Food

So it was time to leave Bologna, we had a good time, and great pasta - but there was still more to come! I had read about this cool little place on the internets and convinced a friend to ring up and reserve us lunch there (in Italiano). This place was about 4.5 hrs drive from Bologna and only 30 mins from Monaco, but still just in Italy.

It is called La Vecchia Ostaia and it is a little town called San Biagio della Cima (closed on Wednesday’s). Basically this lady (La Mamma) cooks everything and it is awesomely awesome. I had read about her pastas and a rabbit in red wine reduction, so when we got there we decided to go for a degustation menu. Degustation makes it sound fancy, but it was some small town (maybe 50 houses) on a hilly in random Italy countryside - it wasn’t fancy but it was delicious. Worth the drive.

I took a photo of the menu because I knew we would forget what we had.

We did prepare for this meal by practically skipping breakfast, and having a light dinner the night before. And boy did we need that preparation.

First up, bread and salumi. Bread is a rookies mistake - fills you up too quickly, but we did have a taste and it was fresh and moreish (but we stuck to 1 piece). The salumi was nice, but the potato salad in the middle was even better. Creamy and light and not enough - wanted more!

Next up were some specialty appetisers - from left to right - an eggplant concoction on top of garlic-like bread, pizza slices, and a rice pilaf morsel. All of these were delicious.

But wait, there’s more - then the guy brought out the second round - a spinach-omlette and cheese in the centre portion, and capsicum with a polenta topping. At this point we were glad we hardly ate breakfast.

Next up was the pasta - two pastas to share - one a sage and butter one, and the other a ragu. But I only seem to have photos of the sage pasta.

But wait - there’s more - mains! These were fried lamb chops, the famous rabbit and salad.

Both of these were crazy awesome - but there is more!

They had a dessert cart and we decided on two similar looking, but different tasting desserts. Mine had creme/vanilla/custard in the middle, Ben had apple in one, pineapple in the other.

Outside the place there was a cool stream with baby ducks - if you squint you might see them!

This was a great way to finish off Italy - tasty pasta, friendly service, and on to Monaco.

We arrived at the Hotel Metropole in Monaco and our car and bags were quickly swept away and we were ushered to check in and shown straight to our room. We had a outside patio with loungers and a table, and a huge bathroom. This place was pretty nice.

It was fairly hot, so we headed up to the pool for a swim and a drink, and spent the next few hours there. Our lunch was so huge there was no need for dinner, so we just headed on back down to our room after a few nice hours by the pool.