The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur In Italy
July 26 - Castiglione del Lago

A down day in Umbria . . . a vacation from the vacation . . . a moment of sanity. What a civilized idea! After the late return from Florence, we rolled out of bed at the crack of ten and spent a couple of hours lollygagging (which we are refining into an art form!) The rest of the troops went in search of the elusive Chianti winery (they had a tour pre-arranged but it was three hours of driving over winding mountain roads just to get there!) Margene and I had an easier schedule: lunch and a nap! (Well actually, she took the nap and I washed the car!) How romantic . . .

I was reminded again today that everything seems to close for siesta by 2:00. We went to the neighboring town of Castiglione del Lago on the shore of Lake Trasimeno to see what was up. The answer, at 2:10, is . . . not much! We did manage to find a spot for a light lunch (good bruschetta) but the selection was limited. Castiglione del Lago has a completely different feel from our little burg. Not unpleasant but less medieval feelingl. Still, they have a castle so things even out.

Dinner tonight (see, I told you this was a simple day!) was at a spot we saw by the side of the road on the way to the lake. It is called Caffe Corsini . . . or Il Pinzimonio . . . or something. All the names were on the sign. We were severely tempted by the pizza which looked and smelled better than anything we have encountered to date, but opted for a more traditional Italian dinner of dishes where we had little to no idea of what we were getting! The pasta was good . . . and the veal was the best food we have had on this trip! Too bad there was no concept of service.

The waitress was very pleasant . . . when she could be found . . . but there was no way that things were going to move any faster than she wanted them to move. She would not make eye contact unless it was your turn, so the idea of being responsive to the needs of the guest was definitely not part of the training. I guess it works for Italy although I wonder what a slightly higher service consciousness could do, both to sales and return patronage. It is not her fault, of course -- nobody ever trained her any other way.

It occurs to me that, in the absence of training, people just do what they have seen others do. The result is that you get bits and pieces of all the untrained servers on the planet passing for guest service in your restaurant. It may be a little better in the kitchen and the bar, but how many of us hire "experienced" cooks and bartenders and turn them loose without a thorough indoctrination in "the way we do it here?"

As an added treat, tonight was the second night of the Trasimeno Blues Festival with a late night concert held in Citta della Pieve tonight. We dropped in for an hour or so of good jazz after dinner (we left the restaurant around 10:30!). The stage was set up at the end of the piazza in front of one of the floodlit old churches. Actually, they all are old but never mind. Blues has got to be among the best types of music to listen to outdoors. The night was cool, the crowd was comfortably small and there was plenty of seating up front. It would have been a great picture, but it was far too dark to hope that it would turn out.

Espresso, dessert and a glass of Vin Santo dessert wine at the cantina and we called it a night!

Castiglione del Lago

Caffe Corsini . . . or whatever


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