Il Veliero

Asked Ula, the most helpful day receptionsionist at the hostel, for the name of her favorite restaurant. We arrive at Il Veliero after taking bus 40 to the end then #31 along the sea and a lengthy discussion in Italian with an elderly gentleman who, I think, was insisting there is a "muie buanio" restaurant 3 min. walk further. Down steps and thru a tunnel along the seawall we enter a cavernous room with white fan folded napkins sprouting from every wine glass and are directed to a small table against windows looking out on a choppy Meditterrean as dusk slowly turns blue sea to black. Since we are early and the place is empty our young and very charming waitress patiently and with great humor attempts to not only explain the items on the menu but also gives us a crash course on the procedure and etiquette of eating Italian. We settle on an antipasta and prima course to share and decide to wait to go further with secondi.

The carafe of rosè I thought I ordered is a bottle with a pleasant light effervesent. I guess some confusion in translation in communication is expected! A plate of flat dough with olive oil and a little oregano - "pizza without the pizza" according to our waitress, is presented followed by Piatto il Velicro di Mare: a tasting of 12 different fish prepared 12 different ways. Other than fresh sardines in a light olive oil brine, thin slices of raw salmon lox and a single perfect muscle I haven't a clue what anything else is! Lightly breaded and crisp fried fish filets, some type of bivalve smothered in a to,ato salsa and a half of a lemon filled with white meat the texture of crab. Next, Ravioli de pesce was brought out. Tender cheese filled pillows of dough-white on one side, black on the other-covered in a rich dark sauce the color of the muscle shells scattered throughout. Under most circumstances we would have stopped here but I wasn't going to leave the best restaurant we had visited in Italy without going all the way!

Our waitress, now rather busy, resorted to simply asking the folks at the next table to translate every time we questioned the menu so I pointed and picked. It's on a menu...somebody eats it!! The thin slice of skate came bathed in a green (parsley?) butter (lot's of butter) sauce. The fish was unexciting, even a bit bland, but the sauce was sublime-only fully appreciated with bits of bread submerged to soak up the rich nectar. We ended our meal with a quivering Panna cotta drizzled with caramel sauce and in lew of coffee was given complementary lemon sherbert served in the same flutes that our complementary champagne came in to start this wonderful gastronomical experience in Italian cusine. Fortynine euro and 2 busses-not bad!

In Gex now and having to type on their difficult French keyboard again. Took train from Genoa to Milano to Geneva. Misscommunication with my friend, Pierre, had us waiting to for a pick up in the Geneva train station that was not going to happen. Unable to get him by phone and unable to buy anything because Switzerland has chosen not to adapt the euro as legal tender and the money changers were closed to get Swiss francs, we went thru a time of problem solving until we were able to rent computer time at the station and email him requesting him to pick us up. An hour later we are put to bed on his foldout couch in the living room and grateful for his unquestioning hospitality.