Verona, Sirmione & Bologna; Where I ate and what I saw on a 5 day trip
Oh hello International travel! How I’ve missed you…
The trip that was booked before covid was a word, finally happened, which all stemmed from my mum wanting to go to the opera at the Verona Arena to see Jonas Kauffman in action. Although, sadly for mum, there was no Jonas, (due to him performing last year when Italy still had the five day quarantine rule - we were only going for six!) we settled for a Jonas free La Travaita, and extended our trip to Bologna.
Eating traditional food on holiday, especially in Italy can be a bit stressful for me because I get worried that heat and hunger will get the better of me and I’ll fall into a tourist trap. I always seek out the nonna’s kitchen vibe, so anything less just won’t do. I wanted to document the lovely things we saw and the tasty (and traditional) places we ate for future trips, as a reminder for me, and (hopefully) of help to you. So here’s a run down of the great things we ate, and saw in Verona, Sirmione (Lake Garda) and Bologna.
First up, if you’re an opera fan, or just like to dabble in the culture, I recommend you visit Verona Arena. Listening to the sopranos, tenors and baritones sing their hearts out in the open air under the stars, from hugely impressive and highly decorated sets is an experience that is hard to describe. My mums word for it was ‘sublime’, which sums it up well.
Verona Arena, Piazza Bra
Day 1
After being up at 4.45am for our flight, arriving into Verona at around 11.30 and then finding the place to collect the keys for our apartment for the next 3 nights, it was fair to say we were very hungry by lunch time.
We arrived at Osteria Ciottolo at around 2pm, welcomed with a smile, and told we have to be fast as they were closing for siesta time at 3pm. This was fine by us, we were starving.
We ordered: antipasti of local cured meats and cheese, which at the time we didn’t realise came with fried polenta, pickles, honey and orange jam. We also ordered a mixed salad, a lasagne and 1/4 litre of ‘house white’. We asked for it all to arrive at the same time, not because of the time constraint but this is how we like to eat, a bit of this and that, all at the same time.
When my sister Julie started to pour the wine and we could see that it was fizzy, realising the ‘house white’ was actually Prosecco at 3 euro per quarter litre (!) and the food started to arrive, I squealed with happiness and gratitude to finally be here on this trip.
The helpful waiter explained the sharing board to us in Italian, we caught a few things. It was the usual mortadella, prosciutto, speck, and a salami that I didn’t catch the name of, with two local cheeses. Picking at this with the polenta, salad, honey, jam, breads on the table with oil and balsamic was a dream, but the highlight was the lasagne.
Being in Emilia Romagna, the northern region of Italy, pasta dishes are cooked differently from region to region based on local produce, or even restaurant to restaurant. This lasagne had little or (I think) no tomato, but very creamy, cheesy and with chewy bits where it’s caught on the tray (my favourite bits.) This was one of the best portions of lasagne I’ve had. It had that very stable, slab like quality to it, not runny nor overly saucy.
Instead of eating dessert at Ciottolo, we walked around the city and eyed up a few Gelateria’s, choosing Gelateria Patagonia down a very pretty shopping street just off Piazza Bra. We walked to the piazza and enjoyed our ice cream on a bench in the shade of the park area, overlooking the arena.
That night was the night at the opera, and in light of our late lunch and later ice cream, we grabbed some lovely slices of pizza with (more) prosciutto from forneria Mazzini before heading back to Piazza Bra, this time to the arena for a night of splendour.
Day 2
We needed to source our own breakfast due to staying in an apartment. We hunted via Google maps and on foot for local bakeries, all the ones we found had only many varieties of bread, but we fancied pastries too.
En route, we came across a beautiful arch that we took a moment to stare at. That arch turned out to be a doorway to a beautiful supermarket, Supermercato Eurospa Manin, across two levels, including a bakery, meat counter and amazing cheese selection. We filled our basket with freshly sliced mortadella, another selection of ham, a fresh loaf, croissants, cheese, tomatoes, peaches and nectarines, and headed back to our dining table to have the breakfast of queens.
After some time chatting about the lovely night we had, we set off in 41 degree heat to walk in the shade around beautiful Verona. From our apartment situated two minutes away from the arena, we headed up Via Giuseppe Mazzini perusing the high end shops set within the most beautiful buildings with intricate carvings and frescos, criss crossing between more exclusive streets, with marble and patterns made of brass within the floor.
We headed to Piazza delle Erbe where we scoured the markets in the square, visited more shops (mainly the ones with air conditioning to cool down for 5 minutes) and took photos of buildings, the statue of Dante in Piazza dei Signori, then onwards through more backstreets onto Cattedrale Di Santa Maria Matricolare. At this point we’d reached boiling point and needed more than a few minutes, plus a cool drink indoors.
We came across Pasticceria Caffetteria Al Duomo, a beautifully traditional cafe with a wooden and marble counter selling coffee and cake. We had a perfect caffe freddo and sat in the room with air conditioning. I’m saving the stunning garden area for a later trip in a cooler month!
On the walk back to the apartment we stopped at the river on Ponte Pietra, walked via the Scaliger Tombs and Casa di Romeo, both of which you view from the street, and unlike Juliette’s balcony, there is no queue or masses of tourists for Romeo! Perhaps because of it’s quieter area. If it wasn’t for the plaque on the wall you wouldn’t know (and obviously it’s not real, it’s just another nice looking building to look at.) Ice cream number two was devoured back in Piazza dei Signori, this time from Gelateria Impero.
For our evening meal, we headed to the very traditional Hosteria Vecchia Fontanina where we shared more local delights; octopus served with polenta with salad to start, followed by tagliatelle with rabbit ragu and basil pesto. These dishes aren’t for everyone, but when I talk about traditional Italian food with local dishes to the area, this is what I’m talking about. Dishes that I wouldn’t make at home, that remind me of trips to Italy with my family when I was younger.
The dessert menu was divine, no tiramisu here, so I asked our larger than life waiter his recommendation, which was the amaretto parfait with hot chocolate sauce. This was absolutely delicious, not overly sweet, sooo creamy and with a full punch of amaretto.
Mum had the creme brûlée with mint and black pepper which was a taste sensation.
Day 3
We headed to the picturesque town of Sirmione on Lake Garda, via bus. Google maps had guided us well for the whole trip, the only time it let us down was telling us the wrong stop to get on the bus to the lake. The bus drove straight past us, and we had to walk to the next stop about 15 mins away and wait for another hour for the next one… La Dolce Vita!
Despite the faff to get there, it was well worth it. What a gorgeous town with stunning views and walks along the lake. Sirmione’s peninsula is its USP; the ability to view the lake from all sides gives it extra beauty.
We were greeted by men with a cart of fresh lemons selling freshly squeezed, iced lemonade, which was refreshingly tangy and very different to the sweet lemonade we’re used to.
Again, after the long morning and over an hour long bus journey, we were hungry, and again, didn’t want to fall into a tourist trap due to hunger! It would have been quite easy to head to one of the close restaurants in the nearby square, but instead we headed behind the castle where I had a feeling there would be lovely views across the lake. Low and behold we found Ristorante Il Grifone Sirmione. We were so lucky with the time we arrived as we managed to secure a table right on the front, with the lake right in front of us. This section of the lake felt and looked like the sea, with people swimming and relaxing on the pebble shore.
Here we had a caprese salad with the freshest mozzarella and tasty ripe tomatoes, with plenty of oil and balsamic to dip our bread in. Me and mum had ravioli with basil, burrata and confit tomato coulis, and my sister had the spaghetti alle vongole. This was a major experience; eating really fabulous food, right next to a gorgeous view of Lake Garda was very special indeed. Although it was a little more expensive, it was worth it for the experience, the view and lake breeze.
Walking through the colourful narrow streets, I was particularly taken with the lovely ceramics shops, including the very full-on Morelli Giulio Ceramiche Italiane. We cooled off in a cafe in Piazza Giosue Carducci with another version of an iced coffee, and headed back to fair Verona (via another precarious bus journey home!)
That night was our last night in Verona. We headed to Trattoria Arco Dei Gavi, where the ‘nonna’s kitchen’ vibe was in full force. For starter, we ordered what was described on the menu as ‘spicy beef with Parmesan cheese and salad’ and this is what arrived.
I think this was my most favourite dish of the whole trip, partly because I wasn’t expecting it. I wouldn’t say the beef was spicy, but melt in the mouth, slightly cured, very thin slices of beautiful beef, absolutely covered in Parmesan, and hidden underneath was a lovely salad with balsamic vinegar. We also ordered tortellini in brodo and small macaroni pasta with tomato and onion. The brodo had a distinct depth of flavour that took me right back to being a small child, eating the soup my nonna would make, it was absolutely delicious.
Day 4
A quick cheese and ham toastie and caffe freddo the next morning at a cafe on Piazza Erbe saw us through to our onward journey to Bologna. After a very hot walk to Verona Porta Nuova train station and then a melting train ride (the air con broke 15 mins into the journey!) we were in our final Italian destination, where we stayed for the next 2 nights.
We checked in at Hotel Metropolitan which I highly recommend; a spacious bedroom, beautiful continental breakfast, comfy beds, a serene rooftop bar, and in the heart of the city. Cold showers and restful moments were had before we set off to explore.
In comparison to Verona, Bologna is a much larger city, more ground to cover, and more streets to suss out when it comes to where to eat.
We kept being drawn back to Piazza Maggiore, and we found Osteria Quadrilatero. Slightly more tourists here but we were tired, warm and hungry and the food looked good. A sharing platter, meatballs, fried potatoes and tagliatelle al ragu were eagerly consumed, and thoroughly enjoyed, followed by a stroll and a gelato from Gelateria Venchi. We sat on a bench in Piazza Della Mercanzia and watched the city in awe.
We retired to the roof top terrace of our hotel for yet another iced caffe and breathed in the cooler air from 5 floors above.
The view from the rooftop bar of Hotel Metropolitan
Caffe Freddos all round
Day 5
The hotel breakfast was varied and quite sweet, with lots of pastries and small cakes on offer. I can’t resist the presence of fresh honeycomb, together with buttery croissants and cheese is the perfect wake up for me, with a cappuccino.
Our full day of Bologna was spent with a morning of exploring, utilising its many kilometres of porticoes; the arches underneath most buildings where you can walk with ease in the shade. They are ornate and stunning and I took quite a few pictures of them!
We had a closer look at the fountain of Neptune (which we found quite funny!) Basilica Di San Petronio, Santa Maria Del Vita, Mercato Di Mezzo, Basilica Santa Stefano and what’s known as the foodie street, Via Pescherie Vecchie, where every shop sold meat, cheese or fish! This whole list is a must see, especially the street, if you’re into local food and produce!
We scoped out some lunch options and settled on La Prosciutteria. These are everywhere across Italy, including Verona, Florence, Rome and Siena, serving up every antipasti and variety of massive Italian sandwiches you expect. I went for the panino del giorno…
We ended the trip on a high with an evening meal at Trattoria Del Biassanot. Knowing we were ordering Tris Bologna (tortellini,lasagne, tagliatelle) we wisely skipped starters but shared a mixed salad with the mains. A more tomatoey version of lasagne was differentiated further still from the Veronese version with verde sheets, and this brodo had more oil and smaller tortellini. The last night of the trip required a tiramisu, and it was on the menu.
It’s safe to say we ate and holidayed well, and I’d like to think I worked it off in steps, kilometres and generally existing in the heat!
Although I wouldn’t recommend Italian city touring in July, it’s what we were dealt and we certainly made the most of it. Although my dad was Sicilian, my mum is fair, and a great age of 77, so needless to say she did unbelievably well in the heat! Spending five brilliant days with her and Julie, my oldest sister was very special, and hopefully now that mum has cooled down, she will be glad that we turned a few extra corners :)
If you find even some of this article helpful, for a trip or just for general interest, that makes me happy, and I’d love to hear any of your recommendations to ease the pressure of finding the best food for future visits!
LLG x
