A Tale of Two Dinners!

Sunday, which was Canadian Thanksgiving, we left Ortona and drove west and north to Lago Bolsena.  It was a very long (5 hours) and, at times, a somewhat harrowing drive.  In spite of wanting to avoid the Autostrada and its accompanying tolls, after confusing directions in the town of L'Aquila (where there was a major earthquake in 2009), we gave up.  We arrived in the town of Marta at the southern end of the lake around 2:20 pm.  After checking into our B&B which had been rated at 9.2 on booking.com which, in our opinions, must have been out of 30 or 40 not 10 because it wasn't that great although the hostess was lovely, we wandered through the town.  I had been there briefly in 2009 - and had driven through L'Aquila only several months after the earthquake - we walked through the town to the lakeside.  The town seemed very depressed and run down.  Lots of buildings were in disrepair.  Things got better when we got to the lakeside, found a restaurant, and ordered a plate of meats and cheeses and some drinks.  Delcie's tiramisu and my panna cotta with salted caramel sauce were delicious.  The views across the lake were lovely and we knew we had a lot to be thankful for.  

After spending a couple of hours there, we went back to the B&B and looked forward to going to the nearby restaurant, highly recommended by the B&B, for a Thanksgiving dinner.  To that did not go well would be a vast understatement.  Fast forward to yesterday when we drove into Tuscany and stayed in San Gimignano (more about that town in the next blog) where we had dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel.

With apologies to Charles Dickens, it was the worst of dinners and the best of dinners.  The one in Marta was the most dreadful dinner I have had in Italy.  I ordered grilled vegetables, fried perch (my favourite lake fish) and some tomatoes.  What arrived was thinly sliced eggplant and zucchini served on a white plate and looking pretty grim.  Were they grilled, yes, but probably in the morning and then put in the fridge.  They were cold, limp and unappetizing, almost tasteless.  The tomatoes - and everyone know how Italy is famous for its tomatoes - were mostly chunks of green, pale white and bits of red suggesting they really were tomatoes but far from ripe.  The fish was served lukewarm and the batter on it was soggy and gummy.  I am sure if it had been freshly cooked and the batter crispy that it would have been good although the fish didn't taste that fresh either.  The only thing that saved the experience was the glass of wine and the friendly server - although even the latter fell from grace when, in spite of complaining, he didn't adjust the bill even though I had sent back nearly all my food.   My friend's plate of three kinds of bruschetta was also served cold.  At one point, when we toasted Thanksgiving, we burst into laughter and the dreadful meal.  In retrospect, I wish I had taken photos to contrast with our meals the next day. 

So, Monday, we had a chance to have a "do-over" Thanksgiving dinner.  What a contrast; the meal was fabulous!  The menu for the restaurant looked wonderful and the setting lovely.  From the moment we arrived, we knew we had stumbled on something special.  Ristorante Da Nasio has its own vineyard and wines.  The waiter tried to sell us some very expensive Chiantis but we stuck with our choice of one of the cheapest.  At first it seemed it had a lot of tannins but, as it "breathed" it became quite quaffable.  Prior to being served our food, we were brought an "amuse gueule", a little bowl of pumpkin soup - how appropriate!  I ordered cannelloni stuffed with guinea fowl served on a parsley sauce.  Delcie ordered tagliatelle with a beef sauce.  Both dishes were delicious and the Chianti was the perfect accompaniment.  Following that, we each ordered dessert with vin santo (Tuscany's famous dessert wine).  My dessert was a trio of sliced semifreddo - raspberry, lemon and, I think, chamomile.  It was very good as well.  What was really amazing was the bill because the total was 73 Euros or about $50 CAD each.  What a great deal!  So, the disaster of yesterday's dinner was completely forgotten and, once again, we gave thanks for being so blessed to be here.