zurich

Posted: April 10th, 2009 | Author: Darren Chartier | Filed under: travel | Tags: pizza, switzerland, tasty, zurich | 2 Comments »

when i was home, thinking about how i’d like to spend the 10 or so days i had available to me, i used a combination of googlemaps and various flight booking sites to pick somewhere that was both interesting to me and not too expensive to get to. that’s how i ended up in Geneva, it seemed the most geographically close to a few areas of interest, France and Italy. Switzerland was really just a side bonus, i’d heard it was nice but never had a burning desire to visit, it certainly wasn’t in my top-ten to visit spots. imagine my surprise then as i purchased an eight day all Switzerland rail pass today.

it turns out that switzerland is absolutely gorgeous in the spring, or at least i have lucked out and hit a particularly beautiful patch of weather. 20C and sunny, warm enough to walk around in a short sleeved shirt, but cool enough that you’re never hot. so, in the interest of simplifying my life, and knowing in advance just how much i’ll be spending on transportation (it’s pretty damned expensive here), i’ve decided to stick to switzerland.

ok enough blather about my plans… going back to basics, i’ll leave you with a mini review of my dinner.

restaurant santa lucia – Zürich (all amounts in swiss francs)
1 bottle san pelligrino water – 5.20
pizza prosciutto alla spalla – 20.00

normally i wouldn’t order pizza while traveling, unless i’m in Italy or somewhere renowned for it, but it was good friday and just about everything was closed in Zürich. i mean, everything. after a long day walking the town i was pretty famished, not exactly sure where i was i eventually found a cafe that was open and had a menu with things on it that cost less than 40 francs. unfortunately the kitchen was closed. thankfully the server recommended santa lucia just up the street.

after a quick calories per dollar calculation i went with the pizza. it was very good, not as good as the pizza i had in Genoa Italy, but definitely second (this mostly speaks to the abysmal quality of pizza in Canada, i get the sense if i was really looking i’d find amazing pizza all over this part of the world).

the crust was thin, the edge was deliciousy burnt in places, the sauce just right, the cheese tasty, and they gave me some peppers in oil that went well with the pizza.

if i had one complaint, and it’s not really much because it was delicious, it was that the prosciutto seemed more like generic sliced ham rather than prosciutto, very tasty sliced ham, but not the cured variety i was hoping for.

all in all a great lunch/dinner, definitely recommend.

tomorrow, i take the train to Lugano and see if i can jaunt across the border into Menaggio Italy as per Brady’s recommendation…

p.s. you can see the rest of my photos from Zurich on flickr

p.p.s. @vasta, i’m collecting stories about the people i’ve met, will post soon i hope

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