Recommendation for restaurant for lunch in Vicenza

[GailS]

I’ll be in Venice this May and have a day trip planned to Vicenza. On the recommendation of the wonderful Luisella Romeo of www.seevenice.it my husband and I have booked a 3 hour morning tour with Francesca Marini of www.vicenzaguide.com. This will be on a Saturday. Any recommendations for where to eat lunch after our tour?

 

[ItalophileNJ]

Aah, lucky you. Vicenza is wonderful. A few years ago, MargM (she was on Slow Trav) and I did a tour of the Palladian villas in and around Vicenza with Roberta Parlato.
I know this isn't all that much help but..... we had a relaxing light lunch at an outdoor place very close to the theater. (The theater is amazing, you are in for a treat.)

 

[GailS]

Thanks Italophile. It’s our first visit to Vicenza. We are going with one of her “canned tours” where we will see Teatro Olimpico, Basilica Palladiana and Santa Corona in town and then go to the Villa Rotonda. If we like her and the city we’ll plan more tours on our next trip. We’ll certainly ask when we are near the theater if there is anywhere nearby that the guide recommends – maybe we’ll get lucky and find your restaurant.

 

[ItalophileNJ]

Great that you are going on a day when you can visit Villa Rotonda. I had only spent the one day in and around Vicenza; Marg and I took the train there from Verona and met our guide. That's why I have only a vague recollection of where we had lunch.
Enjoy!

 

[Roz]

We loved Vicenza, and that amazing theatre. It has been several years since we were in Vicenza, but we had a very good and reasonably priced lunch here: Al Pestello.

Are you going to any other of the Palladian villas? We visited several and really enjoyed them. Each one had its own, very different style. If you haven't read the book Palladian Days, by Sally Gable, I highly recommend it. It's about an American couple who buy a Palladian villa and fix it up, etc., but is much better and more interesting than most books of that genre. Another really good book, in a very different style, is The Perfect House: A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio.

 

[GailS]

Thanks Roz! We will check out Al Pastello - we'll have to see what the current menu is. My husband can be a bit selective in what he'll eat (I guess that's the polite way to say it). We choose to do a short tour this trip, mostly to see if we want to spend more time on another trip (we visit Italy usually twice a year). Palladian Days looks like it's right up my alley.

 

[GailS]

We are just back from our day in Vicenza. Al Pastello was the recommendation of our guide as well. We had a wonderful lunch there. Here are our appetizers - asiago with tomatoes and arugula, grilled pears with seared salami and polenta. A great find.