In the middle of the night we were awakened by a grand thunder and lightening storm. It boomed. It flashed. It poured. Quite the show. Although it was pretty muffled in the room. The bathroom had the best show.
The Road to Roccabianca
At about seven I got up and worked on my workshop stuff then at eight I took off in the other direction on my bike. I went out about a half an hour and made it all the way to Roccabianca. Oh what a beautiful morning. It felt great to get out on the bike. I made it back at almost exactly 9 though we did not go for breakfast until 9:30. Another fresh apricot! Yogurt and a great cappuccino.
Arrival in Roccabianco on the public roads.
Beautiful Roccabianco tower.
Typical signage in Italia.
Left turn off the levee to La Buca.
Morning capuccino at La Buca.
Internet Quest in Mantova
At about 11 we headed toward a small walled town, Sabionetta, that Lucca had mentioned and then we planned to go to Mantova to find internet. We pretty much just drove through Sabionetta and then on to Mantova. We actually found an Internet point only to find that a hotel nearby had free leakage so we just sat there and checked out all our stuff.
Hadn’t missed much really. Mostly I needed directions to the Hotel Florida in Milan. I think I have it all figured out and we plan to leave pretty early tomorrow so it should come together pretty well I am hoping.
We found a great Pizza place in the centro and Christine and I shared a Calzone and a proscuitto and melon plate. Delicious.
We headed back and the big thrill was that we actually drove on the levee into Zibello and just made that left turn off the levee down to our place. I think we were back some time after 4.
Last Dinner at La Buca
We gathered in our room and tried a 2007 Poggio Antico Rosso–it may have been my favorite then we headed over to La Bucca around 8.
I was very excited when I heard that they would make Torta Fritta for us along with two orders of Cullatello. Does Culatello live up to all the hype? Or are we just romanced by the incredible story of how Cullatello brought us here? All I will say is that it does seem to be sweeter, less salty and more lean than Proscuitto di Parma. And will I long to have some again and return to Zibello? Absolutely
Next we had six different pastas. We had one with ragu, one with peas, one with pumpkin, and one with culatello. My favorite and the consensus favorite was the one with peas. Next was the one with ragu. Third fav was the one with the culatello. Last was the one with the zucca which eas actually my favorite.
We had a great time trying to understand Mama Miriam to learn how to make Torta Fritta. We also had a great time chatting with Lucca. WE learned that the stands of trees are probably farmed for paper production, that the rooms were originally supposed to be an apartment of some sort, and that grappa is still nasty. Gary broke out his Genepi Bianca and Lucca broke out some of that Grappa we had seen on the wall near the breakfast room. Whew!
We were all stuffed and decided we had no room of any of the desserts and were all safely in our rooms before eleven. A fine final night in Zibello
No comments:
Post a Comment