I wasn't able to tell you about Valpolicella while we were there as there was no internet service. I always have internet on my phone, but for the most part we couldn't even get that to work. For those of you that don't know Valpolicella is a wine region in NE Italy that produces Valpolicella, Ripasso, Amarone and Recioto (are the most famous). We arrived at our bed and breakfast in the early afternoon, and no one was there. This was a good time for lunch we thought. We drove up, what I thought at the time was, a very narrow road that led to a great restaurant. We had gnocchi with black truffle cream sauce as we looked out over the rolling hills and vineyards. It was beautiful. While heading back to the B&B, Trev called again and Silvia answered, and was very happy to meet us right away. The B&B was perfect. Silvia was wonderful. She was meeting "the Americans" for a tour of their very small winery, but said she would be able to do the same for us later that day. While we waited it seemed like a good idea to do a little touring of the area. We told Juanita to take us to a winery, and off we went. Juanita had us driving through what I now know are narrow roads through the region. It was a beautiful and scary drive. I suppose I should mention that we found this B&B when we bought a bottle of wine in Seattle that only carries wines from single vineyards. When looking for a place to stay in Valpolicella we decided to look this particular producer up. Fortunately for us the family also runs a bed and breakfast. Now back to our day. After our travels through the hills of Valpolicella (I am shocked the "oh shit" handle is still attached to the door), we met Silvia and her father Giuseppe (the wine maker) and headed to the cellar. Giuseppe speaks about 3 words of english, but stayed with us the entire time to answer our questions and tell us details about the wine that Silvia forgot. Silvia did a great job of translating for us and his 3 words of english, and our 3 words of Italian wouldn't have cut it. That night we ate dinner downstairs in her Uncle's restaurant. We drank the family wine and ate really great food. Risotto all amarone was certainly the best dish. The hospitality of the Lonardi family made our first day in Valpolicella great!
www.lonardivini.it/eng - Wines
www.cortelonardi.it - Bed and Breakfast
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