.,,Jim discovers Luigi. Now, Luigi makes "pizze d'asporto" ( take out). At first we were uncertain, but Jim learns he is from the amalfi area and cooks true Neapolitan style pizza. We decide to get some to go and have a picnic lunch on the harbor. We order two pizzas and when we tell him they look good he tells us in Italian that how do we know, we have not eaten them yet. We also get beer and prosecco to go with the pizzas (when was the last time you got prosecco with your Dominoes order?). We go down to the harbor and eat pizza with our feet dangling over the lake, watching the ducks and toasting the day. After we finished our lunch we stopped back by Luigi's so that I could tell him that now we had eaten the pizza and again we say " bravo!" We spend the afternoon playing scopa (an italIan card game) and enjoying the view from our balcony.
Wednesday. The boats are running, so we finish our morning routine and head to the ferry. On the ride over to Bellagio we heard a woman talking...we know that accent...is mom here somewhere....we meet Dorothy, a feisty 70ish woman from Brooklyn. She was married to a Jim ("God rest his soul" ) and is traveling by herself on her way to an Italian language class in Rome...she was a kick. We ate lunch in a trattoria named San Giacomo's. "The Mama" is there bring food to the table and all the while scowling at everyone...that is until she see Jim's first course plate when he is finished...she breaks into a grin and from that point forward we were golden. She adored him and his clean plates. When we left Jim got a kiss. We have eaten all we can in Bellagio and head back to Varenna for a relaxing end of the day and a little scopa. We are still full from lunch when dinner time rolls around and Jim decides we should visit Luigi again. Since he is only a take out establishment we sit at plastic tables outside his restaurant. But the pizza is good and the beer and prosecco are good....what more do we need. A young couple ( from New York...hmmm, is this some kind of sign?) joins us at the plastic table and the conversation only adds to the joy of the evening. Luigi tells us he is touched that Jim likes his pizza so much...Jim, his tummy and his clean plate philosophy are making friends all across Italy.
Thursday. We have to go to the post office to check on the package we sent from Volterra. We think it should have arrived in the US already and the online tracking site is not working. The woman is very helpful and we ultimately determined that the boat from Poste Italia is just a slow one. Jim takes our recyclables down to the local deposit site...Jim likes some good recycling! We have a quiet lunch at one of the harbor bars (can anyone say another Aperol spritz please?). And then for dinner we head back up the hill to chef Moreno's. They have been house hunting for us and have two prospects lined up... I'll be shooting off some emails on those! The meal is amazing (of course!) and we are full and "happy" ( what is the alcohol content of that Fragolino?) as they drive us back to our hotel. Tomorrow is a travel day so it's off to bed for us...ok maybe one hand of scopa.
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