You're having wine, aren't you?...
This
is Umberto, owner of the Osterìa del Trivio (a restaurant in Spoleto
featuring local and traditional Italian cuisine). He speaks Italian,
German, English, French, and Spanish. His wife, Mirella, is one of the
finest Umbrian chefs and taught Anne-Marie the secrets of her most
popular dishes (something you don’t find everyday). We had them over to
our house to experience Mexican food and a traditional Thanksgiving
Dinner (different nights). Anne-Marie was well known in the area (since
she was always delivering some sort of baked goodies to others). I
called Umberto the other day (during the dinner rush in Italy) and
asked if he had room for a party of 25 people for that night. We hadn't
spoken for six months but somehow he knew it was me. What's up with that?Restaurants are traditionally family owned operations. It's not an easy life. Their one day off is spent with work at home and purchasing food for the next week. One basically lives at the restaurant. Many times, the menu is not printed but is spoken to you by the waiter. You choose an antipasto like prosciutto e melone (slices of cantaloupe wrapped with parma ham), a primo like pasta alla Spoletina (long pasta with spicy Spoletino sauce), and a secondo like brasciola di maiale (flame grilled pork chop). Dessert always follows and wine is expected. We would say that we didn't drink alcohol. Umberto's reply was classic, "But, you're doing to drink wine while you're here in Italy aren't you?"
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