Restaurant-Dining Critiques

On our way driving up to the Le Tre Vaselle restaurant-hotel in Torgiano we stopped for lunch at a restaurant by a lake presumably Lake Trasimeno. I have forgotten the name of the restaurant. In fact, I can’t remember what I had for lunch, although I will always remember drinking the best bottle of rose-tinted Pinot Grigio I have ever had the pleasure to drink, made increasingly better by the intense heat, while dining on the shaded terrace on that very hot day. So good, that I had to order another bottle when one would have sufficed; it was plunged into the ice bucket straight-away.
The village of Torgiano has been made famous due to the wines produced by Dr. Lungarotti. The village is surrounded with vineyards set in the hills.
The 17th century building of Le Tre Vaselle is within the medieval walls of Torgiano, a peaceful village set in the heart of the Umbrian countryside. Its warm hospitality, elegant decor and exquisite cuisine are reminiscent of the aristocratic country houses of times past, and offer an ideal environment for those wishing to have excellent accommodations, an outstanding restaurant and beautiful wines grown and produced in the area surrounding the hotel and restaurant. Maria Grazia and Giorgio Lungarotti established the Museo del Vino, which is dedicated to wine; the Lungarotti winery is one of the most important in Italy. The restaurant offers game and black truffles in season, the superb Chianina beef and pike and perch from Lake Trasimeno, in addition all produce is supplied from the Lungarotti estate and of course, we cannot forget the Wines—and the cellar contains an abundance of Lungarotti’s rare, older vintages.

Restaurants around the vicinity of Torgiano:

Città della Pieve (21 km)

Il Pinzimonio, In San Litardo (3.5 km north towards Po Bandino): (0578 298105) It is a good value restaurant with a pizzeria, popular with locals. Closed Tuesday.
Restaurant, Trattoria Tawny, V. Vannucci, 135  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578298108 Fax +39  Closed Monday
Restaurant the Flour Mill Of Drago, Str. St. 71, 54  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578222170  Closed Monday
Restaurant 27 Pinzimonio, S.S.71 - Loc. S. Litardo  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578298105  Closed Tuesday
Restaurant Arches, It V. Stradone, 105  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578294303  Closed Wednesday
Restaurant The Source Of The Folletto, Str. Stat. 71 North, 15 Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578298752  Closed Tuesday
Nardelli Restaurant, via G. Di Vittorio, 62 Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578248081 Fax +39 057824807  Closed Tuesday
Small restaurant Eden via S.Lucia, 53 Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578297065 Fax +39 0578297066  Closed Tuesday
Restaurant, Trattoria Serenella, V. Fiorenzuola, 28  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578299683  Closed Wednesday
Taverna Restaurant of the Perugino, V. Vannucci, 37  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578298848  Closed Monday
Vannucci Restaurant, via Icilio Vanni, 1  Citta’ della Pieve (Perugia) Tel. +39 0578299572 Fax +39 0578298063  A typical Umbrian kitchen; Closed Friday

Other villages in close proximity:

Panicale (13 km)

Lillotatini, Piazza Umberto I 13–14  Top end of the main square. Good restaurant presented properly. Booking usually necessary.
Masolino, Via del Filaoio 4 (075 837 151)
Le Grotte di Boldrini (075 837 161)  Outside the West gate.

Piegaro (16.5 km)

Il Mondo Antico, Via G Garibaldi 1/a (075 835 8351) – in old town, 100 m from top gate. Friendly service and the restaurant is surrounded by antiquity.
Da Elio, on SS220, 0.5 km from Piegaro junction towards Tavernelle (075 835 8017) Typical Italian restaurant, friendly staff and good food. Excellent value.

Paciano (18 km)

Il Casale, In Cereto (2 km off road westwards, follow signs from the main road) (075 830 465) worth finding it; the terrace looks over the hills towards Lake Trasimeno. Very good food, booking is essential. Closed Wednesdays.

Lake Trasimeno

Advance bookings suggested
L’Acquario, Via Vittorio Emanuele 69 (075 965 2432)
La Cantina (075 965 2463)
La Fontana It is attached to the Miralago Hotel. The terrace looks over the lake. Good food.
A.Z. Bar Ristorante Pizzeria Excellent home made pasta dishes. Via Roma 25 Tel/Fax +39-075-953326
San Feliciano (28 km) East side of the lake
Da Settimio (075 847 6000) Good restaurant specializing in fish dishes. Excellent view of the lake. Closed Thursdays.
Below: La Tre Vaselle

S. Marco, 1323
30124 Venezia (VE), Italy
+39 041 5285777
Website: www.cipriani.com
Opening Hours:
Credit Cards: All Major
Prices: Very Expensive

Harry’s Bar is an institution and has always been a hangout and haven for Americans as diverse as Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, and more recently Woody Allen. Hemingway was a regular from the late forties forward and some of the scenes in his novel Across the River and into the Trees took place at Harry’s Bar. This probably partially influenced the decision of Arrigo Cipriani, who is the son of the founder Giuseppe Cipriani, to post a sign recently, giving notice that every American will be entitled to a 20% discount on all consumables until the financial, sub-prime mortgage crisis is over. An honorable gesture, everything considered.

The bar and ristoranti that brought to the Italian culinary repertoire the Bellini and Carpaccio along with expected steep prices and special services catering to the patrons, which might have included carrying the Aga Khan to the table in his own armchair, where he proceeded to gulp down Beluga caviar whole without even bursting a single egg with his teeth.

As the story goes, an American student named Harry Cushing was strapped for cash and asked Giuseppe Cipriani the barman at the Europa Hotel in Venice for 10,000 lire ($6,000 today). He then disappeared, leaving Cipriani worried that he might never see his money again. However, the American returned in February 1930, and he not only repaid Cipriani but offered to put up 40,000 lire more and said, “We can now open a bar and call it Harry’s”.

Giuseppe Cipriani opened Harry’s Bar in Venice in 1931 directly on the St Mark’s bay waterfront. He also made famous a drink, the Bellini, a mixture of white peach juice and sparkling prosecco, named after the fifteenth-century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini. The dish is Carpaccio of beef, a plate of trimmed wafer-thin sirloin drizzled with a blend of mayonnaise and lemon juice, which was invented for an Italian Contessa who was on a diet free of cooked meat. It too was created by Giuseppe and was also named after an Italian painter, Vittore Carpaccio, who was famous for using colors in deep red hues.

The clientele’s motive for returning so often was not that they expected marvelously innovative culinary experimentation, just Italian classic cuisine, properly cooked and presented.

Recommended dishes & drinks include:
Carpaccio alla Cipriani, Scampi all’Armoricaine, Trippa alla Parmigiana
Bellini, Whisky Sour, Martini