Okay, traveling is a pleasure. But also to eat and drink. In this sense, especially if you are traveling along a highway and your concept of eating does not border on mere survival, it is a problem. How to escape the dictatorship of the Camogli sandwich and, in general, of pre-packaged food? For example by exiting at the first toll booth, and looking for what the area offers. In this sense, Autostrade Gourmet is the best support you can count on. The new La Repubblica Guide takes into consideration the entire national territory and the complete motorway network to provide you with useful information – also with testimonies from well-known faces – on where to refresh yourself as well as on where to buy typical food products, as well as on the attractions of the place.
Created under the direction of Giuseppe Cerasa, in collaboration with Ania, Autostrade per l’Italia, Aiscat and Telepass, it aims to offer a useful summary of what Italy has to offer immediately close to its main motorway axes. And that is very, very much, starting right from this extreme strip of Northeast, Friuli Venezia Giulia, characterized by three important sections such as the A4, the A23 and the A28. And from a very high number of prestigious places.
Already at the departure from Trieste, towards the Lisert toll booth, it is clear that the variants are excellent and abundant. There is the excellent smell of Flowers, temple of the most creative fish, but also and above all the Harry’s Grill by Matteo Metullio, starry, where food becomes a sensory experience, without forgetting the legendary Menarosti fish risotto and a dip in the bubbles near the canal, nomen omen.
We are already leaving the capital, towards Villesse and if you do not want to make a variant towards Monfalcone (the Campi di Marcello are worth a detour, as well as the Ocean) you go directly to Gorizia. Towards the city, passing through Farra d’Isonzo, there is the obligatory stop at Borgo Colmello, an agritourism in name only; immediately afterwards also the suggestions of the Antica Trattoria al Sabotino, the historical charm of the Cloister and the unthinkable fantasy of the Rosenbar.
This is a singular region. Over the course of a few kilometers, not only the landscape changes, but also the way and the tradition of dining. In Ruda, along the road, Altran dictates the rules of an offer that is both regional and international; a little farther on, in Vencò nel Collio, the Trieste-born Antonia Klugmann puts her garden on the table at the Argine, and they are stars that arrive. But already in Palmanova, the transit station of the A4 and the symbolic beginning of the A23, you return to the territory of strong Friulian flavors, while at the Turin Cafeteria you can travel among gourmet pastry shops and classy snacks. We are at the crossroads. On the one hand it goes towards Austria, on the other towards Veneto and the rest of Italy. The offers, of course, are also in tune. For years, Austrian gourmand tourists have discovered Antica Maddalena and Là di Moret in Udine, but the absolute Ras of the area remains Emanuele Scarello, who in his award-winning friends sublimates an imaginative cuisine, which keeps only the ingredients of the area , of high quality.
Along the way to Tarvisio, Costantini, an area of Tarcento, is also worth a stop, an example of a quality local proposal, while in Malborghetto you cannot miss Casa Oberrichter, and in the border capital you can eat free-range at Hladik and refined at the Ristorantino.
Post scriptum: even if the branch of the A28 that connects Portogruaro to Conegliano has a relative presence in the area, we must not forget at least a couple of names. The Podere dell’Angelo, in Pasiano di Pordenone, refined and surprising at all levels, the Ferrata in the center of Pordenone and, of course, the highly rated Primula di San Quirino. And have a good trip.