Bologna, Italy Day Off Part Two
Friday, June 10, 2005
Back at the hotel, we head out to find some food minus our production manager, who has work to do. We walk for about 15min till we find the Piazza Maggiore, a large square with restaurants and a large church. We walk around in search of a restaurant and find out nothing opens till 8pm, we have about an hour to kill. Walk around some more, go through strange side streets with fish markets and produce stands with things none of us can identify. Bump into other members of the crew who hip us to a good restaurant nearby. We find it, but still have 30min before it opens, so we settle in to a nearby cafe for sodas, beer and appetizers.
At 8pm we walk into Franco Rossi's Ristorante. It's very small only 6 or so tables on the ground floor. Staff is very attentive and give us English menus and suggest that we allow them to bring us a few selections of certain dishes. Sounds good to me!! We start off with two types of pasta: pumpkin tortellini and egg noodles Bolognese. The meat course is first sea bass with lemon, and then steak with balsamic vinegar and a portabella mushroom. Then the dessert of various peach and strawberry gelatos, with chocolate sauce. After, we get expresso with assorted cookies. I forgot to mention ever course comes with a different wine, even though I didn't have any the wine smelled great.
During dinner we notice the John Grisham book 'The Broker' is features prominently in the decor of the restaurant. We inquire, and are told Mr. Grisham ate there while researching for the book and ended up using the restaurant and owner in the book. Wow, very cool!!
After we're stuffed we ask the owner Franco to take a photo with us along with the wait staff. We are ready to leave, but Franco insists we come back in for a Limoncello after dinner liqueur.
We had intended to get some Gelato on the street after dinner, but we are too stuffed to even think about it. We decide to walk to a bar (pub) nearby instead. On the way there is a strange semi-marching band on the sidewalk playing The Tokens 'Lion Sleeps Tonight' to a large crowd. We listen for a few minutes then head to the pub off the Piazza Maggiore. Everyone at the pub is wearing U.A.U. shirts which stands for 'United Against Ugliness'. Not sure it's true meaning, but we thought it was rather funny.
Around midnight Geoff and I head back to the hotel after stopping in the Piazza to watch a couple of jugglers toss flaming batons and make jokes in Italian to another large crowd. back at the hotel, off to bed as we have an 8am call. It has been a pretty busy half day off, I think...
At 8pm we walk into Franco Rossi's Ristorante. It's very small only 6 or so tables on the ground floor. Staff is very attentive and give us English menus and suggest that we allow them to bring us a few selections of certain dishes. Sounds good to me!! We start off with two types of pasta: pumpkin tortellini and egg noodles Bolognese. The meat course is first sea bass with lemon, and then steak with balsamic vinegar and a portabella mushroom. Then the dessert of various peach and strawberry gelatos, with chocolate sauce. After, we get expresso with assorted cookies. I forgot to mention ever course comes with a different wine, even though I didn't have any the wine smelled great.
During dinner we notice the John Grisham book 'The Broker' is features prominently in the decor of the restaurant. We inquire, and are told Mr. Grisham ate there while researching for the book and ended up using the restaurant and owner in the book. Wow, very cool!!
After we're stuffed we ask the owner Franco to take a photo with us along with the wait staff. We are ready to leave, but Franco insists we come back in for a Limoncello after dinner liqueur.
We had intended to get some Gelato on the street after dinner, but we are too stuffed to even think about it. We decide to walk to a bar (pub) nearby instead. On the way there is a strange semi-marching band on the sidewalk playing The Tokens 'Lion Sleeps Tonight' to a large crowd. We listen for a few minutes then head to the pub off the Piazza Maggiore. Everyone at the pub is wearing U.A.U. shirts which stands for 'United Against Ugliness'. Not sure it's true meaning, but we thought it was rather funny.
Around midnight Geoff and I head back to the hotel after stopping in the Piazza to watch a couple of jugglers toss flaming batons and make jokes in Italian to another large crowd. back at the hotel, off to bed as we have an 8am call. It has been a pretty busy half day off, I think...
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