The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
September 26 - Nice to Pisa
European train stations can be a real slice of life ... and perhaps a home away from home (or a bed away from bed!) There is some lovely scenery along the way, though, even if you have to view it through dirty windows.
The closest we came to the Leaning Tower was the stained glass panel in the hotel. We were OK with that since we had visited Pisa on an earlier trip and wandered all around the tilting tower.
We had a light dinner at Trattoria La Buca just around the corner from our hotel in Pisa. This is a typical family-run eatery -- small, moderately-priced and quite good. I was confused, though, by the fact that they only seemed to have three menus in the place! Perhaps the locals didn't need one -- and we were the first guests of the night so it wasn't an issue for us -- but I saw other diners waiting for 10+ minutes before they could even look over a menu.I don't know that I have ever seen a lack of menus like this, but I have seen restaurants in the US grind to a halt for lack of enough forks ... or ramekins ... or something similar that would be so easy to fix. It makes you wonder why operators wouldn't just eliminate the problem.
© 2008 Restaurant Doctor
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