February 2020 seems like a long time ago . . . not so much measured in days but how different things were in in “before times”. February was right on the cusp between an awareness of a virus in a small area of China and a deadly global pandemic. On our tip to Italy in February 2020 I remember finding it curious that there was a temperature check at the airport and there was a sign on a pharmacy stating that “Surgical masks were sold out” but we had know idea what was about to happen.
Our 10 day trip through Milan, Como, Vernona, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome started with a magical dinner experience by Lake Como that I will never forget.
We landed in Milan airport after an overnight flight from Houston via Amsterdam. These were cheap tickets that we had scored via Scots Cheap Flights the previous August. It must have been a good flight with plenty of sleep as I don’t recall feeling tired as we got our rental car and headed north to Lake Como. Our destination was a restaurant based on a small farm where the food is sourced. My wife had been there before several years back and now the place had expanded to include 4 guest rooms on site.
Getting to the place was part of the experience: You could not get there without a car or with a car! Lake Como is a beautiful area with farms and vacation homes but very little, if any, public transport. We drove up a small highway until we found the village that was closest to the restaurant. We drove through the small town and started up the hill on a road that got steadily more narrow with stone walls on one side and a drop off on the other. I was following the GPS with white knuckles while my wife was searching on-line for written directions. About the same time I decided I could go much further as the road became more of a dirt path, my wife found a review from previous guest stating that there was no car access. The road was too narrow to turn around (despite a comic attempt) so I backed up the car ~500 feet to a small parking area we had pasted. It looked like it was an unofficial parking area for hikers and there were no signs indicating it was private . . . and I wanted the hell out of that car. We unloaded our bags and started the trek up the way we had attempted to drive.
We had crossed through a gate and were walking on the now dirt path using the GPS to put us on the direction of the place when we heard a car coming up from behind. It was the owner of the place (and the cook). She explained that we should have called her for a ride and she would have picked us up. We climbed in her car and took a bouncing, physics defying, short ride up to the place. We drove up through her farm passing by, I assume, the rabbits that were to be our dinner later. We checked in and, as far as we could tell, we were the only guests staying in the row of rooms just outside the main house. We were told that dinner was at 8pm in the separate dining room just up the garden.
The dinning room was a smallish room with few tables and a kitchen to the side through a swinging door. Very quickly I realized that this was going to be different than a typical restaurant experience. It felt like we were in a family living room but with all the furniture removed to make room for various sized tables and chairs, the handful of people already there seemed like regulars who knew each other and the staff, and when I say “staff” I think it was mostly the family that owned the place.
We were seated at a table in the corner and immediately presented with bread, olive oil, and two carafes of wine; red & white. We were greeted by the same person that had given us a ride earlier in the day - a lot of this is assumption but I think she was the boss and chef, her husband was labor, her daughter (with some friends), and her father was in charge of drinks (both serving and consuming).
There was no menu but over the next 3+ hours we were presented with multiple courses of food starting with cured meats, cheeses, and olives and moving through the courses to include salads, pickled vegetables, rabbit served with potatoes & roasted root vegetables, and cake selection for desert. The food was excellent and the wine carafes never got empty but the highlight of the meal was the atmosphere and the people. Through the course of the evening the “staff” joined the customers and the wine flowed. A guitar and accordion came out and the place burst into song. One large table was celebrating a birthday party so then the whole place was celebrating. She received a gift of a new shirt and changed in to it while standing on a chair and soaking in the cheers from the room. She then went around hugging and kissing everyone (us included) saying thank you. I think it was at this point when then owner announced that she was turning in for the night and the father of the owner decided it was time for a special drink. He went into a cupboard, brought out the grappa, and poured glasses for everyone. The music and song started back up but as it got closer to midnight the long travel and jet lag hit us and we decided to turn in for the night. We could still hear the faint sounds on song as we fell asleep in our room.
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