Thursday, July 3: Verbania to Malpensa
Our last full day in Italy. After breakfast, we wandered around Verbania for several hours. Jeff bought a jersey and some leather sandals; we looked in several wine shops; and we finally found a grocery store (but no Pratobelli Cantuccini). At 1pm, the Alibus arrived to take us to Malpensa Airport. We said goodbye to Melanie and boarded the bus to the airport. From there, we took a cab to the Hotel Villa Malpensa (which was nice but not as nice as we had hoped it would be). We checked in at 2:30 and spent 3-6pm lying by the pool, talking about the trip and reading. Our dinner reservation was for 7:30, and there was only one other couple in the dining room when we arrived. We started with a half bottle of Gaja 1997 Alteni di Brassica, which was a very unusual Sauv Blanc--a nose redolant of chives. Jeff liked it. We had Insalata Mista, then Carolyn had risotto with saffron, zucchini flowers and shrimp; and Jeff had tagliatelli with a great sauce. For secondi, we got a bottle of 1994 Bricco Asili Faset Barbaresco, which was very good, and we both had beef (mine was a filet with arugula; Jeff had a sirloin). We thought about taking a walk after dinner, but a dramatic thunderstorm blew through and we called it a night, instead.