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Restaurant Review: Forneria 38, Pizza Napoletana (Bolzano, Italy)

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Forneria 38, Bolzano, Italy.

If you read this blog on the regular, you may recall that Dan and I visited Bolzano, Italy last September before continuing to Oktoberfest in Munich and Innsbruck, Austria. Bolzano, or “Bozen” in German, is the capital of the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige and the third largest city in the Alps. Due to its location and changing of hands at the end of World War I, Bolzano is half-Italian and half-German, making for a very interesting Italian food scene where the “Italian classics,” such as pizza, are not common. In any case, we were in Italy and we wanted Italian pizza. We walked by one restaurant our first night that was busy and claimed to serve Napoletana pizza and we decided to try it. A very good choice!

Bolzano, Italy.

Forneria 38 is the name of said restaurant and its located right off Piazza delle Erbe in the center of Bolzano. While small, Forneria 38 has indoor and outdoor seating, both of which were full on our visit. We sat very close to Forneria 38’s kitchen.

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Restaurant Review: Ratanà, Milano

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Dan and I found ourselves with one night in Milan, Italy last September after spending a week in Bolzano, (highly recommended Italian city!), Oktoberfest, and Innsbruck. Why Milan on that itinerary one may ask? Emirates flights from JFK to Milan, sole reason.

In any case, we have been to Milan a few times, and I always find eating in Milan a little odd. While Milan has excellent food and offerings from all over the world (similar to New York), I want what I think of as Italian food (i.e. Southern Italian food!) in Italy. And well, good southern Italian food is not super easy to find in Milan. As such, I branched out and scoured the internet for a good Milanese restaurant. I discovered Ratanà, which has apparently already been discovered by many, many people (LOL), and I made a dinner reservation. No pressure! In any case, our meal turned out to be really delicious and Ratanà even served a bottle of wine from the town where Dan’s great grandfather was born, Lessona!

Ratanà’s outside seating area. We ate indoors.

Ratanà is located on the edge of a park, BAM Tree Library Milan, close to Bosco Verticale. A trendy little area. But then again, all of Milan is pretty trendy.

Ratanà’s menu.

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Ristorante Galleria – A Fine Spot For An Early Lunch In Milan, Italy

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When Dan and I spent 24 hours in Milan earlier this year (after visiting Bolzano, the Dolomites, Innsbruck and Munich for Oktoberfest), we wanted to squeeze in lunch before leaving for the airport at 1:00 PM. Problem is, most restaurants do not open until 12:00 for lunch in Milan! I searched the internet high and low and eventually found Ristorante Galleria inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. While I assumed it would be super touristy given its name and location, I made an 11:00 reservation and we showed up right on time after visiting the Duomo.

Ristorante Galleria in summer (well, September).

View from our seat inside Ristorante Galleria.

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Three Days Around Bolzano: An Alpine City In Northern Italy!

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Dan and I kicked off our 2023 Oktoberfest Eurotrip with a four day stay in Bolzano, Italy. Bolzano, or “Bozen” in German, is the capital of the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige and the third largest city in the Alps.   I had been wanting to visit this area forever, and its only a four hour train ride from Munich, so we made it our first stop on the trip! This article details what we did with our limited time in Bolzano.

A lovely welcome to Bolzano – our hotel was right next to this little tunnel.

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A 9 Person Tour of Ireland for Christmas and New Years!

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After a big family trip to Italy over Thanksgiving in 2021, we did another group trip trip to Ireland this past Christmas and New Year. This time we had 9 instead of 8 people, including my parents, Dan’s siblings, our friend Pryor and her husband and mother, and stayed for 11 days! We toured a decent bit of Ireland and I think everyone remains on speaking terms, LOL. I’ll be writing about more specific bits of our trip later, but here is a summary for those interested in doing something similar!

Christmas in Ireland!

DAYS 1 – 4: KILKENNY, IRELAND & MOUNT JULIET ESTATE

After an overnight flight from New York, we landed in Dublin early in the morning. A van, with a lovely driver, John, was waiting for us and drove us 1.5 hours to the Mount Juliet Estate, just outside of Kilkenny, where we had booked a four day Christmas package.  We got lucky and blue sky came out just as we arrived at Mount Juliet Estate.

Mount Juliet Estate in Ireland.

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