E8: La Fiorita 24th April

The last blog entry referred to 'La Fiorita’……..well we drove there in the morning, parked up in their yard and just ‘checked in’ as it were.  The winery is set in the middle of the vineyards near the village of Ome and provided for a nice and quiet rural relaxing base.

 

Then we set off for a few hours on the Bromptons on cycle route No 5……..It was on this ride that we had our ‘Milk Fiasco!’….. as we cycled through one of the villages we noticed a roadside milk dispenser (these are frequently located in larger villages and towns).  This one was a go faster version and included flavoured yoghurt drinks.  We put our €2 coin in the vending slot, selected ‘strawberry yoghurt’, pressed the button………….. nothing! ……. hold up a minute, what’s that sloshing noise?………. err, there’s milk coming out of the dispenser behind a closed stainless steel door!  At this point we realised we had used the wrong keypad and selected fresh milk for our own bottle……….. what to do?? ….. Kate quickly emptied our water bottle and held it under the dispenser to catch the last of the chilled milk.  We had just wasted over 1 litre of milk! …… oh well …. it’s amazing how much chilled milk you can drink on demand!

The rest of the journey was again through the Franciacorta countryside and plenty of rustic towns and villages….

Each town boasts a very impressive church….

Another quaint and quiet Italian back street….

In one of the villages Grahame could not resist joining in with the modern cycle art in the middle of a roundabout!

 

After three hours and another 30 odd kilometres we were back at the van with hearty appetites and looking forward to our evening dinner in the restaurant.  A nice hot shower in the van, a change of clothes and we were ready to go!

Now, I really must tell you that we had a fantastic evening!  We had wonderful genuine Italian food starting with the primo of fresh ravioli and porcini crepes, secondo of roast haunches of lamb, wafer thin beef and olive oil roasted potatoes and polenta, all washed down with a bottle of ‘house red’ (made at La Fiorita winery) and a large bottle of local mineral water.   To finish, dolci of home made vanilla ice cream, plump strawberries and gossamer light tiramisu,  followed by after dinner coffee.  The restaurant was packed with locals and we were made to feel completely at home, the staff were lovely, since we speak very little Italian and the staff spoke very little English we knew we were in for an adventure and we all got by with plenty of smiles, sign language and the food vocabulary from our Italian edition of the rough guide!  When it came to the bill. we discovered that the whole meal came to the princely sum of €46 (that is just over £33!)…… Excellent fresh food and excellent value!  If you are ever in the Franciacorta region (South side of Lake Iseo) I highly recommend you call in and have a meal.

Also we purchased a few bottles of their excellent Franciacorta Sparkling wine to take home.  It is known as one of Italy’s finest wines and certainly gives Champagne a run for it’s money! (they even gave us a 10% discount)

The following morning, we said our farewells, replenished the van fresh water tank and as it happens could not resist buying half a dozen bottles of the red wine we had the night before……… all in all, we had really enjoyed the last couple of days!

Note:  La Fiorita also has accommodation and that the restaurant is only open from Friday night until Sunday night.