With a nice long weekend coming up early May I just booked a place in Arona / Lago Maggiore for me and my SO and with Vallana close by I just mailed Francis for a visit at the Vallana cantina.
Anything else I should have on my radar for dining out / visiting?
We had lunch here in September and loved it: http://www.vecchiaarona.it/
If you want winery visits, try Le Piane in Boca and Franceso Brigatti in Suno. We had great visits at both places.
Thank you, their website gives me errors tho …
When looking for things on our trip I found that lots of Italian web sites say they aren’t secure. You should just be able to bypass the warning and use the site.
You are near Gattinara, if you can set up a visit at Nervi and Antoniolo you should definitely go. Last time I went I ate at Pinocchio in Borgomanero , very good classic food and well priced cellar
Thank you Riccardo, hadn‘t Nervi on my radar
I was in the area last month, sadly only for a day. We had a great visit with Giacomo Colombera at Colombera & Garella. Pure, elegant, honest wines; unhurried, personal, generous conversations and pours with Giacomo. Highly recommended.
Lots of restaurants were closed (it was a Monday) but we still had an excellent lunch at Bar Latteria Zamarco based on Giacomo’s recommendation. I would honestly just ask whoever you are tasting with to recommend a lunch spot and perhaps call ahead for you - if local restaurateurs know that a guest of a winery is coming they may be inclined to treat you even better.
Other producers you should seek out, besides the already mentioned Nervi and Antoniolo, are Le Pianelle and Cantalupo.
We visited Colombera in September, too, and loved the wines and the visit. I was just thinking of places that were closer to where Klaus was staying, but if he’s willing to drive an hour each way that would be a great pick, too!
Thanks Luca, a one hour drive is no problem actually
Espically when in direction to Biella …
Email sent to Giacomo
Looking at the pic, did they run out of Lessona?
Just back from Lago Maggiore
Visited Vallana and Colombera&Garella, Marina and Giacomo took care of us, great wines, great people, especially Giacomo was an absolutely impressive host.
Had great food (twice) at Contatto in Arona, great place, stunning wine list, had a Biondi Santi Brunello 15 and PdB Pora 14 and a Pieropan Soave. Ristorante Vecchia Arona was nice too, we had an Antoniolo Riserva 19 there.
Overall we had a very nice long May 1st. weekend, wheather was perfectly sunny, the area is just awesome. We will surely go there again, The traffic back and forth through the Gottardo sucked tho. We ususally take the pass road to avoid the tunnel but it was still closed this early in the year.
