Zamboni, Bella Vista, Switzerland

Well, I have really not been doing my part in keeping up with this blog, but this is our last morning at La Cappuccina, we head down to Asti in a couple hours and I don't know what our internet service will be like for the rest of the trip, so I will try to squeeze a lot into this post.

1. Trattoria Zamboni: We stayed at Trattoria Zamboni in Arcugnano, just outside of Vicenza for one week. We worked from 10:00am-midnight 3 days while we were there. The ingredients used were interesting. The first day we worked, we went out the garden and picked a wheel barrel full of Broccoli, cleaned it all, prepped, blanched, etc. so we thought we were in for a local chef's dream. We butchered some local Guinea Fowl, and Ducks, a large amount of each. It seemed as though they were going to have 100 people for lunch and dinner everyday with the amount of prep we did for each item.. They used some very fresh ingredients, but then they froze everything in small batches and thawed it out during service. The meat, vegetables, fish, everythins was prepped in large quantities then frozen. The meat was from Argentina & Ireland, they got in fish once/week, vegetables were once/ week, etc etc. It was an interesting method, it seemed as though they cared about family meal more than serving customers. Family meal happened everyday at noon and 6:00pm. There were about 10-12 employees, we all sat down together with wine, pasta, meat, vegetables, beer, dessert each meal. Each meal lasted about an hour, then we went back and got ready for service which was a bit like a fire drill. They had parties of a certain number of people, but as each course went out, they did not count out plates, food was plated until they were told that everyone in the dining room was fed. Very disorganized. They were, however, very friendly and let us in to their family as though we were one of them. They spoke in a specific dialect for the area of Veneto, and nobody spoke English, so it was very tricky to understand anything for the first few days. It is difficult for Italians to understand them, so you can imagine how we were. There were a few good dishes that I got from there. There was a Mascarpone and Gorgonzola whipped chese on a crostino, a roasted Guinea Fowl leg, and a Pappardelle pasta with ground rabbit, dried tomatoes, and black olives. The biggest thing we got out of Zamboni was the feeling of family comes first, work is just something that also has to be done. A far different atmosphere than we are used to.

While we were at Zamboni, we had the opportunity to visit some other places in the area. We went to Venice for a day and did the tourist thing. We spent a couple days in Vicenza, Verona, and some of the surrounding lakes. We also had an appointmet set up at Bella Vista in Franciacorta. We were looking forward to this the whole trip, anyone who has had the Bella Vista at Panzano or Tomasso knows exactly why. It is one of our favorite bubblies in the world. The estate was gorgeous, very large, much bigger scale than you would imagine from a wine that is so good. They make over 1 million bottles of wine every year, and they are all of amazing quality. The tour was a bit overwelming trying to piece together how they keep track of everything. The cellar went on for miles with bottle after bottle on racks just calling for us to drink them. Alberto Chioni was the tour guide/taster. He told us of the history of the company, the strict Franciacorta guidelines, showed us the "Beautiful View" (Bella Vista) which was somewaht less impressive with the fog that blanketed everything. Then we shared a bottle of the Brut. Alberto said that the worst tasting Bella Vista is always drank there, because it is taken directly from the cellar whereas anywhere else has more time to age. Bella Vista is a sparkling wine that gets better with age because of its complexity. We didn't listen, it tasted just as amazing as we always remember it.

The Switzerland border is only about an hour from where we are staying now, so we took a trip out there last Wednesday because I had never been there. We drove across the border, literally without stopping. Border laws are slightly more laid back in Europe than in the US. We were met there by the Swiss Alps. Absolutely Amazing. The range went on as far as you could see, and the mountains were all covered by snow. It was a perfectly sunny day, so we could see everything very clearly. Everywhere you looked seemed like the most beautiful view in the world. We must have overdone it with the pictures because everything looked like a postcard. Of course, when you look at the pictures they are pretty, but do not do the views any justice. We drove all the way to Zermatt, which looked on the map to be the biggest city close to the border of Italy. We arrived at the foot of the Mountain which led up to Zermatt and began to climb up following the GPS' directions. The roads were very narrow and windy, and not much traffic, only a few cars here and there, but mostly golf carts. We got to the top and started looking for a place to park. There was not a single parking place in the whole town. It's not that they were all taken, there were not other cars...anywhere. Everyone in the streets was looking at us like we were crazy, but we get that everywhere we go, so thought nothing of it. We did the loop through the town and started to exit to maybe find parking further down. There we were greeted by a Swiss Police Officer who set up a road block. Apparently driving in the town of Zermatt is strictly prohibited and the signs (in swiss german) told us so before we entered. He was a bit amuzed by us and our complete ignorance, but that did not protect us from having to pay a 70 euro fine ($105) cash before we were allowed to leave. It was only humerous about 20 minutes or so after we had been driving away. We decided we just wanted to stop for lunch and head back. Apparently in Switzerland, everything closes and you cannot get any food after 1:00. that was not in our favor considering it was now 3:00. We stopped and had a beer, went to the grocery store and bought some local salami, and chocolate that we ate in the car, then climbed the Alps all the way back to Italy with our tails between our legs. The view was a bit less magestical during the beginning of our 2 hour drive back through the Alps, but again, the breathtaking sights overwhelmed us and the fine and hunger were mere afterthoughts. I posted some of the pictures, but they in no way paint the whole picture. I have to wrap it up now, we are packing up our things thie morning and heading down to Asti. We have an appointment before that at a gorgonzola factory, then we are off to Noceto Michelotti, followed by Erbaluna, Falstaff, Vajra, Campanaro, Enotecca Bisson, and anything else we can find in between before we head back to Umbria for Christmas with the family. The next time we have internet I will update on our visit to Cappuccina.