Thursday 23 May - A day of relaxation in and around the town square. Tonight was to be a belated celebration for Eve’s 70th. Eve’s actual birthday was 17 February but this was our opportunity to celebrate her milestone. Michael and I wandered around, looking for an appropriate restaurant for the occasion. We tried to book at a restaurant near our apartment but we were told very abruptly that there were no tables available on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights. So we went further afield and found a lovely restaurant called Al Prato. When we asked the maître d’ if there was a table for that night, he was very friendly, saying “Si signore, what time?” We opted for an outside table at 7pm. The restaurant was set at the rear of a cobblestoned courtyard, surrounded by ivy covered walls, promising an agreeable ambience for the birthday dinner.
The ambience lived up to our expectations. The maître d’, Giovanni, was lively and witty, his English far superior to our Italian. It did take a while to be served, for even though there were other staff delivering food and drink to tables, Giovanni seemed to be the only person taking orders from patrons. When he finally took our drinks order, he told us he was the owner of the restaurant. He laughed and joked his way around from table to table with the specials board, constantly on the go.
We ordered a bottle of Prosecco for our pre-dinner drinks. Max and Michael also had a local beer. The red wine was fabulous, grown and bottled within 50 kms of Varenna. Eventually Giovanni took our order for the main course and we sipped our various drinks, enjoying each others’ banter in the balmy evening air.
It was fine dining at its best. Our meals were simply superb. Eve had lamb chops with mustard sauce, Max had beef steak with truffle seasoning, Michael had duck a l’orange and I had my Italian favorite, tuna steak. Max declared it was the best steak he had ever had, my tuna was done to perfection, ditto for the others. It could have been the wine working on our inhibitions but we waxed lyrical on the food, each of us sampling the others’ choices.
For dessert, we all chose tiramisu from the specials board. When they were brought to the table, Eve’s dessert had a lit candle beside it. We and a lot of the other diners sang Happy Birthday to her, and then they all clapped. After dinner, we were plied with complementary Limoncello. Michael made a little speech, praising his big sister for her life-long love and support of him. It was an emotional moment to end a very special evening.
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