Italy Walk Day 3

All About The Food

Breakfast sweets baked by Isabella at the agritourismo

For the first few days of our trip, Betsy and I had been joking that we were under a food curse. We had some seriously bad food in Venice, and it was hit and miss after we first started the walking holiday around Lake Maggiore. However, that’s all changed. The food we’ve had the past two days has been anything but a curse…it’s been amazing.

Dining room of the agritourismo

We said goodbye to Isabella Sunday morning and set out for the walk leading us to the top of Mt. Mottarone. Meeting her and spending time on their farm was a real highlight so far.

The farmland around the agritourismo

We retraced our route back to the Funiva to ride up to the top of the mountain. Yes, there was a path described as hard, and in retrospect we wish we would have taken it. Honestly, it wasn’t our intention to book a medium to hard walking holiday. That’s not how it was described in the initial material. However, once we paid and reserved and received the route notes, two of the days were described as hard, but it was possible to ease them a bit by taking the Funiva up Mottarone. That’s what we’ve done, though we still walked about four or five miles each day. Plus, there was some very steep walking Sunday both to the hotel and to Alpyland.

View from Funiva (cable car)

As we were walking Sunday, a long line of sports cars passed by. It was impressive and we figured they were heading to a car show. Turns out the car show was at the top of the mountain. The cars were parked there when we exited the Funiva.

We walked up a hill to our hotel to get rid of our backpacks. This time our luggage was there and had even been carried up the stairs to our room.

Villa Pizzini is a refurbished hunting lodge. It’s now a small hotel, just five guest rooms, a fantastic, Michelin-star quality restaurant and an event space.

Our room had a little seating area and they provided water and some meringues, which Betsy said were delicious. Once we made our nest and freshened up, we headed to Alpyland, which features a bobsled type roller coaster. We had been looking forward to this for days, but after seeing it, we did get some butterflies.

The track starts at the top of the mountain and speeds downhill. Well, it speeds as fast as you are willing to go. The person seated in the back controls the breaks. That was me. You don’t want to go too slowly because it messes up the ride for the people behind you, and can even be dangerous. But, going super fast is scary.

It’s almost our turn and we really are scared. But the ride was incredible. So much fun. Plenty of screaming and laughter.

We decided to take the chair lift down and back, too. On a clear day, the views would have been amazing, but clear weather has not been on our agenda.

Another look at the bobsled ride from the chair lift

Betsy on the edge of the world. There are huge mountains behind her hidden by all that fog.

Us with the Italian flag

Ah, the food

After Alpyland, we went back to the hotel and had a nap, which was wonderful. Then it was time for dinner. And oh what a dinner it was. The restaurant and hotel are run by husband and wife, Ivan and Sabine. He runs the front of the house, serves as sommelier and she is the chef.

We were welcomed with some pink trout caught by fly-fishing in the River Toce, where we walked a couple of days ago.

This mushroom dish was incredible. All of the mushrooms are foraged nearby, even some from right out in the yard. This dish included chanterelles, porcinis and other mushrooms prepared in several ways, plus a mushroom terrine, some riced turnips and an egg yolk that had been breaded and fried and was still perfectly runny when you cut into it.

The consomme was an intense porcini mushroom broth and included fresh pasta stuffed with porcini mushrooms. The broth was earthy and delicious. We could have eaten a bowl of just the broth and been so happy. The butter just behind the bowl had been made one day earlier.

 Betsy’s happy face. No one loves mushrooms more than Betsy. And at long last, her taste has returned from the neck radiation. She was able to taste and savor everything, from start to finish.

We opted for wine pairings with our dinner. We explained to Ivan that Betsy has been unable to drink most wines since her treatment last year. The radiation caused sensitivity to anything spicy or acidic. So, we were asking about just having something sparkling for her. He did serve us a delicious sparkling wine as a welcome to the restaurant. However, he said he was up to the challenge to pair a different wine with her dishes, wines that would not be too acidic. He did a masterful job at that. For the first time in almost two years, Betsy was able to enjoy a taste of several different wines paired perfectly with her food. The one pictured above was a special treat he offered us. It’s a 20-year-old wine that had a slight musty nose at first, which he told us it would when he opened it, but after sitting for a while and being swirled in the glass, it was delicious.

And then came dessert. It included crushed pistachios, a hazelnut cream and coffee ice cream. It was fantastic.

Today, we’re going to walk back up to Alpyland for another thrilling ride down the mountain, and then start our walk to Lake Orta. Except for fog as our constant companion, this walk has been magnificent. Three more days to go!