When I tell you that I ate an entire pizza - by myself - after snapping "I'm not even hungry!" to…read moremy husband before walking into this restaurant, I hope you understand how impressive the food here is.
This was our first restaurant meal after landing in Verona and, as it turned out, the only restaurant we visited that wasn't recommended by our awesome food tour guide Francesca.
The restaurant was busy when we walked in late on a Thursday night. I had thought we were going to place an order to take back to our hotel - because, in addition to "not being hungry", I also had no desire to be in a public setting (jet lag is real, y'all.) But my husband asked for a table for two and next thing I knew we were seated next to the counter that showed off the kitchen.
I thought we were ordering one pizza to share (remember, not hungry) so I about fell out of my chair when my husband said, "I'm going to get the Salciccia e Parmigiano, what are you going to have?" After a deep breath in through my nose, out through my nose, I decided the Margherita sounded light enough to not wreck my already taxed body.
Then of course he mentioned wine. But of course why not red wine after 10 pm on a Thursday following a long travel day to another city, right? Two glasses of house red, coming right up!
I'm being a brat, but the pizzas were very tasty. The red wine was decent - I wasn't expecting - and we did not get - anything fantastic, but it was superbly drinkable and rounded out our meal.
Because we were in Verona, we did as the Veronese did and ate our pizzas with fork and knife. The dough was fresh and chewy, the toppings bright and balanced. I had told my husband to be prepared to help me finish the pizza, and then promptly demolished the serving. Well, almost the entire serving; he did end up eating one slice of mine on top of his own.
His pizza, if you're wondering, was topped with sausage and tomatoes, and loaded up on cheese, which, really, is all he's looking for in a pizza. He said he liked mine, but as it was a vegetarian selection, it wasn't something he'd normally order for himself. Fair enough.
We still talk about the pizza to this day, mostly because he's still in shock that I (practically) crushed mine after protesting a meal at all. I did find that I like pizza from Verona a whole lot more than pizza from the U.S.