Tips for Dining, Eating, and Food Shopping in Italy (including Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice)
Start New ThreadWe need dinner recommendations in Italy. We will be in Verona on Friday and Marostica -- near Asolo and Bassano del Grappa on Saturday night -- any suggestions?
Thanks
Sabrina
By sabrina
on Oct 7, 2009 08:27 AM
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Having lived in this area decades ago you picked our two favorite dining destinations. We always liked the 12 Apostles in Verona and always went to the Villa Cipriani in Asolo.
Some put down the 12 Apostles as dated and stuffy, and while a recent return a few years ago found it not quite the same as 40 years ago we still had a marvelous dinner there and will always return again when we come back.
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We LOVE 12 Apostoli!
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/605395 is a post of mine from several months ago which included a side trip to Asolo. If you go there please consider stopping in Salumeria Bacchin which I write about.
My favorite restaurant in Italy is in Verona: the one Michelin star temple to wine, Osteria La Fontanina, This is their website: http://www.ristorantelafontanina.com/ I have written about it numerous times on here. Simply, it is the most romantic restaurant that I have been in with all of the light coming from candles. You sit at one of six or seven tables in the middle of what amounts to a room that is crammed with antiquities all related wine as well as numerous cases and bottles. Throw in exposed wooden beams, stone and brick with the candlelight and it is an extraordinary experience. It also happens to have excellent food and, of course, an incredible wine list. Look closely at the photos in the link.
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I'll romance you one for one with 12 Apostle pictures, but agree your place looks over the top for clutter and atmosphere. 12 Apostles is more formal.
You reminded me when I first entered this restaurant over 40 years ago, I cried at its antique beauty feeling like I had just entered a medieval dining room.
That was when it was one of the only Michelin starred restaurants in all of Italy way back then. It has fallen off its perch, or rather has not keep up with more modern dining trends, but for history and old school it remains my favorite.
So here is my show and tell, and when one searches for the pictures o Villa Cipriani in Asolo, prepare also to be swept away with the beauty of it all: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgur...
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Italy aside, glbtrtr, Santa Barbara speaks volumes. You live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. One that can compete with Asolo and Verona and...in its own way. Tonight, I'll open a wine from your home town.
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For decidedly less high end, formal dining in Verona than the previous suggestions, consider Al Pompiere, where you can't go wrong with their housemade salumi. Reservations a must, it's very small. http://www.alpompiere.com/
In Bassano del Grappa we ate twice at Ristorante al Ponte and loved it. (Ristorante al Ponte, via G. Volpato 60, Bassano del Grappa (just upstream of the old bridge on the west side of the river) tel 0424/219274.
)In Marostica itself we went to the best cheese shop EVER right in the lovely piazza. Once the proprietor understood that we were interested in the local cheeses, not the well-known imports, he all but adopted us and sent us off with some of the most amazing cheeses we've ever eaten. If a picnic fits itself into your plans I can't recommend this place highly enough.
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