Fontanella – Energy and Time

Italy day 47: Fontanella to Duino

October 5th: Our B&B came with breakfast, which turned out to be coupons for a bakery two blocks away

Carol got a fruit pastry, and I got a croissant sandwich. Note the wiggly spoon hooked over the cup rim.

Fontanella is an ancient town, going back at least to a fort built in the 5th century.

La Porta di Sopra, part of the ancient boundary wall (but possibly remodeled at a later date).

We chose to drive back roads through this part of Italy, which is rated very high for “quality of life”. We stopped for lunch at a random restaurant, but the food was excellent.

First course. Carol is a gnocchi-holic, but I opted for the squid pasta. Both the gnocchi and pasta were handmade.

We split one second course. Veal, in a lemon-caper-mint sauce that was amazing.

After lunch, we walked around the town square and got some gelato.

The weather cleared up to merely cloudy as we continued our long drive to Duino. But we arrived around 7 PM, and it was hard to find an open restaurant. We finally ate at Dama Bianca down by the water.

Italy day 46: Como to Fontanella

October 4th: We started with breakfast in the pizzeria. It was still rainy but the view was great.

Our table for breakfast (and dinner the previous night). Lake Como in the background.

We couldn’t leave town without paying our respects at the temple to Allesandro Volta., founder of electrochemistry, inventor of the electric battery (“voltaic pile”), and discoverer of methane.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside because it was closed for renovation. The museum houses some of Volta’s original devices.

Our next target was a gastronomic one: Salumificio Rossi, one of Italy’s top producers of prosciutto.

The retail store. Each of those hanging lumps is a prosciutto-cured ham.

The meat sampler for two included several prosciuttos and salamis.

Parmigiano Reggiano is also produced in this region. This is a sampler plate of different ages.

The cheese came with fig, apricot, and cherry jams. And Italian basil leaves.

Did I mention that they made prosciutto?

Then a lot of driving in the rain. Easy to blog because nothing much to say. We stopped for the night in Fontanella, and had dinner at a simple pizzeria.