Good Food and Views are Worth the Journey
I knew nothing about Amarone so our visit to winemaker Nicolis this past April was a most enjoyable education particularly when accompanied by copious amounts of food and wine at dinner and a twilight walk in Verona. The tasting of good Amarone also debunked my view that this wine tends to be sweet. It was, in fact, one of the nicer red wines we tried on our wine tour of Italy.
After the rugged scenery of Sicily, we were back in the rolling hills and sculpted gardens of northern...
Had a cheerful and reasonably priced Amarone, the Nicolis Ambrosan 2007, with my dinner (minced lamb with eggs, pistachios and pine nuts from the Jerusalem cookbook by the Ottolenghi pair) tonight. Goes well with meat.
Given Tuscany’s medieval and renaissance jewels, visitors often overlook Italy’s other wine region Piedmont. But with its delicious Barolo and Barbaresco wines, super restaurants and sculpted vine covered hillsides, Piedmont is a worthy culinary and scenic destination especially since it’s within easy reach of Milan. Best of all, you can get a great meal and a fantastic room at prices well below that of comparable establishments in Milan and much of Tuscany.
I discovered...
For a Michelin one-star establishment, La Ciau del Tornavento packs a punch. The restaurant sits on a hilltop in the town of Treiso in Piedmont with the dining room opening up onto a fantastic view of the vine laden slopes and valley below. The cuisine takes Piedmont’s traditional dishes up a notch - largely recognisable, nothing foamy here. But best of all it has the most impressive wine collection I’ve ever seen with its cellar holding more than 38,000 bottles.
We came here on...
I won’t normally write about hotels but in this case, Palas Cerequio is a destination unto itself. Firstly, this luxury bed & breakfast is set amidst some of the world’s most famous Barolo vines - great landscape. Secondly, its airy and modern suites come with their own sauna or Turkish bath. And last but not least, this b&b possesses an amazing wine cellar full of the regional favourites to accompany the fine cooking provided on site. So, one could stay at the property an entire...