Back to Italy and to Padua. We’d spent most of our first full day in Padua not in that city but in Venice, taking the train out in the morning and back in the evening. We ate cicchetti for lunch in Venice on that day (and dinner back in Padua at Ai Scarponi). We ate cicchetti again for lunch on our second day which we actually spent entirely in Padua. In the morning we walked in the rain to the Scrovegni Chapel where we took in the famous Giotto frescoes. It’s a pretty regimented experience (make sure to arrive at the time printed on your reservation) but it’s quite something to behold. You’d think that well into our third week in Italy we’d be frescoed out, but no. After the chapel we walked over to Frascoli, a popular bacaro, for lunch. It’s a much larger establishment than Bacaro Risorto, and they serve a larger menu beyond cicchetti. It’s the cicchetti we focused on though. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Padua
Osteria Ai Scarponi (Padua, July 2023)
Back to Italy, back to Padua. We ate dinner at Enotavola Pino on our first night in Padua. We enjoyed that meal so much that we were tempted to go back right away. However, we had reservations on the second night at Osteria Ai Scarponi, which had been recommended on Twitter by a resident of Padua. And so after getting back from a day in Venice and resting for a few hours we set out for Ai Scarponi. We arrived right after they opened at 7.30 to find a small restaurant with a narrow dining room. At first we thought our reservation might not have been necessary after all but it filled up in very short order. As far as we could make out the clientele was mostly locals and it had the feel of a neighbourhood restaurant. We had a table right by the kitchen, at the end of the dining room, and quickly got down to business. Continue reading
Enotavola (Padua, July 2023)
And so to the last leg of our Italian vacation, which took us from San Gimignano back to Florence to drop off our rental car and then by train to Padua. We had originally hoped that we’d return to Mercato Centrale again for lunch after dropping our bags off at the train station. But the bag drop was a bit of a disaster and so we ate (more than acceptable) sandwiches at the station and waited patiently for our train. We also hadn’t made dinner plans in Padua—the idea having been that we’d be gorged from lunch and would just pick up some salumi and bread from a market. But a lighter lunch meant we were now in the mood for proper dinner. I did a spot of googling and lighted on Enotavola (or Enotavola Pino, as they’re referred to in most places other than their own website and restaurant signage). A very fortuitous find as this was one of our favourite meals on the whole Italy trip. Continue reading