Back to Villa Primavera!

Friday evening, May 22, 2015

Ciao!  And thank you those who sent us encouraging messages about our ill-fated stay in Sassari!

Whew!  SO glad we’re out of there and now we’re back in our wonderful 2-bedroom apartment at Villa Primavera.  I realized that I was actually TWO dinners behind, and while the first was truly wonderful food-wise, the second was interesting too – in a different kind of way.  So…back all the way to Wednesday night!

We had asked our wonderful landlady, Tina, for a recommendation for dinner, and she suggested Villa Madau in beautiful downtown Pula.  We were able to find a nice parking street just a block or so outside of the main part of town, and walked in, following the Villa Madau signage … which of course stopped as soon as we hit the center of town.  We did ask, and were pointed directly ahead – apparently the restaurant is called Federico’s and it’s located in Hotel Villa Madau.  The dining room was absolutely beautiful, and I can only imagine how wonderful it must be in the summertime with all the plants and flowering shrubs all over in full bloom.  As it was threatening rain and rather cold, we were very happy to eat inside, and were seated at a very nice table for two. 

Lovely dining room

My favorite dinner date!

My mozzarella, tomato and pesto starter

So, we headed out about 7:30, being assured that reservations were not necessary.

R's shrimp and orange starter

R's bream with zucchini and shrimp

We ordered a bottle of local white wine and of course, a bottle of sparkling water.  These came with some very good bread, as well as a repeat of the flatbread that we had had the night before.  Both were excellent, although it would be really nice if, somewhere in Italy, bread was served with a bit of olive oil … but it usually isn’t…The menu was very interesting, and had lots of things we both were interested in.  I chose a mozzarella dish with sun dried tomatoes and a pesto sauce as my starter – and it was fabulous, but then put pesto on just about anything, and I’ll love it!  Robert ordered a shrimp (the WHOLE shrimp, head and all…) in an orange beurre blanc sauce, which he said was terrific.  For mains, I had their pork roast stuffed with mushrooms and cheese – and seriously, it was one of the very best pork dishes I have ever had, and probably one of my top ten meals ever, it was that good!  Robert had the sea bream with slices of zucchini in a fennel sauce with shrimp.  He was also very pleased.  For dolce (dessert) I had three sorbets and fruit, and R had strawberry mille feuille, which, I have to admit, did look wonderful!  Our wine was fabulous, and all in all, a good time was had by all.  And, the other good thing, is that it had basically stopped raining by the time we were finished with dessert and walking to the car!  I did, however, arrive home too tired to do more than anything but get ready for bed – I felt I’d blogged enough that day, I guess!

My fabulous pork roast stuffed with mushrooms!

My sorbet selection

R's strawberry mille feuille

So…I’ve already done our day in Sassari and our escape from the Sassari-In, and our retreat to the Hotel Carlo Felice.  The hotel was fine.  Basically a businessperson kind of place.  The rooms were smallish but our was a triple, so we did have a place to put luggage.  We didn’t really even have to unpack – just dropped our things and headed downstairs to try and find food!  We were so exhausted, and the restaurant was not yet open, so we both had a bit of wine from the bar in the lobby.  (Me: Prosecco, R with white wine.)  Finally, the doors to the restaurant opened, and in we went.  Well…it was very interesting.  First off, bread – both the normal French style as well as the flatbread – were spread out in baskets in the center of the room – self-service!  So R helped us to an assortment, and brought along some actually made-in-Sassari extra-virgin olive oil; great fun!  Then the waitress came over, and surprise!  Turns out, like our Appian Way trip a few years ago, no menus!  So!  What to have, as the waitress didn’t speak English!  I managed to order some penne with melanzane and ricotta – which was excellent – and R got some spaghetti with shrimp (fortunately, not the entire critter, just pieces!).  R was still hungry after that, so, as he saw some grilled vegetables passing by us, he ordered some of those – and grilled zucchini and eggplant appeared before him!  Voila!  For dessert, honestly, we can’t remember what R ordered!  (Senior moments!!) but I ordered gelato – and it came, one scoop vanilla and one coffee-flavored!  YEK!  Robert finished that one for me!  And then finally, we were finished and back up to the room.  R turned on the computer, but I just got ready for bed – and went!  Can’t remember much after that, until about 6 a.m. this morning.  I was REALLY tired!

I blogged this morning, but the photos were taking SO long to download, that I just sent off the blog, and we went down for breakfast.  Again, a regular business-person’s special.  Nothing extraordinary, but a good, basic breakfast.  Checked out and we were on the road about 9 a.m.

Robert decided that the route down the coast would be best, and it was truly incredible.  In many ways, Sardinia reminds us both of California.  The coast road we drove on looked very similar to Highway 1, the California coastal road that runs south of Monterey through Big Sur.  The only differences we noted were that (1) it was very tall scrub and shrubs with only the occasional tree, rather than the forests of Big Sur, and (2) NO TRAFFIC!  And that was WONDERFUL!  And even when there was a car or a German camper or two, there were lots of passing spaces provided in the road, and it never ever got frustrating!  We loved it!

R's pasta with shrimp at the hotel

My penne with eggplant at the hotel

We wanted to  make the Civico Museo in Cabras before it closed at 1 p.m. – because it doesn’t open up again until 4 p.m.!  And I really wanted to see the other reconstrucated nuraghic statues, the other part of which were in the Cagliari Archeological Museum.  We got there about 11:30 a.m. and, while the museum itself is small, and there were at least two school groups there (as R says, it’s wonderful that the local school children are being introduced to the history!) we didn’t really have any problems seeing what we came to see.  As it turns out, there are still several statues that are in process of being installed.  It was amazing seeing the pieces in their packing material and lying out on the floor.

R's ravioli at the beach

My fabulous eggplant parmesan at the beach

Great way to serve dessert!

From there, we drove across the estuary to Tharros, which are the remains of a former punic (Carthaginian) and Roman town, which is located at the very tip of a spit of land heading out into the sea.  (Again, like Nora, it was important to be able to have ports on two sides, so that no matter what way the wind was blowing, the town would be able to have the right condition to sail in or out.)  We parked near to the site, but decided to have lunch first in one of the café’s lining the entry way.  This time, R had cheese filled ravioli, and I had eggplant parmesan – which was FABULOUS!  It just seems so odd to find such good food at such out-of-the-way places!  For dessert, R had some slices of melon, and I had their chocoloto and crema (two different kinds) of gelato, as they were out of stracciatella…

We then walked the remaining way to Tharros and toured the ruins.  There were several archeologists working, which is always fun to see.  It does seem different, though, to see a town with rectangular houses and shops and temples rather than round!  I think I like the round better.  Then, back to the car and pedal-to-the-metal back to Villa Primavera.  It took a little over two hours to get here, and boy, talk about being HAPPY to be somewhere!  We moved back upstairs, and it was like we hadn’t even left.  I finished downloading the photos for this morning’s blog, and then R had some business to do.

Finally, we decided to get some groceries from the local Conad store in Pula, as we did want breakfast in the morning.  Fun to go back to “our” store!  This time, though, we found that they had roasted some chickens, which we decided to have for dinner!  We also bought some prepared pici pasta with pesta sauce, as well as some incredible sun dried tomatoes.  Back to the flat for white wine, roasted chicken, pasta and tomatoes – wow, it seriously doesn’t get much better than that! 

Having roast chicken for dinner at the flat!

WHY do things taste so much better here?  The chicken was incredible, as were the pasta and tomatoes…we have a bit of left-over chicken, but the pasta and tomatoes are definitely long gone.  

And so, with that, I will close for tonight, get this posted while it’s still daylight outside, and get to bed REALLY early!  More things to see tomorrow!

Much love,

m

xxx