From: Orta Nova
To: Foggia
Miles: 15
Total: 450
So another good pizzeria last night for dinner, although it didn’t open until 8:30 pm. John had a salad and a great margarita pizza and I had bruschetta and a cheese ravioli with sage, butter and ham. It was a wonderful dinner. We had a good sleep on full bellies.
Our B&B made us a nice “English breakfast” with fried eggs and bacon as well as some fresh croissants. As usual they had cereal too.
It was a fairly short walk out of town. Initially we were on a narrow but busy road. Once we got past that we were on a nice new double lane road with almost no traffic. It appeared to be a large industrial area. There was an aviation industry building as well as many other businesses along the way. As we got closer to town the road got busier and got narrower. With just under a five hour walk we ended up not stopping for lunch and were hungry and tired.
We got to the hotel that I had plugged in. It was the number one hotel on trip advisor although it was an older hotel. It had a restaurant attached to it as well. When we arrived the door was locked. I hit a button but no one answered. John saw another button that was more like a doorbell and someone that appeared to be a maid answered. At first she didn’t seem too interested in us. She didn’t speak any English and we couldn’t communicate at all In Italian.
John figured out enough to understand that a lady would be there in a few minutes to show us the rooms. When we went inside and saw that the couch in the lobby had no cushions we were already doubtful of staying at this hotel. We went upstairs and looked around and it was no better than the 30 euro rooms that we had stayed at in Greece and they wanted 65 euros.
I had looked at another hotel online last night that was brand new, cost 44 Euros like our last new hotel and it looked nice but I was concerned that the mattress may be too hard like the last new hotel that we stayed in. We decided after looking at the first hotel that we should go on and look at the new one.
We were very glad we did. The new hotel is nice and modern. It is also right in the middle of town. The lady at the desk was extremely helpful. We asked her where a good place to eat was nearby that was open and she pointed us to an Osteria, which is a simple inexpensive restaurant in Italy.
When we got to the restaurant it was completely full. That is always a good sign. After about five minutes or so we were seated at a table. There were a bunch of young high school age or maybe college aged people in the restaurant. The owner didn’t speak any English but after looking at the handwritten menu it was obvious it was a set menu for the day. You had a choice of a first course which was a pasta, and the second course which was a main or meat course. Included was water, soda or wine along with bread and a dessert.
John and I both had a really good cheese pasta and then a kabob with pork, grilled peppers and onions for the second course. The wine was a half liter of the house red wine and was very good. The bread was homemade and the desert was a chocolate tart.
Of course when we were done they brought us both some brandy and I had some grappa to wash it down. This was the type of wonderful Italian dinner I had expected in Italy and I hope to have many more. I hope everyone has a great Saturday!
