Day 16

Italy 2011

Day 16

Our adventure today was so great that Shari said she could end our trip right now and be happy. We are calling it our 41^st wedding anniversary meal. Our Frommers’ guide, which we usually don’t listen to for places at which to dine, said this: “Foodies from all over travel to the unlikely village of Imola to savor the offerings of what some food critics, ourselves included, consider the best restaurant in Italy.” We made our required reservations weeks ago for a midday meal. We wore our best clothes and traveled by train to Imola late this morning. We went early to make sure we got there in time and could find the restaurant. We found it, and we had more than an hour to explore the small town. We absolutely loved it!!! It’s smaller than Lucca, but like Lucca, most everyone rides a bike for transportation….even old people. But the big difference is that this town has very few tourists and certainly no tour groups. In fact, our Frommers’ guide didn’t say a thing about the town except for the above about the restaurant, and Rick Steves doesn’t even mention the entire Bologna and Emilia-Romagna area. We suppose that’s a good thing, since we really dislike those big tour groups. We strolled around the town, and it was so beautiful and peaceful.  Here's the fort we found on our walk:

We arrived at our restaurant, San Domenico, at 12:30 when it opens. Here is a picture of it with the owner/world famous chef standing outside:

We were seated in a beautiful semi-private room. Right away we felt we were in Italian Food Heaven. We had two very friendly waiters giving us their full attention. They wore black pants, white shirts, black bow-ties, and black aprons. We chose the option where we paid one price for four courses that were pre-chosen and included all the wine and champagne that come match up with the various cour. They filled our glasses before they were even close to empty. Both waiters would come out at the same time….one carrying Shari’s plate and the other carrying Roberto’s.

The bread came with a covered dish of butter. When we took off the lid, we saw it had a coat of arms imbedded into the butter:

The first course was anchovies with green olive oil and a little ball of mashed potatoes with a delicious sauce.

The second course was risotto with lobster, scampi, and clams.

The third course, and this is when they switched us to red wine, was beef cheek, polenta, potato, and mushrooms with beans. Bob grew up with beef cheek, but Shari had never had it. It was so delicious! It was so tender it could be cut very easily with a fork.

For desert we had the most delicious pastries and something that is a cross between a mousse and a pudding. This was accompanied by a very smooth white dessert wine.  It’s hard to impress us with dessert as neither of us have a significant sweet tooth.

Even the bathrooms were the best we have ever been in. Everything was first class. This painting next to our table said it all.  (How much did I eat)

We agree this is the best food we have had in Italy, although the meal we had in Soriano on the first night of our cooking school last summer is almost equal.  

We took the 30-minute train ride back to Bologna and decided to climb the 500 steps to the top of the tallest tower in the city. There are actually two towers next to each other, but one was leaning so badly they had to cut off the top for safety reasons.

Inside Tower:

From Top of Tower:

The shorter tower is in lower left of picture above.