Day 12: Driving to Bologna early morning, Autogrill, and a surprisingly good lunch at Ristorante Colombina

Day 12: Driving to Bologna early morning, Autogrill and a surprisingly good lunch at Ristorante Colombina

The food products people can get in Autogrill in Italy. Wow...

Restaurants visited:

Ristorante Colombina, Bologna: 5 star. Surprisingly delicious food and great wine. Friendly service.

Early morning drive to Bologna and my first visit to Autogrill

I wanted to check out Bologna's farmers market and it's only on Saturday morning, so I got up really early, had a quick breakfast with Caterina at 9 Muse B&B, and I was on my way. I was the only person that morning, but Caterina still prepared many different cakes/cookies and different types of drink for my breakfast. The one in the photo, she told me it is called "grandma's cake" in Italy. What a luxurious morning. Thanks, Caterina! Before I left the place, I snapped a shot of all the recognitions that she has gotten. When I come back again to this area to dine at Dal Pescatore, I will definitely stay here again.

The drive from 9 Muse B&B to Bologna is about 2.5 hours. I decided to stop by an Autogrill and check out what it is all about. Remember that I mentioned about the toll check-in/check-out ticket system in Italy? Apparently, people still speed, but they stop by Autogrill to take a break. With that additional time, speeding tickets are no longer a concern!

There are so many food products in Autogrill stores that I really felt that I was in a mini supermarket. They also designed the store layout in a way that I had to walk pass the entire mini market before I could exit. Talking about store design that push for impulse buying!

They even have shower facility in Autogrill! I mean, I didn't use it... but... Wow.

Arriving in Bologna and a great lunch at Ristorante Colombina

Up until this point, I have been somewhat frustrated by my inability to speak/read Italian, but when I arrived in Bologna, this inability of mine pushed my frustration to a new height...

Most towns and cities in Italy have a special traffic limit zone in the city center that people cannot enter by car without a permit. The sign is a white circle with a thick red outline around it. There are usually cameras installed nearby and if I enter these zones, I will get a ticket. The problem is, this white circle with red outline sign is used in two situations. One is to indicate the border of this traffic limit zone, meaning that I cannot enter, and the other is to inform me of the existence of this zone in the city ahead, meaning that I can still enter here. The only difference between these two are explained on a white metal board below the white circle sign, and it is in Italian. Not only I didn't understand Italian, I was also driving and we all know how well we read when we are in motion.

This resulted in me avoiding moving ahead every time I saw this sign, regardless whether I could enter or not. Google navigation doesn't take this into consideration. So as I kept making turns to avoid these signs, Google navigation kept re-routing. This morning, I ended up circling around Bologna 4 times while trying to figure out what I should do. I ended up parking my car at the far end up north and walked to the city center. Thankfully, Bologna isn't a huge city and it was just about 20 minutes before I walked to the city center. However, by the time I got there, the market has already closed.

Oh well... I guess this means that I will have to come back again! Might not be a bad thing after all.

Confusion leads to stress, and stress leads to hunger. And this hunger lead me to Ristorante Colombina in the city center of Bologna. I was using TripAdvisor iPhone app and it showed "Ristorante Colombina" as one of the top choices nearby. I read the reviews and it seemed like a great choice where many local Italians also frequent. I arrived at 12:30pm when the restaurant opened and I was the first. Warm and friendly greeting from the staff made me feel comfortable right away.

For Appetizer, I got their potatoes and mortadella soufflé with parmesan cheese sauce. It was really delicious! So fluffy and light, yet full of flavor. Absolutely divine. Must order if you come here.

For the main course, I ordered the specialty dish in Bologna, Tortellini in chicken broth. It was perfectly cooked. The pasta skin stayed al dante for a long time. The chicken broth was flavorful and the meaty stuffing in the tortellini was just delicious. Perfect for a cold day like this.

With appetizer and main course being so good, I had to try their dessert. I went with "Panna cotta al forgo bel caramel": Baked cream (without gelatin) with caramel sauce. I had high expectation, so I was a little disappointed with this dish. Without gelatin, I find it too firm and too dense. I like the panna cotta of Ristorante Consorzio better back in Turin.

Overall, I really like this restaurant and the price was really good compared to other restaurants that I've been to so far. The service was great and they speak English pretty well. I would definitely come back again next time I'm in Bologna. All in all, an unexpected great meal!

A quick walk-about around the food market area and checked-in at

Since I woke up really early this morning and drove a long distance, and then got really stressed out over the traffic limit zone situation, I decided to check out just the food market area really quick and drive to my Air-BnB vacation rental to check in and rest.

I've heard many times that Bologna is the most liberal and progressive city in Italy. I witnessed it in person when I walked back to the parking lot when a group of people marched down the street protesting and there were many policemen everywhere.

The Air-BnB place is about 10 minutes outside of Bologna. The owner, Paolo was at home when I arrived and he gave me a quick tour of the house. The place is clean, modern and very comfortable. I unloaded my luggage to this place where I'll call home for the next 5 days. After a quick shower, I went to bed early. I'll head back into Bologna again tomorrow and tour the city a bit more.

Day 4: Verona in the morning; Alba, the truffle heaven, in the evening

Restaurant visited:

Antica Corona Reale da Renzo (5 star. Amazing food, incredibly friendly services), Micheline 2 star

Morning walk in Verona town center: Arena, Juliet’s balcony and the Lamberti tower.

Verona is the city that Shakespeare picked for his star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. However, once I started looking into this city, I realized that there is a pretty famous arena here, too. Not as big as the one in Rome but seems to be better preserved (or restored).

As soon as I walked out of my hotel (Hotel Milano), within 100 steps, I was standing right in front of the Arena. I didn’t expect my hotel to be in such a prime location!

There is no fence or any barricade between me and this buildings of 2000 years. As I reached out and touched the crumbling facade of the exterior wall, I wondered what the roman citizens 2000 years ago were thinking as they tried squeezing into the arena to see the bloody sport of Gladiators.

After I got inside (pay for ticket at the entrance), I climbed up to the top of the arena and had a nice view of the entire space. This is where roman citizens celebrated honor through blood and violence. I could feel the terror and excitement of the crowd and hear their gasp and cheer soar through the sky.

 

I climbed back down under the arena and got a completely different perspective. It was dark and horrifying. As gladiators and prisoners being forced through these humiliating holes, have they given up all hopes and just wanted a quick death? The sense of fear and hopelessness was so overwhelming. How many people have died this way in that ancient time. How many people cared?

 

I continued my journey to Juliet’s balcony. I was really glad that I visited arena first so that I didn’t have to end my half-day encounter with Verona with such heavy emotions.

The road connecting the arena and Juliet’s house is the main shopping street of Verona. There were a lot of people outside. Great for people watching.

Verona is a small town and the walk was less than 10 minutes. Juliet’s house was much smaller than I thought. I’m not sure if it’s because I was affected by the preconceived notion of Shakespeare’s story or because of all the pink heart-shaped souvenirs hanging around all over the place, when I looked up to the balcony, I had the urge to pay the fee to go up to the balcony and call out “Romeo, oh Romeo. Where are thou?” Before I did it, however, a flood of tourists stormed in screaming and shouting. They all bunched up around the statue of Juliet to touch her bare breasts. Rumor has it that it will bring you luck in romance. After witnessing such a chaotic scene where people pushing each other to touch Juliet’s bare breast, any sense of romance has all but escaped me and all I wanted to do was to get away from that crowd as far as I could. “Gosh, tourists…” I caught myself saying that as I exit the house… LOL.

A few blocks away from the house was Lamberti tower. People can pay to go up and have a bird’s eye view of Verona. Since my visit to the romantic balcony was abruptly cut short by a group of screaming strangers, I figured that I’d pick myself up and attempt at saving some sense of romance with Verona before I left. What else can be better than hiking up to the top of a tower for a sense of hope and achievement?

 

The view on top of the tower was amazing! I didn’t know Verona was such a beautiful city until I viewed her from atop. My love affair with Verona was saved!

 

With this powerful sense of achievement and optimism, I now travel on to my first main destination, Alba, the city on the land of hazelnuts, Barolo wine, and of course, white truffles!

Train from Verona to Turin

The train from Verona to Turin takes almost 4 hours…

“Wait, Won Sun, where did you have lunch?”

Ha. I thought I could slip that one through by you! The answer was… you might want to hold on to something for this one… A granola bar! I had a light breakfast at Hotel Milano before I left, and wasn’t really feeling anything for lunch by the time I got on the train. I had expected some kind of cafe on the train for such a long ride but there was nothing. I was left with just a granola bar that I brought with me from home for the plane ride, which I didn’t eat until now.

Don’t worry though, the dinner that I have tonight will more than make up for it. You might want to hold on to something for that one, too. Hahaha.

Back to the journey… I reserved a rental car a month ago. I don’t know how to drive a stick shift, so I requested an automatic. My friend Keyvan told me that sometimes, even if you have reserved an automatic, they might still not have one available for you in Europe and you are left with a manual. I was really nervous that it would happen to me as I approached Turin train station.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Not only that, they have given me a Mercedes-Benz! I’ll be eating truffles in style! Woohoo!

Driving from Turin to Alba

Here was my first ever driving experience in Italy… well, in Europe, even. It was a bit nerve-wrecking to drive on a single lane road and have two cars on my both sides squeezing pass me. Thankfully, through many small obstacles, I arrived at Alba safely to meet with the owner of the vacation rental that I will be staying for the next 7 days. Laura was kind enough to wait for me until I arrived an hour later than we had anticipated. She showed me the lovely apartment and gave me the keys. Here is my home for the next 7 days!

Antica Corona Reale da Renzo: The most amazing truffle dish I’ve had.

It took about 40 minutes to drive here from Alba. It was a pretty straightforward ride. I just followed Google directions and got to the restaurant without any problem.

Antica Corona Reale has 2 Michelin stars and has been around since 1815. (That’s 198 years!) The chef now is the 4th generation owner. The restaurant staff was very friendly and the decor was very comfy and feels like home. All the male patrons, however, wore shirt and jacket. No one was wearing a tie. The two guys sitting next to me wore jeans, so I take it that jeans are okay. I was in my dress pants and jacket without a tie and felt right at home.

As they walked me to my table, an overwhelming aroma of white truffle filled the air. I was already intoxicated before I sat down. I knew I was in right hands. I knew this evening would be amazing.

I didn’t order the tasting menu but still, they gave me 2 amuse-bouche and a palate cleanser before dessert. The Amuse-bouche dishes were huge! Not the small bite size that I’m used to in the fine dining restaurants back home. And my God, they were amazing. They were the best food that I have eaten since the risotto back in Venice, and these were just amuse-bouche! First one was a pork sausage on top of creamy buttery mash potatoes. The second one was beef tartare. Both were just amazing. I’m not used to eating raw beef but I had no trouble finishing these and still wanting more.

 

For my dinner, my waitress told me that the dish “Cocotte egg with white Alba truffle” was the winner of the best truffle dish in 2004, so I ordered that dish. Since I’m a huge risotto fan, I asked if they could make me some risotto and they said yes. What a great service!

The risotto came first. The chef came and personally shaved TONS of truffle on it for me. He told me that the real prized Piedmont white truffles are actually brown and the flesh is more brown than beige. Good to know! The risotto was a bit too salty for me but it was really creamy and the truffles were amazing. A lesson learned for me. Order what they offer, instead of asking for something that they don’t normally do. I should’ve just order the Tajarin with truffle. (a type of pasta special to this region)

The next course arrived with a lot of truffles on it. My waitress went ahead and stirred it up to mix everything together. The chef then arrived and shaved even more truffles on it!

 

This dish, was absolutely the best truffle dish that I have ever had. So creamy and buttery. The warm bowl held this running bright yellow creamy mess where the flesh of white truffles filled every corner. Every spoonful of it, there was so much truffle that I had to chew through it like eating a meat dish. Cream, cheese, egg yolk and white truffle. This is literally the dish to die for. I mean, seriously, I have to now consider if I should eat a lot of this and die happy early in my 50s of heart attack. The. Best. Truffle. Dish. Ever. Must-have if you come to Alba.

Next: Palate cleanser. Cinnamon cream with red wine poached pear. At this point, I was so overwhelmed with joy and happiness from the last dish that I couldn’t really remember what this taste like anymore. I remember it was good. That was all. Sorry guys… Hard to remember anything after such a truffle high from the previous dish… Sigh.

My waitress stopped by after I finished my palate cleanser. My God, I am amazed at her ability to understand what I was mumbling about. I didn’t even understand what I was saying. All I could think about was how great that truffle egg dish was. I must have said yes to her asking me if I wanted dessert. I don’t remember. Hahaha. That truffle dish was all I could think about. When the dessert arrived, I kept asking myself why I ordered this since there was no way I could finish it. Anyhow, it was delicious and really beautifully presented. So as the little sweets at the end of the meal.

 

This meal was the most amazing meal I’ve had in Italy so far. When you visit Italy, even if it is a little bit out of the way, come here. It is worth it. I might change my schedule so that I can visit it again before I leave Alba. Absolutely amazing.

Amazing food and friendly service. The old owner (I think he was the father of the chef) stopped by twice and asked me how everything was. All I could say was “perfect”. Everything was just perfect. And he gently pat my shoulder, said “Good”, smiled, and walked away satisfied. Such a sweet old man.

Couldn’t have imagine a better first meal in the white truffle capital of the world.. :-)

Day 3: Goodbye Venice. Hello, Romeo and Juliet!

Restaurant / Cafe visited:

1. Terrefazione Marchi (3.5 star. Decent Coffee, cold service)
2. Le Calandre (4 star. Good food. Awesome hospitality)
3. Caffe Pedrocchi (4 star. Delicious espresso with mint cream)

TIP: You can check in your luggages at the Padova train station for 3.5 Euro per piece per day. Make sure you retrieve your luggages before they close at 6pm.

Last day in Vencie

I wanted to try Torrefazione Marchi before I leave Venice so I went there in the morning and ordered a cup of cappuccino.

However, I still like what I had at Caffe del Doge better. I had to have it once again before I leave, so I went back to Caffe del Doge again. I just love this place. The coffee, the people, the decor… everything.

This time, I ordered something called Cortado. Yenyi told me about this type of coffee, where there is about half of the milk in the coffee than cappuccino. They didn’t have this type of coffee on their menu, but I showed them the word, and explained to them what it was and they made me one! It was really really delicious. 5-star through and through.

And here, my short encounter with Venice ended with the best possible note. I will be back one day. I promise.

Le Calandre, Rubano (Very close to Padova)

Le Calandre in Rubano holds 3 Michelin stars. There are total of 7 Michelin 3-star restaurants in Italy. I will visit four of them on this trip. Le Calandre is the first one.

I took a train from Venice to Padova, and then got on a bus (line-10) and it dropped me right in front of the restaurant. Very easy and straightforward.

I was the first to arrive at 12:10pm. The decor was modern, simple and with lots of wood and linen. When I went to the restroom, there was a photo of them looking at where I stand on the wall by the urinal! LOL. Playful and humorous. This seems to be the style of Le Calandre. I love it.

 

Service was professional, friendly and helpful. Even though I went on lunch hours, I went for the full tasting menu + wine pairing. The whole experience. All their staff speaks English, which makes it much easier for me. I really appreciate the efforts.

For the tasting menu, including Amuse-bouche, there were total of 10 courses.

   

      

The chef personally came out several times to greet everyone. He checked in with me each time to make sure I was enjoying my meal. Really friendly and down-to-earth guy.

When it was time to leave, I realized that I had missed the bus, so the chef called a taxi for me and he stood right there outside of the restaurant and waved me good bye for a long time as my taxi drove away. Again, such down-to-earth guy. Makes me feel like I was visiting an old friend.

To sum it up, Le Calandre to me was more about the overall experience than about the food itself. The flavor of the food was bold, straight-forward, but I found it lacking depth in flavor. What I really enjoyed was its service and the style. Chef Massimiliano’s playfulness, down-to-earth style and super friendly and personable attitude were all expressed 100% in the Le Calandre experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Come here for the overall experience if you are in the area and see how chef Massimiliano plays with classic Italian dishes.

Caffe Pedrocchi, Padova

This place was on many guide books and the online reviews mentioned a type of coffee drink that use espresso, milk foam and mint cream that is split in three layers. It’s their specialty, so I went and tried it. It was really good. Ice-cream-like consistency at the top, and hot espresso at the bottom. I don’t think it is worth going out of your way to try, but if you are in the area, definitely check it out.

Short walk back to train station in Padova

I walked from Caffee Pedrocchi to Padova train station. A pretty easy walk. I was very impressed by the streetcars in Padova. Very modern and futuristic looking!

Verona: This is where we lay our scene

Shakespeare picked Verona for his Romeo and Juliet to meet. A while back, some clever guy converted a house of that era in Verona to a tourist attraction and recreated the balcony from which Juliet would’ve had called on her Romeo! That I gotta see!

It took about an hour and a half to reach Verona by train from Padova. I was really tired by the time I arrived at my hotel at 6:30pm and still completely full from my lunch. It was already dark and it was raining, so I decided to stay in and call it a night.

Tomorrow, I’ll check out the Arena and Juliet’s balcony before I hop on my train to Turin, where I will rent a car and drive to Alba.