It was hard saying good bye to the Dolomites and to Hotel Maribel. At breakfast we finally confessed our thoughts to the “head waiter” that we thought he used to be an actor. He told us, in English, “I had my chance” and the whole charming story. They are all so good at making you feel your best. While checking out I got into a wine discussion with Mario, the owner. The result was he gave us a bottle of Pinot Nero to try and send him feed back. He’s thinking of putting it on his list. It’s hard to let go…But more Italy and travel adventures are calling.
So we take off and make the 2 hour drive “back to Italy”. Trento is lovely and quiet. We check into the Aquila D’oro easily. First priority is to get the laundry done. So we walk the few blocks on the other side of the Piazza Duomo and find the self service lavanderia. We got it done, leaving it all for a while to check out the beautiful baroque duomo. Amy and I listened to the history on one of those telephone booth things. There are bones in the crypt under here from 372bc because it is the site of an early Christian church. This is an odd photo of the side chapel:

And here’s the clock tower:

Doing the laundry was SO hot. Believe me–it was just too hot in there. We walked back by way of:

for a lemon granite.
After some down time, we got dressed (ever so slightly) up for our dinner at Ai Tre Garofoni. We sat outside hoping for a breeze. His amuse was a cold cucumber yogurt soup. We all ate very well. The apps were the best part. Ken’s pasta, a play on traditional Ligurian pesto with potatoes and little green beans also had a shrimp ragu but tasted mostly like pesto. His was outstanding. Our other 3 were just plain excellent. I had a squid and vegetable fritter, Amy Polenta, mushroom with soft white melted cheese on it. Kev’s fried cheese from Moena in a buckwheat crust came in a martini type glass with an apple cabbage slaw under it. After complimerntary glasses of prosecco, we ordered a bottle of white. The owner suggest a Kerner thought we’d give this wine one more chance.
The entrees were just a tad less successful. Ken had wonderful pork with an eggplant and a zucchini mush. I tried, for the first time ever, baby goat. The flavors were wonderful but for such a hot night I realized that eating braised meat wasn’t the smartest choice. The small potato pancake and the chard on the side were perfect.
Amy had fabulous ravioli and Kev had fish wrapped in “crispy Turkish angel hair”
We go 2 dessert for the table and neither of them thrilled us. The bill was 198 euros.
We strolled around the pedestrian area, window shopping. The sales are on.
It was about 11pm and still too hot: