The gourmet's guide to Europe

The Nettuno at Pisa is the old-fashioned Italian inn, and it used to be the restaurant patronised by the officers of the garrison, but for some Nettuno, reason they quarrelled with the proprietor and transferred their custom to the other Italian restaurant and inn, the Cervia. Pisa prides itself on its puddings and confectionery. The Pattona and Castagnacci , both alia Plsana , are puddings made of chestnut flour and olive oil, and flavoured with fruit. Schiacciata are Easter cakes. In the afternoon, after a walk on the Lungarno, all the world of Pisa goes to Bazzeli, the pastry-cook’s shop, and there you may find the elders of the town and the high officers of the garrison, talking over affairs of State while they demolish many little cakes. Leghorn Comparatively few Anglo-Saxon travellers go to Leghorn, for it is not one of the show places of Italy, and the bathing season there is just the time when tourists keep away from Italy. But I received such a glowing account from an Englishman (to whom I owe grateful thanks for the information embodied in this chapter) concerning the Albergo Giappone, that, being at Pisa, I ran over to the seaport to thank my informant, and to eat a dinner at this typical Tuscan restaurant. The main street of Leghorn, the Via Vittorio Emanuele, is very like a street at Chatham or Woolwich. It is not too clean, and a great deal too noisy. A bow window, with Giappone, Via ground glass of a sufficient height to Vittorio keep people from looking into the room, Emanuele gives light to the dining-room of the Giappone, The 260 "The Gourmet's Guide to Europe entrance to this leads out of the hall of the hotel named Giappone. There is a feeling of good manners and restfulness directly one enters the restaurant. Couches are against the walls, and two rows of little tables are about all that the restaurant can comfortably hold. The chairs are wooden ones of an artistic pattern, and not the eternal bent-wood ones one finds in most Italian restaurants. Many famous Italians have dined at one time or another at the Giappone — Crispi Zanardelli, Cavallotti, Benedetto Brin, Pucchini, Mascagni, to mention only a few out of the many. The proprietor of old days was the Cavaliere Pasquale Cianfanelli, whose name was known even on the London market for the excellence of his Tuscan wines. The Cavaliere, whose courteous manners gave an added pleasure to a dinner at the restaurant, for he always went the round of the tables to ask if each diner was satisfied, has been succeeded in the proprietorship by his son, who apparently does not take quite the same interest in the restaurant that his father did. But the Giappone is still the first amongst Tuscan restaurants. The general and his staff officers generally come out to dine, and all its patrons seem to be gentlemen of position, while the ladies, their wives and daughters, whom they bring to dine, are distinguished and well dressed. There is quite a majestic list of dishes on the menu a la carte , but I found that the dinner of the day at 1. 3.50 contained one of the specialties of the house, the capon Luculliana , and as there was a frittura as well, I ate the house dinner, which everybody around me seemed also to be doing.