“I’m on a diet……in Italy!?”

Virtually impossible! No Weight Watchers, Slimming World or any kind of fat club………..

I once heard a famous Italian singer/song writer, Pino Daniele, say during an interview “I diet Monday to Friday so I can eat really well on Saturday and Sunday!” Sounds good to me.

I also once heard that a couple should go out together once a week to keep their relationship fun.  I interpreted the “going out” to mean “eating out”,  naughty me, but I’ll bet you did too! I think it could be an age thing. When I was young “going out” didn’t mean parking myself at a restaurant table for 3 hours. I can’t for the life of me remember when it changed but there you go.

So my love and I go out once a week and last night it felt like we had eaten enough food to last a week! Trattoria nelle Vigne at Diano d’Alba, Piemonte, Italy, Europe.

If you are visiting this wonderful area I, and my still full tummy, recommend that you pay this trattoria/ restaurant a visit. And if you are not thinking about visiting this area then you really should give it some thought.

Food, staff, décor, view, wine list, all excellent, are the obvious details one looks for, but I have to say that this place just has a nice open feeling. I thought it was going to be a bit posh, but the very reasonable prices and the name “trattoria” kept telling me that it wouldn’t be too posh for this chick. I can’t be doing with pretentious restaurants.  We were pleasantly surprised on the approach to the Trattoria, and even more so when we walked in. Space, wood, large window, high ceilings and a lovely smell. All my boxes ticked.

I love eating in Italy in places where you sit down and there is no need to look at a menu. I like to be given, that is told just a few choices or served a set menu. Nothing complicated. I love watching Gordon Ramsey when he’s putting restaurants back on track, he usually starts by ditching the long exhausting menus either written in hard-backed books or on black boards. Our brains can only cope with two or three choices anyway.

Nelle Vigne life’s sure not complicated. As soon as we sat down a plate was placed on the table anchovies covered with a hazelnut sauce. Worth trying even if you think you don’t like anchovies! Fried bread with lard (I know it’s sounds awful but it’s delicious!), vegetable mix with mayonnaise, roast meat covered with that yummy tuna sauce and vegetable frittata were the starters and at which point we were ready to go home feeling rather full! Two pasta dishes followed by roast meat and potatoes and we still weren’t finished. Panna cotta! Finito! All washed down with an alka seltzer and if you leave them at home, the italian version is Brioschi! Enormous portions, far too big. We joked saying, “do they know in the kitchen there’s just the two of us!” Our next visit there’ll be four of us! Another good tip, a bottle of their own Dolcetto wine went down a treat and because my love doesn’t drink and I only managed half the bottle, at the end of our meal the cork was replaced and I got my bottle back to take the remaining wine home!

Well done Nelle Vigne and thank you nice lady who served us. I really should ask names, when I was young and on the ball I would never have slipped up on such a silly thing.