Eating Santa Margherita – Miramare Breakfast

Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Breakfast)

Date: June 26-29, 2011

Rating: Mid level Italian breakfast

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As I’ve written about earlier, almost all hotels in Italy include buffet breakfast. The Grand Hotel Miramare is no exception.

This is the same dining terrace as we ate dinner at on the previous evening.

And the view still doesn’t suck.

The have cappuccino and juice as always.

Various sausages, sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes.

Italian bacon. Eggs.

Breads.

Juices.

Yogurt.

Cereals.

A few cakes and jams, although nothing compared to the cake selection at the Adriatic beach hotel.

Fruit and cheese.

And a closeup of the cheese. Missing here, oddly for Italy, were the cured meats like Prosciutto.

My plate. A bit of protein, a bit of cake.

This local cake was really interesting. Not only did it have various dried fruits inside (raisons and some other stuff), but it had fennel seeds!

Overall this breakfast, while totally fine, was a bit of a disappointment considering the level of the hotel. The more commercial Palace Hotel (here for breakfast) we stayed at earlier in the trip had a much more extensive buffet, with even a slightly higher ingredient level. Even the Real Fini (here for breakfast) may have had a few more options, although the breakfasts were fairly comparable.

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Eating Santa Margherita – Hotel Miramare

Jul25

Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Dinner)

Location: Santa Margherita, Italy

Date: June 25, 2011

Cuisine: Ligurian

Rating: Old school

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Finally, we enter the final phase of our epic trip: Liguria. This is another seafood area, but quite different than Milano Martittima. Here we are on the Riveria, at the top of the Ligurian Sea instead of the adriatic. Near to France and home to Belle Epoque grandeur.

Our hotel — the white one — the Hotel Miramare, on the western end of this lovely town. We got lazy the first night and decided to try out the hotel restaurant.

And the view from the dining terrace. It sucks to be in the Italian Riveria.

The menu. A slightly unusual fixed price one at that.

An amuse. I can’t for the life of me remember what. The “spoons” are edible bread though.

A nice light white Ligurian wine. I liked the easy-drinking whites in the region. They go well with seafood and don’t last.

Grapefruit juice. Yes, this is a bonafied option for the anti-pasta!

Or instead you could choose these very nice local Morrone fish fillets, marinated with a small salad.

Borraggine herb rolls with egg-plants and buffalo mozzarella. Borraggine is a kind of nettle. The dish was, however, delicious!

Taglierini with local scampi. This is a classic pasta type. Very simple with fresh tomatoes and garlic. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Baked sea-bass in herb flavors. Very nice fish, also local.

Glazed ribs of veal with rosemary. Duchesse potatoes and spinach coupole Mornay. Old school, but tasty.

They also have a full salad bar you can help yourself too. It was fairly extensive but I took it easy and got only simple greens. I’ve never actually seen a salad bar in Italy, and here it was at this five-star hotel! There were also some local cheeses at the salad bar you could grab.

Petite fors.

There was an extensive dessert cart. Sachertorte.

Grandmother’s torte (with pinenuts).

Tiramisu.

Creme Caramel. One of my favorites.

A kind of berries and cream torte.

This was a peculiar and slightly old school restaurant, but the food was tasty, and the view and terrace impeccable. No complaints.

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Eating Milano Marittima – Palace Hotel Breakfast

Jun19

Restaurant: Palace Hotel

Location: Cervia / Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 9-11, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great hotel breakfast

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The Palace Hotel in Cervia fits into an interesting class of European hotel. It’s a beach resort, and elegant, but hosted in a building from the 1960s or 70s that has been newly restored. This is not the kind of old school Belle Epoque place like say Le Metropole in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. But it is very nice and well run.

Breakfast is outside on the beach/pool patio.

Another view. The Adriatic beach is right behind that hedge.

This breakfast puts the typical one at the Hotel Real Fini to shame, but it follows the same basic format of large cold breakfast buffet and a few hot items. Here are the jams and spreads!

And more of them, plus teas and a few other odds and ends.

Then cereals.

Juices and additives for yogurt or cereal.

Have a few Fruits.

Champagne, more spreads, lox, cheeses.

Close up of the cheeses, mostly local.

Some meats, like salami and prosciutto. Note that they have the same spam-like spreads!

Then the regular breads and self-use toaster.

Now we really get our sugar going with the huge sweet pastry table. A lot of these are local too.

And the other side! This selection changed a little every day. There were all sorts of nut, chocolate, creme, and fruit tarts.

Finally there is the hot station. With omelets or eggs made to order, pancakes, and some various hot sausages. Plus you can order fresh squeezed juices and coffee done any way (cappuccino etc). All of this is included with the room! And this is actually just typical of a good larger Italian hotel too.

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Eating Modena – Real Fini Breakfast

Jun12

Restaurant: Hotel Real Fini Via Emilia

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 5-8, 2011

Cuisine: Breakfast Buffet

Rating: Typical Italian Hotel Breakfast

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Italian hotels almost always include breakfast. The Real Fini in Modena’s is extremely typical of mid range hotels.

Cappuccino is always available, and unlike in the states is free and not $8. Plus, they know how to make a decent one at nearly any place in Italy.

There are very few hot items, just some scrambled eggs and a meat or two (sausage or ham). But there are lots of typical dry northern Italian cakes and cereal.