Clusterfocaccia

Debora, and Matteo, slave away unseen in the engine room That’s better. Let ’s start again from the top, shall we? Lest my reader (let ’s go with the fiction I have one, maybe Tom) be left with the impression Genovese food is underwhelming. I knew I should have started with Archivolto Mongiardino and so I will review this delightful trattoria next, even though I ’ve been to another in between that,  for no immediately discernible reason   actually had soil encased in glass on the counter . No, we shall stick with Archivolto, based in the narrow alley that goes by the same name and the first place Elsa and I dined a Genova . It was an easy decision, a doorway spied on a typically wet Genovese spring evening with hopeful customers trying to cram in to shelter from the rain, steaming just inside and vying for one of just 18 covers. We booked for half an hour later, were successful and the seafood we sampled was confirmation enough Genoa would do for us. Counter intui...

That ’s t he problem with starting a new blog that involves reviews: you need a positive one to get started.  The atmospheric, gloomy winding maze of alleys that weaves through the centro   storico  of the under appreciated port city of Genoa is riddled with inviting looking trattorie and bars; from polished, well-lit operations to tiny doorways left open onto what appear to be front parlours. There are 4,628 registered food outlets in the old town alone* so you can ’t really go wrong, can you? After all, with the exception of the most touristy parts of Venice you ’re never going to eat badly in Italy. But there are degrees of perfection and, having belatedly started a blog that will serve as a pretty transparent excuse to trawl the eateries of the city, it was a mistake to stick to my principles and start with an unknown quantity. We should have kicked off at Archivolto Mongiardino, but that ’s for another post. Instead Elsa and I shipped up (forgive me) at Tratto...