California Food and Wine Blog

Posts Tagged ‘italy’

On our last trip into the town Center we stopped for a quick and slightly rushed lunch at the Capri Pizzeria.

We ordered a 1/2 Litre of House Barbera Wine, Asparagus Pizza with an over-easy egg in the center, and a Spinach and Ricotta Calzone called Panzerotto.

The wine tasted a bit off and had an odd spritzy taste. It was the first wine we encountered that we didn’t enjoy and actually thought they might have just blended a couple wrong wines together in the back.

The Asparagus pizza was.. interesting. The egg was a little too well done and the asperagus was limp which made the whole pizza kind of mush together. It was still good but not the best pizza we’d had on the trip.

The calzone was amazing. So much ricotta and spinach goodness rolled up into a thin and crispy shell made perfectly.

Each item was €4-€6 plenty of food to share between two.. but of course we each had our own! Thank you Consale Monferrato, Italy rocks!

Flavor: 3/5

Value: 4/5

Service: 3/5

On one of the first nights in Italy our host recommended Santa Lucia Pizzeria as a great authentic Family Style Restaurant. We had an entire afternoon open and ventured down the street to the big yellow Pizzeria sign and gave it a try.

All the staff was very friendly and laughed with us at our lack of Italian but helped us pick a few items off the menu.

We ordered a 1/2 Litre of Vino Blanco (which is custom at every meal and we quicky adapted to), Ravioli Pasta, Penne Pasta, and a specialty pizza (we also took to eating multiple meals multiple times a day). The dishes were proportioned well and full of flavor, and each was priced between €4-€7 with some easily being shared between two.

We had a great experience and on our last night in Italy went back late at night for dessert and a full Litre of wine to share. The staff remembered us from the previous night and welcomed us back like family. I had a delicious ricotta cheesecake that was so fluffy and full of flavor I just savored it for an hour, and Nathan enjoyed a Tirolese; a cholate layer cake similar to Tiramasu. We stayed there for a good amount of time just enjoying wine, dessert, and company with no rush just enjoying the European lifestyle for one last night.

Flavor: 4.5/5

Value: 5/5

Service: 5/5

After arriving in Italy and losing our Data Connection with our Ireland phone, we went in search of a wifi spot in the town center to do a little research on where we wanted to go. We stopped into a Pizzeria Ristorante that displayed WiFi on their front window.

We struggled even more with ordering from this Italian restaurant as they spoke even less English than at the Cafe. We ordered a couple espressos and two items that were more similar to each other than we meant them to be.

Jessica ordered the Prosciutto e funghi (which we now know to be tomato, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms) and Nathan ordered the Calzone farcito (which is tomato, mozzarella, ham, carciofini, mushrooms) We should mention that neither one of us are big fans of ham and thought it was the American Prosciutto, so it was quite a surprise when we saw it covering our plates. However, the crusts and sauce were very fresh and tasty and each had an enourmous plate of food for about €5.50, leaving us very full and satisfied.

We did attempt to go back a couple days later for a nice dinner, and were much more successful at ordering a 1/2 Litre of wine, Risotti frutti di mare, and a Diavola pizza with spicy sausage and salami… and little cut up pieces of hot dog, that part was a bit strange.

We never could get the wifi to work, but we did enjoy some tasty Italian dishes.

Flavor: 3.5/5

Value: 3.5/5

Service: 3/5

While we waited for our next train in Vercelli, we walked around their town center and found a little cafe just across the road from the train station. In a poor attempt to speak Italian when we didn’t know any, we ordered two Mozzarella Tomato sandwiches on foccacia bread and a couple Coronas all for about €10.

We were hungry and those really hit the spot with a perfect price point, outdoor seating on a beautiful day, and friendly workers who put up with our language ignorance.

Flavor: 3.5/5

Value:4/5

Service: 4/5