It was lovely to start the week on Mother’s Day with Emily. Of course, we’re missing Henry here but we did get a chance to say hello on video chat. We have been using WhatsApp all along with him, when he was in Japan and now when we are here in Italy and we are very happy to have this technology. It makes the distance between us smaller for sure. Mother’s Day was spent roaming the street of Florence, we toured the Duomo museum since Lance hadn’t been before (the Duomo was closed because it was Sunday) and just generally spent the day enjoying our time together. We, of course, had to find a wine window and then had dinner out at Belle Donne, my favorite place from when I lived here in March. Emily has been a few more times, with her other guests, and she was sure Lance was going to love the cinghiale stew over polenta. He did! In honor of Mother’s Day, we bought an expensive bottle of Brunello di Montalcino and it was exceptional, perfect with the delicious food.
Monday was a school / exam day for Emily so we let her do her thing and when she was finished with her test, we met at the Duomo to tour the church and the archeological site below it called Santa Raparata (which is a whole other church). From there, we took a taxi up to the Piazza Michelangelo (having learned our lesson the last time that is a long walk and very uphill). We strolled around the piazza and stopped for an apertivo. It wasn’t sunset time but it was still crowded and the views were still beautiful. Our last dinner in town was at the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco which was featured on Stanley Tucci’s show or maybe Somebody Feed Phil but regardless, we knew we wanted to try it! It was exceptional. We had a quaint little table in the front room and enjoyed more stew, some delicious chicken with white truffles and Lance got a big pork chop. All delicious and served with lots of wine! Perfect night out.
Tuesday was moving day — our last one before our final trip back to Rome and to leave Italy…. Unbelievable that it has flown by so quickly and I’ve almost been here for three months. We packed up and said goodbye to Emily, met and thanked her landlord Mariolina, then got a taxi to the Santa Maria Novella station for our quick trip to Bologna. It has been raining a lot and the northeastern part of Italy has been having some pretty significant flooding. We weren’t too concerned about the city center in Bologna, but knew that the transportation system is having some troubles. We arrived easily and grabbed a taxi to our next VRBO. Our host was concerned to make sure we understood the weather advisories. We had a nice quiet couple of days, checking out Bologna, enjoying some delicious food in “la grassa” (that’s what the call Bologna — “the fat” — because it’s so food centric and considered the foodie capital of Italy. One meal, at a small local place called Trattoria Da Me was exceptional — I had a pasta dish that was one of the best of my time here. It was ravioli with a warm parmesan filling with sausage and a pea cream. It was delicious.
Our big day was Friday — last September, I booked a reservation for March 31st at Osteria da Francescana in Modena. This three Michelin starred restaurant is considered by critics to be the best in all of Italy. The chef, Massimo Bottura, is well known as a celebrity chef and pretty avant garde guy. When we moved our trip to accommodate Henry’s 2nd semester in Japan, I had to get a new reservation in November. Luckily, I was able to get one (yes, by staying up until 2am to book it Italy time). We wanted this meal to be our 25th anniversary present to each other and knew it would likely be the most expensive night we’d ever had. So we woke up in Bologna that morning and headed to Modena to check in for one night in a cute little VRBO nearby. We spent the rainy day wandering Modena and found it to be very cute and charming. We loved just strolling the streets and were able to find a spot for a Balsamic Vinegar tasting. Real balsamic vinegar comes from Modena. By about 6pm, we decided to head to the apartment to get ready for our big night.
The reservations were at 8pm and we were greeted warmly by the staff at the restaurant. The service the entire evening was impeccable — the nicest I’ve ever experienced. We had a celebratory glass of Franciacorta which is basically Italian champagne. We ordered a bottle of wine from Tuscany that was absolutely delicious. It was at the next moment, that we made an error that would bias us for the rest of the night. Instead of ordering traditional Italian a la carte, we decided to throw caution to the wind and order the tasting menu. This is Massimo’s vision and was just simply too complex and “different” for us. It was 12 courses – a small bites tasting menu. There were two courses I simply could not eat because I did not enjoy them at all. The rest were interesting but definitely not our style of food, way too complicated and with ingredients I didn’t know what they were, and the textures on some of them were way off. We figured this out about 4 courses into the menu and thought about asking to pivot but just didn’t have the courage. I wish we had. Always being the optimist and trying to find the sunshine in everything, I will say that the evening was exceptional just not what we expected. With the cost, it’s unlikely we would ever go back but if we did, I know for sure we’d have a lot of praise for the ala carte menu.
We wandered around Modena for a bit on Saturday, but it was raining and we did have our heavy backpack so we decided we’d come back another day and see more of this quaint city. So we hopped on a train back to Bologna. The train system in Italy is so helpful and usable. We haven’t really had any problems at all with taking trains — the timing generally works and we enjoy not having the responsibility of driving. After a quick shower and change, we headed out to explore more of Bologna though the rain continued. We expect some sunshine this coming week!
