June 5, 15 deg, Fine weather
Livigno is a small Italian Alpine village nestled just on the Italian side of the Swiss Alps. We approached it from Switzerland on this day as the Swiss border is only 30 km from Sondrio (our base) . This road, for most of the year impassable due to the altitude, approximately 2800m above sea level and at least 10m of snow covering the road during winter. Lucky for us the road has reopened recently and we drove through, although at one point about three metres of ice was still on the roadside - allora! Summer in Italy!
All the Italians (and every one else) love Livigno, not only because of the great skiing in winter but because for some reason unknown to me, all goods here are duty free.
We drive through the Swiss border. The vista, to say the least, is spectacular! Around every turn another surprise. Mark wishes he had his BMW with him but instead we are in a Ford Fiesta!
It is no surprise that the menu at the restaurant of Bivio Hotel - www.bivioholydays.com consists mostly of polenta and game meat- good warming tucker.
We shared a plate of handmade gnocchetti with a fresh pesto sauce and speck - delightfully light and flavoursome of fresh basil - it tasted like it had just been made specially for us!
I settled though for some Vatellina bresaola served simply and deliciously with vine ripened tomato and parmesan. Mark surrendered to the buckwheat polenta, cheese and wild mushrooms. Have I mentioned how good the porcini mushrooms are in this part of the world?
Yet another bottle of superb red wine from Antinori - Castello della sala - a Pinot nero from Umbria 2000. It is tough job but someone has to do it !
No comments:
Post a Comment