; a nice touch. We all thanked him for his expertise.  All of his dishes were excellent.

La Fontanina was truly a memorable and delicious experience, one that I sincerely hope I can revisit someday soon.

Verona, Part the First

After rejoining the rest of the Iaciofano's in Bologna, all four of us made haste to the train station and headed to Verona.

I have to admit to being a bit disoriented, having just spent four days biking in France and getting blown over by hurricane-force winds. I kept saying "frommage" instead of "formaggio" and I couldn't get my outfits right.

Verona is a beautiful city. A combination of Medieval and Roman architecture, it's a feast for the eyes. 

We made camp at the Due Torre Hotel. Marmo scored us some prime suites with a balcony!

We were just a short skip away from the Piazza delle Erbe...and some serious shopping. And eating. Have I talked about the eating yet? I'm gettin' there, don't worry. Before there is food, there are usually some antics. You have to work up an appetite by doing something... 

So first, we visited Juliet's (of Shakespeare fame) house to find a place to put our used gum...

And then we made our way to the Roman theater surrounding the city center to check out some quality ruins, and play amongst the archways.

And then we got lost. So The Box had to pull out the map and both sets of his glasses.

Getting lost makes me hungry. So I suggested we forgo the usual tourist-infested, open-air panini cafe's and find something local. We found something local while I was getting everyone lost running them around the Verona looking for a cycling shop. Which we eventually found, along with a fancy wine bar - Osteria del Bugiardo.

The Osteria looked very local. There were no Americans inside. I could tell. This made The Box nervous. Things "outside the box" generally make The Box nervous. But I convinced him with the promise of cured meats and cheeses and perhaps even beer that it would be worthwhile.

Well, they were out of beer.

But they had wine! And LOTS of meat and cheese. I suggested to our server using my elementary Italian and some all-encompassing hand gestures (Italians love hand gestures), that we wanted enough meat and cheese for four people, a crostini sampler plate and some local wine.

Our server wandered away with what I hoped was our order (The Box was still wary at this point, perched atop his high bar stool like an owl on high alert). At this point, he and John started sketching diagrams of the perfect golf swing onto the kraft paper placemats.

Sheesh...Americans...

And then came the crostini!

Some of these were unidentifiable! Others were just strange, like the purple one which turned out to be a cabbage slaw type of thing. All were really good! Seriously. I have not, however, developed a taste for anchovies, so that particular crostini didn't appeal to me.

This was just a precursor to the awesomeness that lay ahead in the form of:

Aaaaaand:

Not a scrap of either remained. Iaciofano's young and old devoured them all....diagrams of golf physics lay forgotten underneath piles of LARDO. Yes, my favorite meat butter made an appearance on this platter. This particular version tasted slightly smoky. It was expertly seasoned with fresh pepper...and it just melted...like butter. The best I've had to date.

As for the cheeses, we were presented with a lovely arrangement of semi-hard to hard cheeses accompanied by a selection of jams. John preferred the raspberry, while I fought Marmo for the pear flavor.

The Box was now full of wine, cheese, beer, and some random crostini and acting like going to the wine bar was his idea all along.

He does that, get used to it.

As for the rest of us, we were ready to go get lost all over again, in an effort to work up an appetite for dinner...

Spritz Me!

While we Iaciofano's were cavorting through Italy, Marmo found a beverage she liked very much. So much, that she would order it wherever we went.

Marmo isn't much of a drinker. In fact, I usually have to cut her off after one glass of wine. Her normal speech velocity increases threefold and it becomes even more challenging to follow her thought patterns.

Luckily, an Aperol Spritz isn't a heavy hitter in terms of alcohol content. It's an aperitif...think of it as your warm up drink before you pull out all those fancy bottles of Brunello (or whatever) that you'll be enjoying with your main meal.

It's simple to concoct as well. Because warms ups should be simple. You don't want to strain yourself before the main event.

So ease into action with this aperitif.

What you need:
Aperol
Sparkling white wine - we used Martini & Rossi Asti Sparkling Wine

What to do:
The recipe is simple: 3 parts Asti to 1 part Aperol.
I used a shot glass to measure and poured three shots of the sparkling wine and one shot of the Aperol into a large wine glass filled with ice.

Dunk in a slice of orange if you like.

Oh, and try to have some nice, meaty olives on hand. And maybe some peanuts too. Got it?

Now go find a sunny spot and enjoy. Cheers!